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To Infinity and Beyond!

Self-Explanatory!

The time needed to get to our first ‘Foreign” stop of the trip would only take about four hours, so we knew that we had plenty of time to lolly-gag along the way. Our first “Foreign Port” was that of Page, Arizona, a town who had its genesis when the Glen Canyon Dam was being built on the Colorado River. Behind this dam are the waters of Lake Powell, the second largest man-made lake in the States behind its big brother, Lake Mead (which is further downstream behind the Hoover (Boulder) Dam just outside of Las Vegas, which just happens to be our next destination!

Basalt “plug” from a very old volcano!

          The weather was finally good for traveling, (read No Wind!) and on a scale of 1 to 10, it was a 15! Traveling westward from Durango we passed many of the places that we’ve visited before and their geologic features are now familiar landmarks to us.  The high promontory that marks the entrance to Mesa Verde is only about forty-five minutes from Durango. Out in front of us the city of Cortez lies just east of Sleeping Ute Mountain. Continuing south and west on a deserted Route 160 we could see Shiprock and the Lukachukai Mountains,(affectionally known as the Lucky-Chuckie’s) and just northwest of us, about eighty miles away, the Abajo’s Range jutted from the floor of the desert like a big pile of mashed potatoes plopped on a tabletop. It’s fun keeping track of all of these as they mark your progress across the expanse of the Colorado Plateau, of which, the Four Corners Region is heart.

Just the regular scenery along the way
Shonto Plateau, Navajo National Monument

          Speaking of the Four Corners, we finally were able to stop at this monument as it was finally open. The Navajo Nation was severely impacted by Covid, and all of the public Tribal Parks were closed until they decided that it was safe enough to open again. The Navajo Reservation is three times the size of New Jersey at 28,000 square miles and in it are some of the most dramatic places on the planet, one of which is Monument Valley. I think just about every John Ford directed Western movie, no matter where it was supposed to be located, showed a scene with those iconic towers and buttes of Monument Valley in it. They became, like the Saguaro Cactus (which only grows in a portion of the Sonoran Desert), and the Marlboro Man,  symbols of the Old West that us Easterners can identify with.

Left to Right, Paula, Don

          The Four Corners Monument is administered by the Navajo Nation and is crazily popular. Here we were on a Thursday in April standing in line for about fifteen minutes to have our photo taken by the “Line Friends” that we made who were just behind us. We, in turn, took their photo. Surrounding the actual concrete pad and bronze plaque in the ground were approximately thirty permanent stalls, like in a Flea Market, which the Navajo artisans can use to sell their wares to us Touron’s. In this vast, mostly arid, homeland of theirs, there are not that many opportunities for gainful employment, so the enterprising Navajo’s take every occasion to sell these beautiful examples of their culture.

          We almost didn’t make it to the Monument because we practically got swallowed up by cavernous craters in their parking lot!

          To be honest, if I were the manager of a world-famous attraction and my place looked like that I would be extremely embarrassed. All it would take is a few dump trucks of dirt/gravel/sand to remedy this situation. But where can you get this kind of stuff way out here?

          Wait!

          Holy Gravel-Pit Batman!

          There’s a place right across the highway and besides, the whole place is dirt, gravel, and sand! (I feel a letter to the Establishment brewing inside me)

          We left the actual Four Corners feeling happy that (despite the moon-like parking facilities) we had stopped. I guess that is the advantage of traveling around like this, if we don’t need to be in a certain place at a certain time, (Walmart of Page could care less when we pull in) we can stop along the way and smell the cactus…. Carefully!

Betatakin Canyon

          Our next destination was another place that we had previously tried to visit which was also closed for the same reason as the Four Corners. The Navajo National Monument is another Navajo Tribal Park and happens to be run jointly by the Navajo and the National Park Service. It was discovered by the Wetherill family back in the late 1890’s. These are the same folks that brought Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde to our collective attentions. There are three very well-preserved cliff dwellings here. They are, Keet Seel, Inscription House, and Betatakin. One of the reasons that they are so well-preserved is their location of the Navajo Reservation. The Navajo treated these ruins with respect and actually did not frequent them because they knew a holy place when they saw it. Also, being on the Rez kept most of the outsiders from visiting, or even knowing about them. They became a Park in 1909 and eventually fell under the National Registry of Historic Places. They are only accessible by guided tours which have yet to be re-opened because of Covid. We did take a jaunt on the trail that leads to the Betatakin Overlook. Again, the weather was just incredible and despite the elevation, (7200 ft.) we felt great. I guess that spending a week in Durango at about 6200 ft. helped acclimatize us to the point where we thought that our hike was actually at a lower elevation than Durango, not higher!

Betatakin
The well-preserved Betatakin House
The used-for-many-things Yucca plant
The ubiquitous “Stay on Trail” tree in all its colorful glory here in the Arizona springtime.

          After Navajo National Monument we continued to our ultimate Daily Destination, that of the Walmart of Page, Arizona. I suspected that we may have some company here, as this area, with its incredible abundance of outdoors activities, is another mecca of sorts for those of us with motor homes, travel trailers and other RV’s.

          I was correct.

          When we got our first glimpse of the Walmart parking lot we thought two things,

          One, there would be no problem with the possibility that this Walmart was one that discourages RV’s from staying and then…

          Two, where would we fit in?

We counted over 16

          In reality, the parking lot was large enough, but we’ve never seen one that resembles a RV resort! It looks like folk’s camp out here for an extended period, which is definitely against the RV World Code of Ethics! (I made that last organization up  😊)

          After dinner, we took the Lifeboat/Honda out for a spin and visited Lake Powell which is so low from the extended western drought that the intakes for the hydroelectric plant are dangerously exposed.  

Glen Canyon Dam, the water is supposed cover all of the white on the rocks
Lake Powell, this photo should show mostly blue waters

          Today we finish the trip to Las Vegas, which is only about five hours away so we will probably try and find some fun stuff along the way.

          Tomorrow!

6 replies on “To Infinity and Beyond!”

Thank you again Don and Paula for your beautiful pics/views of this great country. Again, so jealous!!!

Great pics! Except for the Walmart parking lot of course. That one doesn’t quite fit in with the rest. 😉

Thank you for sending these wonderful posts in the morning. it means that I can vacation with you on my lunch break! I can’t wait to see where we are going next!!

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