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.