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2008 Land Rover National Rally Trip
Day 5: Coral Pink Sand Dunes to Bryce
After a morning tour of the dunes we packed up and drove to Bryce.
Packed up and ready to leave Coral Pink Sand Dune State Park
Well actually close to Bryce. Along the way we stopped at Dixie national forest at red canyon to take pictures and walk one of the scenic trails. This is a truly spectacular little canyon and one well worth more time than we had.
There is a road that runs parallel to Bryce (East Fork rd in the Paunsaugunt plateau) and I wanted to see if some of Bryce leaks over to that area. Unfortunately not like I was hoping but it is a pleasant forested area. We stopped at a campground to see if the camp host could tell us more about the area. It turns out that the camp host was a student at Moss Landing Marine Labs starting just the semester after I left the labs. We knew some of the same students who overlapped our times and had most the same profs. We ended up chatting about old times at the marine labs until dusk so decided to spend the night at the camp ground.
Our camp site on the Paunsaugunt plateau
Day 6: Bryce to a Cockscomb creek side camp site
We left camp fairly early with the plan to spend most the day sightseeing in Bryce which we did. We hiked a few of the trails (Linus & Nikkie hiked a lot more of them than I did), stopped at the vista points, took loads of pictures and had a good time playing park tourists.
Lunch break, Linus & Nikkie with PB & J sandwiches
Later in the afternoon we drove to Grosvenor arch, took a few pictures,
Grosvenor arch from almost underneath. There are 3 arches if you include the one at the top left of the picture
then headed South down the Cockscomb area of the Grand Staircase Escalante area. This road goes down a thrust fault rift zone. The rock strata is thrust up at around 60 or 70 degrees and there are closely spaced strata that are wildly different in colour. Some places are slate gray some brick red and some looked like a chocolate vanilla swirl ice cream.
There were a lot of wild flowers in bloom which made for a slow drive with frequent stops and lots of rubbernecking. By late afternoon we came to a camp site I had overnighted in on a previous tip and decided to spend the night there. It was alongside the recently dry stream amid a grove of aspen trees and surrounded with a profusion of yellow and orange wild flowers. A quiet peaceful place to spend the night.
Day 7: Cockscomb camp to Page
The day started slowly as most of our days have. I cooked up french toast for all and we wondered around looking at the yellow & orange flowers in bloom and the rock formations. We finally got back underway towards Page. I was in the lead during this section. We were hoping to make up a little time since I wanted to spend a few hours getting reacquainted with Page. It is one of the towns I'm thinking to moving to. It had rained here early yesterday and the first mud puddle I encountered was a lot deeper than I had expected so I learned how muddy water splashes when you are driving with the fan going and the bonnet off. I had to stop and wipe the mud off the windscreen prior to preceding. We decided to take the road a little slower and the following mud puddles a LOT slower. At the highway we aired back up using my old trusty Quickair2 pump.
We reached Page in the early afternoon, fueled up, I topped up my propane and drinking water tanks and we stopped at Safeway for additional food. It was around 3ish so we grabbed lunch at the nearby Italian restaurant, toured the town some and decided to overnight here. Nikkie wanted a shower so was stopped at a private campground for the night. We spent time in the pool & mineral salt water hot tub until it closed at 7 then sat around the camp table for a while with fresh popped popcorn.
Day 8: Page to Monument Valley
This day started out inauspiciously. First thing I noticed was that my secondary battery had gone flat overnight from causes unknown. The battery is a couple years old so it might possibly have reached its end of life. The second thing I noticed was that The Green Rover's left rear tyre was flat. As I went to get dressed to change the tyre I noticed they I just put on my last pair of clean underwear. Linus and I changed my rear tyre. I turned on the air pump and pumped the flat tyre to 50 lbs. A soap and water spray on the valve didn't yield any leaks, nor could any leaks be found on the tyre. So I let the tyre sit with the pressure gauge attached while I did laundry at the campground laundromat. Linus & Nikkie used this time to take advantage of the swimming pool and salt mineral spring hot tub. Since the meat in the refrigerator was now a week old and the fridge had warmed up overnight I decided to purge the remaining meat. So I picked some up at Safeway & we had a sandwich before starting off.
We went on to Navajo National Monument without additional problems, saw a film on the Anasazi at the visitor center and hiked to the lookout overlooking the Betatakin ruins (means "ledge house" in Navajo). The ruins housed an estimated 125 people and was inhabited from around 1250 through around 1300. The inhabitants were grouped with the Kayenta Anasazi. I finally broke down and purchased the book "Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest" by Stephen Plog so I could learn more about these people than you get from tour guides and park handouts. It became prime reading material during cooling off from vapor lock sessions. Its a good introduction that provides a more in-depth look at the people who lived here. I recommend it to anyone interested in Anasazi ruins.
From there we drove to the gouldings lodge and had dinner at the lodge restaurant As I type, my Land Rover is backed up to an overlook of Monument valley. Both the mittens are visible in the moonlight from my open rear door.
These two pictures were taken from inside my Dormobile. The view out the back door!
Oh, and this is the sunset view out the front window Opps sunrise view
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