Iconic Landforms of the South West USA

After leaving Las Vegas we began our exploration of some of the amazing landforms of the South West. Our first stop was Valley of Fire.

After leaving the Valley of Fire we drove on leaving Nevada, cutting across Arizona into Utah. Which for some reason Murray thought he would not visit. In St George we where able to contact Richard and coordinate time and meeting place. This meant we drove back to Arizona (actually we shuttled across the border again as we found Fredona is not the place to buy groceries and we went up to Kanab).



Once we had all our groceries we drove to Jacob's Lake which is a Forest Service camp site.














The following day was spent exploring the North Rim of the Grand Rim.
The Grand Canyon was spectacular -certainly my photos don't do it justice.

























By the end of the afternoon I was feeling canyoned out and I enjoyed the high meadows as we drove back and found a free camp site in the national forest.












We also saw evidence of a fire - June this year called the Warm Fire. It was a natural fire which then became too intense.



The following morning which was Friday we drove to Lees Ferry and crossed the Navajo Bridge. We spent some time in the information centre and looking at the bridges. It is interesting getting some feel, even if superficial, of the local history. John Lee seems to have been an interesting and controversial person.

We had arranged to meet Richard and Christine and knew we had time to spare so went up to Page to see the Glen Dam and Lake Powell. The interperation centre was interesting - I remembered to take my pocket knife out of my pocket before going through security.

While we were travelling down to Desert View passing though small settlements such as Cedar Ridge and Gap ( all the are is part of the Navajo Nation) we received a text to say that the Golf Club in Wainuiomata was closed due to flooding - this was very hard to imagine in the shimmering heat of the Arizona Strip.

We arrived at Desert View and found a site that would take two and was not too hard to find. Just as both grandparents were thinking it would be nice if the family arrived in they pulled. Great excitement tempered by Liam walking into a rock in the dark. Finally everyone settled for the night.