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We left Durango this morning and set off for the Mesa Verde National Park. This Park was created in 1906 to preserve the archeological heritage of the Ancestral Pueblo people, both on top the mesas (the high land ridges) and in the cliff dwellings below. Between the Mesas are canyons, and it is in the cliffs of these that the ancient dwellings are built. You can purchase tickets to go on a Ranger guided tour of three of the sites, but there are vertical ladders and some have small tunnels to go through - we had decided before we came that we would not be doing this!

On entering the Park, the road climbs up, quite steeply and twisting, to the Mesa tops. This was exceedingly pretty, with multi coloured vegetation, lots seemed to be low bushy oak. Once on top we carried on to the scenic loop where there were stops to look out at some of the many cliff top dwellings. There were also some pit houses, excavated remains of earlier houses, on the top. The cliff dwellings were built to house the Pueblan people some 900 years or so ago, and were built into alcoves in the cliffs, accessible only by climbing down over the top of the cliffs, very steep descents with toe and finger holds. It is an amazing feat of ancient engineering that these were built, and still exist today.

This was an interesting place to visit, and we were glad we had included it, but also felt we saw more of the cliff dwellings looking into them across the canyons, than we would have actually visiting one. The unexpected was the lovely scenery surrounding the Mesas. Colourful Colorado lived up to its name!

Leaving this behind, we set off for the Four Corners - the only place in the USA where 4 States meet at the same place. This is on Navajo land, and so we had to pay an entrance fee, and also around the monument were stalls with lots of Navajo people selling their wares. The four States are Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. Everyone who we had spoken to about this place had said - there's nothing there - and indeed there isn't much, but I'm still glad we made the effort to visit it. I had read beforehand that there is some dispute about wether it is actually in the right place, and reading the plaques it seems there is, but it's not going to be changed!

From here we headed towards Ship Rock, a very large remnant of an ancient volcano, rising some 1583 feet above the desert plain. We had seen this in the distance last year, and this time we skirted it on the other side. No roads go very close to it, it is a sacred place to the Navajo Indians. By this time the dark clouds had gathered in the sky, and it did not look as colourful as I had remembered it as it is red sandstone. From here we made our way south, across the desert plains to Gallup on Route 66, to pick up the section we missed last year.

Mileage today - 267

Day 29 Thursday 29th September

Gallup to Flagstaff - Route 66

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We left Gallup, on old Route 66' and started making our way towards the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park. We soon passed from New Mexico into Arizona, seeing a tepee trading post on the other side of the Interstate. It was not long after this that it started to rain. We soon had to get onto Interstate 40, as the old road disappeared, and we were soon reminded of what it was like passing large trucks in the rain!

On reaching the Visitor centre at the Park, we decided that sandals were not the best footwear to be wearing, and changed into our trainers. Luckily we had our waterproofs handy on the back seat of the car. At the visitor centre we watched the informative film about the how the Petrified forest had evolved. These fossilised tree trunks date back to the Late Triassic Period about 225 million years ago, when this area was a tropical landscape with abundant vegetation. Over the past 200 million years continents moved, regions uplifted, climate changed and the river system, along with its plants and animals, was buried by layers of sediment. Wind and water have continually moulded, sculpted and peeled back these layers, giving us a glimpse of the once tropical land we know today as Arizona.

The Painted Desert is characterised by colourful bands of sedimentary rock, deposited between 227 and 205 million years ago by a northwest flowing river. Then 16 to 4 million years ago lake sediments were deposited on top of the older, eroding formation. Volcanic eruptions placed basalt layers above the lake beds, preserving them. Further erosion has left the basalt as high pints which give the spectacular views today.

Although for our entire visit today it was raining most of the time, and so the colours maybe weren't as spectacular as they might have been, it was still very interesting to see the different layers and colours in the mounds and mesas. The first loop around had many lookouts to view the Painted Desert. There was also the Painted Desert Inn, now a restored building with exhibits.

The Park is proud of the fact it is the only National Park that preserves a section of Route 66, and this was just before we crossed over the Interstate. We had seen a large group of bikers at the Visitor centre earlier, and quite a few arrived at the Route 66 stop when we were there. They were from Ireland and doing a fundraising trip for a children's charity in Dublin. They do it every 2 years, since 2002.

