From Flagstaff we drove the #180 (a scenic byway road) along the backside of the San Francisco Peaks then north to the #64 up to the Grand Canyon South Rim.
To leave the park we went east on #64, then north on #89 through the Painted Desert, hooking up to the #160 where we drove through so many different formations and the Navajo and Hopi Indian reservations, and then turned onto the #163 at Kayenta (another scenic byway) which took us through Monument Valley, then onto the #191 to Blanding, Utah.
the Painted Desert in the distance (which has way more colours, although muted, in real life!)
Alberta Badlands-like formations...
sand dunes frozen into rock...
Up the #191 into Moab. Then onto Interstate #70 west through Fishlake National Forests to head south on the Interstate #15 to Cedar City.
The blue salts and manganese and bacteria in the soils around Moab...
Rocks and formations...
faulting has exposed long buried rock formations to the surface...
layers of exposed rocks eroding by the wind and rain at different rates...
the Spanish Trail (between Santa Fe and the Great Salt Basin) - box canyons galore where Butch Cassidy eluded lawmen in the late 1800s
and examples of the San Rafael Swell - the approach to it from the east
and looking back at it from the west (where they cut a pass out of the middle of it for traffic to get through)
fresh spring snow in the mountains east of Cedar City
and a boulder that fell seconds before from above to land just short of the road...
1 comment:
really enjoying touring with you.
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