Monday 16 September 2019

Day 18: Cedar City UT - Page AZ

OK, this could be another late one, coz I took a metric fuckton of photos in Bryce and Kolob Canyons today and I didn't get to Page until after 9 pm and Dog knows how long they'll take to upload.  Anyway, you run out of adjectives after 15 minutes in Bryce so just look at the pictures instead, eh?  They'll be over here: clicky.  And remember what I said about screen sizes, eh?  Even a Jesus Phone is too small.

Edit: the pictures have now uploaded but it's past midnight so the words will have to wait.  Emily would have been pensioned off if Wolmart in Cedar City had had the TwatNav I had my eye on actually in stock.  $96 and I think the same one costs over two hundred quid back home, which is probably a metaphor for Brexit.


Edit 2:  Ok, you fussy buggers, some words to go with it.  The quickest way to Bryce Canyon involves blatting north up I-15 at 85 mph, turning east over a gert big set of mountains and then turning south again down US-89.  I would call this a Big Fat Lie if it were not for the roadworks up Cedar Canyon which, I assume, are still there.  I've passed by the front door of Bryce quite a few times over the years but only went in once, in 2003.  And promptly got some grit in my eye which played havoc with my contact lens and made the whole visit rather grim.  Anyway, there are no longer contact lenses in my face, I haz a better camera, and, well, Bryce Canyon.  After a few minutes you run out of adjectives.

Yovimpa Point
Black Birch Canyon
Nevermore!
Agua Canyon
Natural Bridge
Bryce Point
Small but perfectly formed snek, Paria View
Fairyland Canyon
Lots more on Flickr.  Having spent rather longer dicking around in Bryce than I had intended, 'twas heigh-ho for Kolob Canyon, which is actually part of Zion NP but not connected to the main bit wot I visited the other week.  The quickest route from Bryce involves heading north up US-89, turning west over a gert big set of mountains and then blatting south down I-15 at 85 mph.  This takes you right through Cedar City where, as noted above, Wolmart had no TwatNavs.

Kolob Canyon is a five mile dead-end drive, and contains plants and birds and rocks and things, and sand and hills and rings ["Are you sure about that last one?" - Ed.]

Hanging valley off Kolob Canyon
Not actually an actual dog
There is more Kolob-Stuffs a bit further on, off the road through the main bit of Zion NP, viz. Kolob Terrace Road.  This snakes off into the hills for about twenty miles; some of it is in the National Park, some isn't and - improbably - people live right at the far end and probably further than that coz I didn't go all the way up to the end of the reservoir.

Somewhere up Kolob Terrace Road
Gathering dusk at Kolob Reservoir
Emily, temporarily behaving herself, decided that the quickest way from Kolob Reservoir to Page was to head in totally the opposite direction and head across the Arizona Strip.  As this was Clearly Wrong, I went through Zion Natiopnal Park.  For the third time this trip.  It's rather triff in the dark with huge mountains just about visible overhead.  Also good in the dark is the unequivocally drear section of US-89 from Kanab to Page.  At least with the lights off you can't see how dull it is.

2 comments:

  1. Those are fabulous pictures. But, eek! A rattlesnake ?

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    Replies
    1. Not sure what kind of a snek he was. He wasn't rattling at anyone and he wasn't very big either: maybe two and half feet long and skinny with it.

      Interesting factoid: immediately above th desk I'm sitting at is an arty B&W photo of the Spider Rock in the Canyon de Chelly...

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