The next stop off was for Newspaper Rock, an area where there are over 650 petroglyphs, some over 2000 years old. Following this is the area they call the tepees - and once we reached it we realised why - from the shape of the rock formations. Then it was on to the Blue Mesa, although I would say the colours were more purple than blue. Following this we got into the area where there were lots of petrified trees - or rather parts of trunk. The Agate Bridge was about the only entire intact trunk we saw, most had broken into sections and were scattered around, or if they were still in place as a complete trunk, looked as though someone had come along with a chainsaw and cut it into short sections and then left it lying there! There are severe penalties for taking any of the petrified wood with you. By this time we not only had torrential rain, but thunder and lightning as well, so we didn't venture as far as would have liked to see all the Park had to offer.

We crossed several "dry wash" river beds, normally as it says, but not today with significant water running down these river beds as nothing soaked into the ground!

Our final stop was at the Rainbow Forest museum, and although we weren't able to see as much as if it had been dry and clear, it was certainly a very interesting place to visit.

We started to make our way to Holbrook, back on Route 66. Miraculously the weather started to improve, and we began to dry out a little. Holbrook was a very typical Route 66 town, lots of signs, murals, motels and diners. We stopped off in Joe and Aggie's, mentioned in our trusty guidebook from last year, for a coffee to warm up. We then found the wigwam motel.

Moving on from Holbrook, we stopped off at Geronimo, which was a traditional trading post beside the Interstate. And then onto Winslow, made famous by one of our favourate groups... the Eagles in Take it Easy. After the obligatory photos of all there was on the corner, we went into a diner for an ice cream - it was sunny by now! 

Day 30 Friday 30th September

Flagstaff - Williams - Route 66 then to Page

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So we set off today by heading to Williams. As we had already discovered yesterday, there wasn't a lot of original road left, most having been lost under the Interstate. So we decided to do as much as we could, and came off Interstate 40 at Bellemont to follow a reasonably short section of gravel road our guide book told us about. This took us up to the highest point of the route in Arizona at 7410 feet on Fortynine Hill. On returning to paved road at Parks, there then showed another section of gravel - but we must have got a bit confused, as about 20 miles later, most on gravel through very pretty pine trees, we eventually came out in a paved road near Williams. A somewhat longer detour than planned!

We visited Williams the previous year, and it was as good as we remembered, with lots of Route 66 memorabilia and good gift shops. After a short wander around we had pie and a soda in Cruiser cafe 66. To get back to where we wanted to go, we needed to return to Flagstaff, which we did quite quickly along the Interstate.

From here it was heading North towards Page. Not long after leaving Flagstaff we started to climb quite high, and the sky got blacker, there was some lightning, and then a cloud burst of torrential rain and hail. Luckily there was a turn off which we took and a pull in just after, where we sat and waited out the worst of the storm, along with a few others! After about 20 minutes, it eased, and we continued on our way. As we descended the other side of the mountains, it quickly cleared up and the sun came out, but still very black in the mirror.

We were following Highway 89 across the Painted Desert, a vast area of flattish land with colourful mesas, buttes and rock formations. At one point we did about 20 miles of road, in the other direction, that we had done last year. This took us through Cameron, which clearly had a new road and junctions, including a round about (there aren't very many of them here!) we remembered that they were putting in a new bridge last year.

On reaching Gap, where the road split, we were able to take the route we wanted, carrying on the 89. This section of road had been closed for about 2 years following a landslide, but has now reopened.

A little further on, we decided we had enough time to do the detour we had considered. This was going down to the Marble Canyon, and we knew we would have to retrace our route to get to Page. Well, it was well worth it. The colours on the cliffs and formations were wonderful. We then came to Navajo Bridge, which we didn't know about. This crossed the Colorado river, and there were two bridges, as a replacement had been built in 1995. Stopping at the small Visitor centre, the Ranger told us to visit Lees Ferry, just 6 miles away. This is where the rafting trips start from, and we saw a few rafts getting loaded and prepared with supplies.

