Towards Moab

The first thing I did today was read the papers.......

(They were just a little out of date)

Another day of geological wonders and awesomeness. The nearer to Moab I got, the more the excitement rose. I got just a little taster today on quite a big detour down a huge canyon (Indian Creek)  to see 'The Needles." All of these places are so satisfying to visit, not just because of what you see, but also because of the high quality information always provided. Plaques, display boards and wayside posters. Visitors' Centres with exhibits, films shows, rangers and guides and endless shelves of information and books. It's a huge learning experience, too. Everything is explained. Anything can be identified. This SO appeals to my left-sided brain.......

Can you see 'The Wooden Shoe'?

The Needles

Indian Creek

A little bit of Arizona

One of life's big questions...why don't most European cars have automatic gearboxes? Driving is easier, more relaxing and safer. Low speed limits can sometimes make US driving seem slower but, once you have accepted this, driving becomes a real pleasure and you still get to places quickly. So it was with the long morning drive to Arizona. The landscape had evolved into desert conditions - broad sweeps of sage bush scrub, low plateaux and mesas, cowboy country.

I thought this was going to be the weak part of the trip. I had already been to Monument Valley on my Route 66 romp, and didn't like the sound of "Lake Powell Resort Hotel" where I was staying for just one night. I am happy to say that I was very wrong.

After hours of driving, Lake Powell, a massive reservoir behind the Glen Canyon dam upstream from the Grand Canyon, appears like an amethyst jewel glistening in the desert, an ultramarine oasis. The resort was right by the lake, a massive spread,  I was SO lucky to be at the very furthest edge, surrounded by desert and the lake. I snapped the view from my terrace above. It was swelteringly hot, well over 100deg F, so hot I had to drive a few hundred yards just to get lunch. I booked a cruise to Antelope Canyon at 4.30 and dinner for 8pm. The remains of the day, indeed.

Down Antelope Canyon

Navajo Tapestry

On the boat, I met another couple - just like another biker pair I met in a lay-by in Zion (PINK ON, Gloria). A lovely, bubbly, chatty lady with strong, silent husband. He never spoke a word during the entire jaunt, but looked nice! Wafted by cooler breezes, though still baked like potatoes, we cruised over the water and I was just beginning to get a bit bored (now, what to snap?) when Antelope Canyon came into sight. The sun was setting slowly, bouncing off the rocks, locally called the Navajo Tapestry, leaving a blaze of flame orange and gold, against a deepening blue sky. As we snaked into the canyon, the walls closed in to give us some shade and the contrast with the sunny areas dazzled. The other end of this canyon, where the boat can't go, is an incredibly beautiful slot canyon - I had already explored one
of these at Tent Rocks in New Mexico. Pity I didn't have time to do this the next day BUT all the more reason to come back.

Summer solstice

 The sun was setting as we made our way back across the becalmed lake - I realised it was the summer solstice in this most magnificent of settings. Dinner at the resort restaurant was the best meal of the trip. Who could resist 'spiced chicken with mango butter sauce, prickly pear drizzle, red cabbage-jacana slaw with cilantro lime couscous'? Yummy.....

Spiced chicken and prickly pear drizzle

Tomorrow, I was to be staying in a tiny place only just on the map called Bluff. Strolling back the new moon was the tiniest slither in the sky and it felt so good to be alive.

Capitol Reef and Toothache

 I loved Capitol Reef. But even more I love the open road. Me, a car and a feeling of total freedom, a forgetting of all worries and just the exhilaration of the ride. I was well into the rural outback when I stopped off at this little cafe - we chatted and they asked me to stay on for another hour or two because they loved my accent!

Capitol Reef may not be the most grandiose of Utah's parks, but I loved it. How can one place be so panoramic and vast, yet feel cosy and accessible at one time? The biggest plus was the absence of other tourists. All the other places were packed but here it was peaceful and solitary. The geology was still stunning, the baked earth and ochre colours lived up to my expectations and I even managed to get in some good bird watching with advice from the local naturalist. My kind of heaven -  a lasting memory will be sitting in front of the old Mormon homestead, eating home-made ice-cream, watching cowbirds, Say's Phoebe, and mule deer in the sunshine. Bliss. I guess I love solitude....

But very good moments must have their balance. For every positive it seems there must be an enormous negative. Let me state here and now that I know I have just a few, awful teeth. I am the person your parents use as an example of someone who didn't look after her teeth. I did come prepared with some, I thought, strong Portuguese antibiotics. But they weren't a match for the maple syrup pancakes at breakfast the next day. Capitol Reef on my doorstep and only 24 hours left there. What did I have to do? Give in to the awful fact that the toothache wasn't going to go away. Lay on the bed and feel that familiar pain spreading around my cheeks and jaw.

Say's Phoebe

By the evening, I knew I had to act and went to reception of my Great Western hotel. They were kind and caring. Did lots of ringing round. Eventually I was dispatched to the Tooth Ranch a couple of villages up the road. Then came surely one of the worst pain experiences of my life up to now...I won't go into detail but it HURT. The cruel-to-be-kind dentist scoffed at my meds and gave me something stronger 'for the road' - for I was venturing even further into the outback. The ordeal was over. I was back going towards Highway 12, with vistas of the Grand Staircase Escalante - where the history of the planet reveals itself in coloured steps in vast horizons of pinks and oranges. I realise now why I never put on weight when I am traveling (as opposed to the present forced sedentary lapse).....I am constantly getting in and out of the car to take photos. Thousands of them. Every one worth it.