Salt
River Canyon
Return to Dan and Marilyn's Scrap Book
We are too busy to do as much traveling as we would like, but here are a few pictures from a 3-day outing in 2000 to Monument Valley- a beautiful and highly-photographed area in Northen Arizona/Southern Utah. These images were picked off the videotape we took during the trip. Please forgive the inevitable pixelization but the impact of many of these scenes could not be captured with any technology. The pictures are generally presented in chronological order as we traveled North. We left Tucson, Arizona (our home) on a Tuesday and returned on Friday. Our route, as always, was a circuitous one, which finally took us into the Southern part of Utah.
Salt
River Canyon
Dan's
Faithful 'Burban at Salt River Canyon
Our 1970 Chevrolet Suburban felt right at home in this terrain even though it does not (Yet!) have 4-wheel drive.
Petroglyph
at Salt River Canyon
We discovered these at a roadside rest about halfway down the descent into the canyon.
Petroglyph
at Salt River Canyon
Could this be a one-eyed Ancient Astronaut?
Petroglyph
at Salt River Canyon
Northern
end of Black Mesa
We always enjoy finding the obscure places on our trips but this one really took us some exploration! We traveled across the top of Black Mesa for many miles, using roads that are poorly marked and maintained. On the one occasion we had to ask directions, we were told to continue down the road, cross a cattle guard, then turn left at the windmill. We think we might still be wandering there if we had not gotten those directions- there were no markings to guide us! This view (above), as we dropped down from the mesa top, was a spectacular reward for our efforts!
Precursors
of Monument Valley
Landscape
south of Kayenta, Arizona
Monument
Valley- Southern View
Now you remember seeing cars on top of those formations- don't you?
Or John Wayne with the US Cavalry chasing bad guys in front of them?
Northern
View of Monument Valley
We were amazed by how small the area is. The same rocks appear in nearly every picture you see. We continued North until we found a motel we could afford. The Holiday Inn at Kayenta thought their rooms were worth $125/night. We disagreed and found a wonderful small inn (San Juan Trading Post) that was less than half as much nestled in a spectacular canyon and on the edge of the San Juan River in Utah. Marilyn almost brought home another cat ( we have 4 already) but finally decided he would be better off at the motel where he scrounged snacks from the guests. Somehow, Dan managed to record over the section of tape which we took on that part of the trip.
Somewhere near Payson, we were lucky to run into a storm that provided this awesome view.
last modified Nov. 14, 2005