We retraced our route back up to Highway 89, all with changing light on the rocks as the sun was starting to set. We then did the last part into Page, going on the new part of road, with great views out over the plain, especially when we came out of the road cutting in the mountainside and the plains with mountains beyond just open up, spectacular!

Mileage today - 256

Day 31 Saturday 1st October

Page, Antelope Slot Canyon & Rodeo

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Today has been a long day - it is now 10:30pm and I am writing this having just got back to our room! But more of why later.....

It started off very relaxed, as we were due to arrive for our guided tour of Antelope Slot Canyon for 12:30, so after breakfast we sorted out some stuff, including changing a booking for a few days time!

We then set off to go into Page, our motel is on the edge. We found where we needed to be for our tour, and then continued through the Main Street and on to the Glen Canyon dam, which dams the Colorado to form Lake Powell. We took a few photos, but will return to see what the visitor centre has to offer tomorrow..

We returned to Page and got a drink and a muffin. This is where I saw the Tap water is best sign (took a photo). We then went back to our tour base. We were going with Chief Tsosie Antelope tours, and after a little while we were given a traditional Navajo hoop dance by Joseph, who was No 6 in the world championships this year at Phoenix.

We were then told which of the vehicles we should get on. Our guide was Ernest. After a rather bumpy ride, especially once we were off the paved road and onto the sand, we arrived at the entrance to the slot canyon.  These canyons are very narrow and twisty, carved out by water and wind. The red sandstone is lovely with the sunlight streaming through into it.

As we slowly made our way through the canyon, on foot, our guide showed us the best places for photos showing the light through and the different colours and features of the rocks. The rocks, as is often the case at these types of attractions, made the shape of; a bear, wolf, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington etc..... well we tried to capture these in the photos and more importantly the light and different colours on the rocks. The Canyon was very busy, how many Chinese can you get in a small place! Anyway, it was really good, pretty and at the end come out on a plateau area. We looked around and then made our way back through the Canyon, and onto our luxurious transport back to Page.

We then overheard a conversation about a rodeo that was taking place this evening. So we asked our guide about it, and he and another told us where it was and what time. We decided to go and check out the location, which was back where we had just come from and a little further on. The road was leading down to Antelope Point, a marina and launching area on to Lake Powell. We had a little look around, and booked a boat trip for tomorrow morning.

On returning to Page, we went to Big Johns Texas BBQ for dinner, (it was about 4 ish by now!) this was a great place, with slow smoked meat (between 6 and 12 hours) on the BBQ.

We made a quick stop back at our room for an hour, loaded up the photos, and then returned back for the Rodeo. It was due to start for 7 and our guide had suggested getting there for 6:30, but we decided to go a bit earlier and got there about 10 past 6. We were glad we had as we were in a very short line of cars to get in and park. We were pleasantly surprised that it only cost $10 each. We found our way to the stands, an octagonal arena with 7 or 8 layers of boards to sit on. By the time we left at just after 10 they had become very hard!!

Quite ironically the pre show traditional entertainment was Joseph, and his hoop dance, along with a 9 and 14 year old as well. They also performed in the intermission, which was was quite near the end! There were 50 cowboys, and bulls. They had to stay on for at least 8 seconds in order to get a score from the 2 judges. The top 5 scorers then go through to a short round to decide the winner. We don't think there were many more than 5 who actually scored, and following the short round, we have no idea who the winner was, as no one stayed on for more than 2 or 3 seconds.

Although a long time sat on hard boards, it was very entertaining and interesting, great fun and something completely different. At various points when not a lot was happening, various people came into the arena and started throwing t shirts up into the crowd. A Navajo lady sat in front of us, who was quite exuberant, managed to catch one, but after looking at it, decided it was too big and gave it to Phil! (See photo!) the vast majority of the audience, around about 400, were Navajo. This was the 16th annual rodeo at Page, and we were really lucky to hear about it, as we had been trying to find one to go to over the last two years.

Mileage today - 50

Day 32 Sunday 2nd October

Page and Area

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We started today by returning to the Antelope Point marina to go on the boat trip we booked yesterday. It was looking cloudy and in fact there were a few spots of rain as we parked, so we took our waterproofs with us. After checking in we had to walk down quite a long ramp and along a pontoon, to a very large area of pontoon, that had the marina off to one side, berths and then a fuel station off to another, a restaurant and shop to another and then  water in front.

