We arrived yesterday at our friend’s place in Arkansas exactly 364 days since we got here last year! We weren’t trying to make a record, we just couldn’t find a place we wanted to stay or visit along the way between Lake McClellan, TX and here! Remember these scenes?
We found Lake McClellan National Recreation Area right where it was last year at this time! It’s not marked on the Atlas we have, but my notes from last year indicate that we stayed here. This year the weather is a lot warmer and drier, but far more windy! We took a nice walk in the just-budding woods on the meandering trails. We saw deer and tracks of wild turkey. We saw a flock of turkeys yesterday and heard them gobbling this morning.
The trees are just beginning to leaf out and show the pastel green of spring.
Mavrik is getting lots of time playing with his Barbi Fishing Pole with a cork tied to the end.
"Don't mess with my Barbi Pole!"
The point of view of the cork!
Today we toured the North Rim Drive, along Canyon del Muerto, the second major canyon that along with Canyon de Chelly makes up the Canyon De Chelly National Monument. We awoke to a snow squall but the sun soon melted most of it.
“Navajo Fortress” rock formation at the confluence of Black Canyon to the right, and Canyon del Muerto on the left, in the shade where snow still lingers. You can see the valley floor is still being cultivated by the Navajo.
“Antelope House” ruins at the base of a huge cliff. The builders were ancient puebloan people who farmed the canyon floor circa 1300 before the Navajo arrived on the scene.
A closer view of Antelope House, named for pictographs painted circa 1830 on the wall to the left of the ruins. For more pictures click here.
Sunshine on distant cliffs and snow on the Chuska Mountains to the north. Time to move on.
We camped at the convenient but shabby campground at Canyon de Chelly (pronounced de ‘shay’) National Monument in the Navajo Nation. Amenities were scarce at the campground, but the price was right -free! We toured the south rim drive before the wind picked up and dust obscured the view across the canyon.
The “White House Ruin”.
Sacred Spider Rock at the confluence of Monument Canyon and Canyon de Chelly.
That’s Goosenecks State Park, just northwest of Mexican Hat, Utah. And Moki Dugway is the name given to a treacherous 3 mile stretch of Utah 261 between Mexican Hat and north to Natural Bridges National Monument.
Goosenecks State Park presents one of the best examples of entrenched river meanders in the world. Over a linear distance of one and a half miles, the San Juan river flows for more than six miles through the twists of the canyon before joining Lake Powell after about 35 miles.
You had better pay attention to the road hazard warnings at the bottom of Moki Dugway!
We rode our motorcycles up the twisting 5 mph grade, carved on the face of a cliff to the top of the mesa.
On the way down we had views to the valley floor, 1100 feet down in a 3 mile section of road!