Page, Arizona - Glen Canyon National Recreation Area/Wahweap RV Campground 8/09 - 8/15 2020 Travel Tour

 From: casarollnotes.blogspot.com 
Tim and Linda Bunyan

We leave behind Mexican Hat, Utah, and the Navaho Indian Reservation, to drive through along the border of Utah and Arizona within the 26,000 square miles of the world-recognized Monument Valley in the Navaho Tribal Park, Arizona.  

The Navaho Indian Headquarters through Monument Valley.

Majestic Monument Valley as a backdrop.  The location filmed in the movie "Forrest Gump" where actor Tom Hanks turned around to finish his ultra-ultra marathon of more than 15,000 miles (1994 movie).

A place to walk in beauty.

Indians do live here as they like with space for their personal livestock and peace and quiet in beautiful, untouched, protected, and preserved surroundings 

in the home grounds Navaho Tribal Park.

We reach Page, Arizona.  As the Navaho Nation, Page is 'covid-closed'.  Few restaurants are open with outdoor seating only.  The hotels and motels very low business evidenced by the bare parking lots.

There is an indication of electricity being created and transmitted

Glen Canyon Dam: 1 mile

First view of Lake Powell!  This reservoir on the Colorado River in Utah and Arizona gets visited by about two million people every year.  We are here to playboat!!!!  (This covid-avoidance Travel Tour has a positive outcome in that the crowds are non-existent.)

Lake Powell is named for John Wesley Powell, who in 1869 led the first expedition to traverse Colorado's Grand Canyon by boat.

We feel welcome and know this place is just for us.  We are together in our RV houses 

at the Wahweap RV Campground.

When the Glen Canyon dam was built, it took 17 years to fill the 2,000 miles of shoreline to this incredible recreation area!

Tim and I settle in and immediately turn on the a/c; we are in boating weather........all week!

Mike&Sherry has some shade along with a/c on too!

Ron&Fran ready to boat play with a/c on too!

This area is suited to ensure visitors have access to the lake!  Also very clean as can be with this garbage vehicle located for convenience.

I feel great in this "Making America Great Again" sun hat!

We have arrived and Mike&Sherry has arranged for a day boat rental for all of us.  Ron and Mike have been here to Lake Powell many times and know how to go about getting to the boat in the early morning.  They have instructions and signed up so we are all ready to go.  We find this saved us at least an hour in line.  

It is Tim's birthday and we celebrate it all week!

The sunset hour is the most beautiful and tranquil.  The sun has relented for another day and we enjoy getting together in the evenings.

Tim's birthday dinner with Mike&Sherry bbq-ing and Frannie&Ron with birthday cake and candles!

The boys are glad to be in familiar territory and nearby is Lake Powell for our pleasure.

Ron&Fran

Mike&Sherry tending to bbq ribs for dinner!

Frannie lights Tim's birthday candles and Tim coming up with a wish; 

what can be better than this?

READING: This Travel Tour 2020, we came for the Rock Stars and stayed for the Sky Stars.  Play at day and found comfort at night only below the planets, meteors, airplanes, satellites, and shooting stars.

It is time to do what we all came to do!  

Let's Go Boating!

Mike is well in command as Captain of our ship.  It is a high-performance patio boat.

Ron has the map of Lake Powell.

We enter the spectacular Antelope Canyon

We are so happy to be on the water!  At nearly 100 degrees, the movement through the water and the air feels comforting.

Nice and relaxed.  Lake Powell has many visitors but the lake is so large it never appears crowded.  All on the water are free to go into the canyon at their pace.

The reflection of the cliffs upon the water is spectacular!

It is so beautiful and peaceful and we are all happy!

Here is Sherry relaxing on the boat ride

The reflection of the cliffs upon the water is nature's beauty.  One we want to view and not disturb.

Mike&Sherry taking the lead on this boat ride.  Subway sandwiches for every one kept nicely in the ice chest they bought .......with ice and water!  Gee, we are spoiled and enjoying!

The towering cliffs of sandstone.

Mike is taking a break as Tim drives.

We locate all the necessities!

Other boaters in different kinds of boats.  Lake Powell is our pleasure.

By then end of the day, we felt we had had plenty of fun on the water and the afternoon wind (which Rob Connelly had warned) did come up so Mike and Tim are holding on to their hats!  As soon as we reached the marina, the wind was still not detrimental.

Castle Rock Cut is a popular short cut route on Lake Powell that allows boaters at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area to shorten the trip between the major Wahweap Marina and destinations uplake by a distance of 12 miles.  Mike and Ron knew this route and the lake water level was up so the Antelope Canyon was ours for the day!

At the end of the day, we are a happy boating group!!!

The next morning Ron&Fran delights us with a bloody mary bar for brunch.  This is our final stop with Mike&Sherry and Ron&Fran.  It has been a wonderful 2020 Travel Tour.  

This has been a Travel Tour we all got to do together!

We began this 2020 "Rock Stars" and (covid-avoidance) Travel Tour at Dead Horse Point in Moab, Utah: 6/27/2020.   It is now 8/13/2020 and time to go home.