After a short while our boat, the Tower Butte, came in from its first trip, and we soon got on and had our safety briefing. Our hour long trip took us into Antelope Canyon, the same Canyon we had explored the slots yesterday, but at a lower level. Flash floods can occur through the slots, and these drain down into where we were.

Our captain explained to us that Lake Powell was created by the building of the Glen Canyon dam, started in 1956. It first started generating electricity in 1966. The first time the lake reached its full capacity was in 1980 and it hasn't been at that level since 1999! At present it is at 53%, and it fluctuates from rising with snowmelt, and falling with supplying the states further south with their share of the water. You could see where the high water line is on some of the rock cliffs.

Antelope Canyon was equally as colourful from the water and we had a really enjoyable trip.

From here we drove back to Page, and found a scenic overlook of the dam and bridge. From there we then visited the Visitor centre by the dam, and watched an informative film about how the water is used. We then went  to the couple of places that you can get out to the Lake, Wahweap marina and Lone Rock. Both areas have some lovely views, looking out over the water and surrounding rock formations.

Our final visit of the day was to go to Horseshoe Bend, a 270 degree Bend in the Colorado river, below the dam. Again it was a hot, sandy walk from the road out to the edge of the Canyon, but well worth it. Looking back from the edge, there were so many people walking out, it was almost like a pilgrimage site, and when we returned to the car park there were 6 or 7 coaches and we reckon about 300 cars!

Something I had meant to make a note of yesterday, Page was founded in 1957. As you go into the town from the side we are staying, there are 8 different denomination Churches, right next to each other along the one side of the road. Also, a bit like Route 66, there are already at least 2 gas stations no longer used as such, one was the waiting area for our Canyon tour company, and one was where we had dinner, outdoor seating under the canopy.

Mileage today - 60

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Before leaving Page this morning we made a quick visit to the town to get some magnets and post some cards. We then set off past Antelope Canyon and across the Kaibito plateau. We were circling Navajo mountain that was a long way away, and in a bit of a haze. Although nice, we didn't have the clear blue skies of the last few days.  The journey to Monument Valley was quite monotonous of scrub dessert, some smallish canyons and odd rock formations.

On reaching Monument Valley it was just as spectacular as we remembered. We paid our entrance fee, and stopped off at the trading post/visitor centre/cafe, which we hadn't visited last year as we had gone in on an organised trip. After taking some more photos and having a sandwich, we decided to just go a very short way down on the rough, gravel road. If we had done the full route we wouldn't have had time to look at much more on our way to Blanding.

Leaving Monument Valley behind, we climbed Monument Pass, and looked back at another iconic view of the rock formations. Our next odd formation was at Mexican Hat, where there is a standing stone with a 'hat' on top.

A bit further on we saw a sign to Valley of the Gods. We started out on this rough gravel route, but decided to turn around after about a mile, as according to our map it looked like it was taking us backwards rather than forwards to where we were heading! Finding a leaflet about it later, we discovered it was a 17 mile route, so would have taken us quite a bit out of our way. It is not passable in wet weather, as you cross lots of dry river beds!

Next up was Bluff. We didn't know anything about the place, and on driving through saw a sign for Bluff Fort, a free open air historic site and visitor centre. We decided to have a look around, and it was really interesting. I had read about an expedition of Mormon pioneers who in 1879 set out to cross the Colorado river. I hadn't realised that they were heading for Bluff. They thought their trip would take 6 weeks, but in fact it took 6 months! They were faced by a near impassable route down to the river, and it is known as the Hole in the Rock, the trail that they blasted/built to get their wagons and livestock through.

The visitor centre had a very good way of telling you the story. It started by looking at a wall of framed photos of some of the pioneers who had travelled the Hole in the Rock trail. Three of the middle photos then started speaking to you about their experiences. Following this we were led into a small room that had a wagon and various things the pioneers took with them. The three voices continued to talk to you, and then it went onto a short film shown on a screen that had been hidden behind doors. We then moved into another room, done out as a small church, with organ and pews and had another film about the actual expedition. It was very cleverly done, and very informative.

