Saturday, May 18, 2013

05-18-13

Well, its a long, long way from Williams to Blanding.

We didn’t plan to drive all the way to Utah yesterday but I totally blew it.

Highway 89 was closed north of the intersection with 160. It wasn’t until we were about a eighty miles up 160 that I realized that we could have stayed on 89 and gone to Jacobs Lake.
There is nowhere to stay between Flagstaff and Blanding. Its all Indian country and you can’t do any exploring so we just went on to Blanding Utah.

We left Williams around 8:30 and drove east of I-40 until we came to the exit for US-89.  We headed north on 89 until we came to the Sunset Crater National Monument. I was surprised how close it was to Flagstaff.
We entered the monument and stopped at the Visitors Center. After talking with a ranger we decided to drive the loop through the Monument.
The drive was 35 miles.
Patti got some pictures of lava flows.

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Cinder cones

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Old volcanoes,

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and rock formations.

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We drove by some ruins.

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We could see the snow capped mountains to the north.

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Eventually we got back to highway 89 and turned north.

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Here are a few scenes along the highway.

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We stopped in Kayenta for gas. You know your in Indian country when you see horses wandering around the highway.

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We didn’t go through Monument Valley but there were some interesting rock formations visible from the highway.

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You can tell when you are getting close to the town of Bluff Utah.

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We crossed the San Juan River.

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Scenes around Bluff Utah.

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We arrived at the Blue Mountain RV Park in Blanding Utah at around 5:45. A very long day and I was glad to get there.

I am not sure what we are going to do today. We will probably take at least a short ride somewhere.

 

 

  

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