After this we moved outside and looked at the historic site which was where the first settlers stayed. There were replicas of various of the families cabins, that have been built by their descendants, and furnished with various artifacts. There is one original cabin, obviously not in as good repair, and nothing in it. All in all this was a very interesting place to visit.

As we were back in the Navajo Nation, we had returned to Daylight Saving Time, just as well, as it was about 6:30 by now, so at least we made Blanding before it got dark.

Mileage today - 210

Day 34 Tuesday 4th October

Blanding, Lake Powell and Natural Bridges National Park

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We had worked out a round trip for today - well, there isn't other options as the roads around here are few and far between. However, on checking this morning, we discovered that an integral part of our plan was not working - the ferry across Lake Powell from Halls Crossing to Bullfrog was closed for repair! So, we decided to still go down to Halls Crossing, about 90 miles. It was very similar countryside to yesterday, with dark red/brown cliffs sand/soil, dark green juniper and pinion pines, sagebrush and small canyons and gullies covering the ground.

We reached Halls Crossing, having seen about half a dozen vehicles over the 90 odd miles. There is a large marina, with lots of boats of all shapes and sizes. We saw a few boats out on the water, mainly speed boats racing up and down. We sat and admired the view for quite a while, before retracing our route.

On the way back we called into the Natural Bridges National Park. This was the first National Park system created in Utah, in 1908 by President Roosevelt. There are 3 large natural bridges, created by water, eroding both sides of a thin wall where there has been a big looping meander of the stream. This will continue to be eroded and eventually weaken and collapse. The three bridges in the Park are different sizes and ages, depending on when they were formed.

We started off by stopping at the Visitor centre, and watching the informative film, about the Park. These are really well done films that we have seen in all the Parks, and along with the boards placed around the look outs they give a huge amount of information so that you quickly find out what the area is all about.

From here it was on to the 9 mile loop road that went around the Park. We stopped at the various look outs, and at the three for the bridges, just had to walk a short way out on paved paths to the viewpoints. At the first bridge, Sipapu bridge, we started to descend down to get a better view, but didn't go very far down. This bridge is the largest at 220 feet high, and a span of 268 feet, however as it is the furthest away, it seems smaller than the other two.

Next was Kachina bridge, which is the 'newest' or 'youngest' bridge. It's height is 210 feet and its span 204 feet. The oldest bridge is Owachomo and its height is 106 feet and its span 180 feet. The thickness of the rock of the actual bridge has worn away a lot on this bridge and is now only 9 feet thick, as opposed to 53 and 93 feet of the other two.

This was a great small Park to visit, and we then made our way back to Blanding, returning on the same road we had gone out on this morning. The roads today had less traffic than when we were on the loneliest road, back at the beginning of our trip!

Mileage today – 198

Day 35 Wednesday 5th October

Blanding to Monticello and Canyonlands

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After leaving Blanding this morning, it wasn't long before we were in Monticello, just about 25 miles up the road. We dropped into the visitor centre and picked up some leaflets, saw where we would be staying tonight, and then went onto the first of the two routes we were going to take into the Canyonlands National Park. Canyonlands is essentially split into three parts, the Needles, Island in the Sky and The Maze. Tomorrow we will be visiting the Island in the Sky area. The Maze area is only accessible by 4 wheel drive or hiking.

Today we were looking at The Needles, and our first trip was on the overlook road. This was a 22 mile road on a high plain, with scrub plants of sage, grasses, juniper and pinion pines. With only one or two glimpses of the landscape below, it was a wonderful sight on reaching the end and looking out over the canyons. The view went on for miles and miles in every direction, with red sandstone buttes, pillars and all sorts of different rock formations. We thought the Needles were the pinnacles we could see directly below us, but on reading the information boards, discovered they were actually right across the vast 'valley', far in the distance. Once we got the binoculars out we could see them.

After quite some time admiring the view, we returned back to the main road and then went in on the other road, that took us into the Needles Visitor centre. Before reaching that we passed Newspaper rock, another one. Again, this is a large area of red sandstone with ancient petroglyphs. We then continued to the visitor centre, and watched the film, got our map and continued to the end of the paved road. All the while we had seen the amazing rock formations as we travelled along, this time from a lower perspective.

For our return journey, we took a turn off on a detour route back to Monticello. The only drawback with using a map with no contours is, you have no idea when the road you are on is going to take you up a mountain! That is what we did, and very pretty it was too. We climbed up through the Manti-La Sal National Forest, through pine, coloured aspen and saw lots of mule deer - the most we have seen at any one time.

We weren't sure what to expect from today, and it all was very spectacular, with huge vistas of rock. Looking forward to a different perspective tomorrow from the north end of the Park.

Mileage today - 185

Day 36 Thursday 6th October

Monticello to Moab and Canyonlands 

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We set off from Monticello, heading north for Moab, where we will be staying for 2 nights, and so had decided we had better get some clothes washed again! We made a quick stop about half way there to look at Wilson Arch, quite an impressive arch in the red sandstone, and right beside the road. On reaching Moab we found the laundromat quite easily and dropped off our washing. The lady we spoke to asked us where we were going, and when we said Island in the Sky, she told us we really ought to visit the Dead Horse State Park as well - it was on the way. And if we did, her brother owned the Coffee shop there and to say hi to her niece or sister in law who would probably be working.

So, off we set, and decided to visit there as well. On reaching Dead Horse State Park we went to the visitor centre, and learned why it has its name. It is set on a Mesa that the Cowboys used to corral the wild horses, pick the ones they wanted and then leave the rest there. With no food or way to get down to the water, they died - hence the name!

We then found the niece, Sarah, at the coffee shop, ordered some sandwiches and coffee and gave her the message from Connie. She gave us 10% discount and said to say hi, when we picked up our washing!

We continued on the road out to the point, where there was a good overlook of the Colorado river doing a horseshoe bend, or gooseneck as it was called here. Later we would see the Green river, which looked a muddy brown, and the Colorado here looked decidedly green! Very confusing.

After looking around, eating our sandwich and  drinking our coffee, we eventually decided we would continue on our way to the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands.

First of all we went as far as we could to the Grand View Point overlook. There were some wonderful views out over the canyons, and although you couldn't see the river, you could see where it had carved out its meandering way. Down on the first plateau, the top layer of rock is white, and there is a 4 wheel drive White Rim trail. You can see where it got its name.

Retracing our steps we then went off to the Green river overlook. The views out were great today, and it gave us a different perspective of the area to what we had yesterday. A lovely day, again looking at lots of different rock formations. Tomorrow we are going to Arches National Park, which should be different again!

Mileage today - 172

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Today we were visiting Arches National Park. Having read quite a bit about how congested it gets, we originally decided to get going early..... however getting out of bed proved difficult, and so it was gone 9 before we set off! We reached the turn off road into the Park, and started queuing, and so when we got through the payment station, we didn't stop at the visitor centre, but carried straight on up the hairpin bend road into the Park. As the day wore on we were pleasantly surprised at being able to park at the various places without too much trouble, and although there were a lot of people, it wasn't as bad as we feared.

The beginning of the drive was lots of rock formations in the red sandstone. It is surprising how many different shapes and forms there are. Our first main set of Arches were the Windows section, and we walked up to the North window, onto the South window and then onto Turret Arch. This was really good.

Our walk up to the lookout point for the Delicate Arch was quite a climb, and we're not really sure we saw more from this than the lower lookout, but probably good exercise! The walk out to the Arch itself was far more strenuous, and we had decided to give this a miss!

The next area we looked at was the Sand Dune Arch and then the Broken Arch. The sand around the Sand Dune Arch was really nice, and we had to go through quite a small slot to get out to it. There were signs up stopping you from going under it as there had been 3 rock falls this year from the Arch area. The Broken Arch isn't really broken, but has a crack across the top that gives that illusion. Next was Skyline Arch, an easy Arch to spot from the road.

After this we had reached the end of the road, and were in the Devils Garden area. We couldn't park the first time around, so we went back to a pull out with a nice view, had something to eat and waited awhile. When we returned mid afternoon, we parked and walked out on the trail. First we looked at Tunnel Arch, then Pine Tree Arch and finally Landscape Arch. Again Landscape Arch has restricted access following a massive rock fall in 1991. The trail from then on, for another 7 or 8 miles was over very rough terrain, and so we returned the way we had come.

By this time it was getting late afternoon, and the sun had moved around considerably, so, as we retraced the road back out, we again visited the Windows section and got some more photos with the sun at a different angle.

Arches National Park is quite different to what we have seen before, and we had a really good day exploring it.

Mileage today – 67

Day 38 Saturday 8th October

Moab to Torrey - Capitol Reef National Park

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We stopped off in Moab this morning to get some magnets as the visitor centre was shut last night when we came out of the Park. Moab is ideally located for lots of outdoor activities, being set between Arches, Canyonlands, Dead Horse State Park and the La Sal mountains. It certainly is selling itself as an outdoor location, with lots of bike trails, off road trails, paragliding, zip lines etc. As you drive through the Main Street all you can see are motels, garages, off road hire places and places to eat, with a few gift shops thrown in for good measure.

We soon left Moab behind, climbed out of the red sandstone canyon and were on a reasonably flattish plain, with scrub desert. For several miles, as we went up to the Interstate and along it, there were small outcrops varying in many colours; white, grey, brown, red, pink, purple, as the different rock layers emerged.

While on the Interstate we were going to pass Green River City, on the Green River, so we decided to come off and see what was there. Well, very reminiscent of Route 66, it was a small, desolate and almost deserted one street with a few buildings, a lot of which were closed up. The only thing that was interesting were all the signs and stalls for Melons....... We don't know what that was all about!

We soon turned off the Interstate and headed south again, towards Torrey and the Capitol Reef National Park. Again the first several miles were much the same, flattish desert scrub. The roads were very straight and there were not many cars about. Eventually we started coming across much bigger rock formations. We also then hit some road works........ Generally speaking these have been easy to get through, if in fact anything is actually happening. These however were resurfacing a very long stretch of road. We had to wait, with a man and a stop sign for about half an hour! Eventually we were led through the stretch of 3 miles or so by a Pilot car.

By this time we were on the edge of the Park. Capitol Reef's defining geologic feature is a wrinkle in the earths crust, extending nearly 100 miles. It is a classic example of a mono line, or one sided fold, in the otherwise horizontal rock layers, and is also known as a Waterpocket Fold. The 100 miles of this fold go north to south, and the road and accessible part go east to west for about 20 miles, with a scenic road going south for about 10 miles. At the point where two rivers meet is the Fruita Historic district, where Mormon settlers planted orchards and scraped a living in the 1890s. Orchards are still there and being maintained/replanted by the National Park service, and apparently you can help yourself to fruit in the harvesting period. There are just 3 or 4 buildings still remaining, including the very small school house, cum community hall.

We watched the film in the visitor centre, that explained how the Waterpocket fold was formed. The environment was once oceans, deserts, swamps and river beds, creating nearly 10000 feet of sedimentary rock made of limestone, sandstone and shale. Between 50 and 70 million years ago, an ancient fault was reactivated during a time of tectonic activity, lifting the layers to the west of the fault over 7000 feet higher than those in the east. Rather than cracking, the rock layers folded over the fault line. Continued uplift occurred again some 20 million years ago. Erosive forces, mainly water, sculpted the uplifted rock layers, between 1 and 6 million years ago.

We drive down the scenic road, and also a couple of roads that were gravel/ sand. All the way along the Grand Wash, the dry river bed, crisscrossed the road, and you could easily see why the road is impassable when there is rain and flash flooding. The end track we went along was into Capitol Gorge, and this was the original trail route through the Reef. The new road had only bypassed this in 1962.

One of the geological features is a white, Navajo sandstone dome, resembling the US Capitol in Washington, and this , along with the  100 mile Waterpocket Fold, a barrier of rock that obstructed early travellers like a barrier reef is what gave the park its name

Not long after leaving the Park we arrived at Torrey, and the Broken Spur Inn, where we are staying the night.

Whilst typing this, the sun set and we have added a good number of photos, best sunset we have seen so far.

Mileage today - 182