Forrest Gump had run for 3 years, 2 months, 14 days, and 16 hours and turned around just up the road from here in Monument Valley.

  As Forest Gump said at the end of his running:

 "I'm pretty tired....I think I'll go home now"

 Goodbye Mike&Sherry and Ron&Fran,

 Happy Trails!

Flowers from Frannie.

Tim and I stay at Lake Powell and find the Carl Hayden Visitor Center located at Glen Canyon Dam.  It is temporarily covid-closed.  

Electricity transmission tower in the background.  Tim and I walked about the grounds.

The dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam on the Colorado River in northern Arizona.  It is a 710-foot high built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation from 1956-1966 and forms Lake Powell, one of the largest man-made reservoirs in the U.S.

The Glen Canyon Dam bridge with a height of 700 feet crosses the Colorado River.  The bridge was a necessary component in the construction of the massive Glen Canyon Dam.  With Page located on the south side of the river, the bridge made it easy to transport men and materials to the more remote north side.

When flowing water turns the blades in a turbine, the energy form is changed to mechanical energy.  The turbine turns a generator rotor which then converts the mechanical energy into electricity.

Glen Canyon Powerplant has eight electric generators that require about 4,000 cubic feet per second of water flow.  With all eight generators operating at full output, about 15 million gallons of water passes through the powerplant each minute.

This electrical supplies the needs of about 5.8 million customers and is marketed by the Western Area Power Administration.  The electricity is sold to municipalities, rural electric cooperatives, Native American tribes, and governmental agencies in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and Nebraska.

We noticed at the local fuel station, pickup trucks lined up at the Water Dispenser!  Large water barrels (in the bed on their trucks) are filled by using a large hose into the water barrel.  They return to their homes with thier water supply!

Tim and I are on the road to visit one of the "Rock Stars" of our Travel Tour: 

 The Grand Canyon-North Rim. 

 Through the past years, we have talked and dreamed of going to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and now, this 2020 Travel Tour, the plan is well set and we are excited to continue our 2020 Travel Tour.  

Mexican Hat, Utah - Valles RV Park 8/07 - 8/09 2020 Travel Tour

 From: casarollnotes.blogspot.com 

                                                                       Tim and Linda Bunyan

From Mesa Verde, Colorado to Mexican Hat, Utah we have arrived by the only road through Mexican Hat, Highway 163  to Valles RV Park (Full hookup $35.00/night) in Mexican Hat,

a small village on the San Juan River (which originates in the San Juan Mountains on Southwestern Colorado) on the northern edge of the Navajo Nation's borders.

The population of Mexican Hat, Utah is 31.  The elevation is 4,244' .   It was cooler (80's) in Mesa Verde at an elevation near 8,000'.  It is about 20 degrees higher temperatures here.   We are a stop away from Lake Powell and we are yearning for a boat ride on the water especially during these hot days.  

Besides providing a base to explore the surrounding scenery, the town is also popular as the start (or end) point for rafting trips along the San Juan River.  Rafting trips begin from Mexican Hat downstream to the upper end of Lake Powell, exiting via the Plute Farms Road near Monument Valley.  

We order pizza to go and gather with Mike&Sherry and Ron&Fran for some good dining.    The registration desk and the Pizza Cafe for Valles RV Park is one of the same.  The man greets us and checks us in an RV site and hands us a menu.   Our three RV's are the only filled RV sites.  We have full hookups and running the air conditioner much of the day.  We are happy to have full hookups as the heat continues to be with us.

READING: The Black Stallion reigns yet rears up at the incongruent; remains in a smile position making all those who cluster happy.  On the quest of picture-perfect lacking defects or flaws; ideals exact and correct.  

A READING: As the Rocky Mountain delivers water to our homes, we flourished as we have traveled along its course,

Happy to be an accompaniment in the stream of life.

We've remain fortunate and protected from ravage and fear as we honor the Resource of our being as a witness to all that surrounds our daily lives.

The "Black Knight" is led with vigor.  Love is the fuel in their journey on paved, and unpaved roads. 

Imagine doing all this in meakness and in health!

We get to live like this coming and going with people we know.

This history and tales of friends.  It's a bit of a Party every day and night.

The Mexican Hat popped into our view from the highway as we drove in on U.S. Highway 163.  It is named after the sombrero-looking formation.   The formation is 60-foot diameter caprock is comprised of Cedar Mesa sandstone.  The base is red siltstone and shale of the Halgaito Formation.  The ancient Cutler rock layers over 300 million years old were laid down by the recurring rising and falling sea levels of an ancient marine environment.

We take a walk from our RV site to a spectacular landscape of the San Juan River that runs along with the village of Mexican Hat, Utah.  This is a place to walk in beauty.  The film "Stagecoach" was filmed in this area.

The sun is setting against the deep, layered cliff walls that glisten from the sun and are reflected in the San Juan river below.   The greenery along the water's edge contrasts vividly with the swirling reds and grays of the canyon walls.

We are glad to take a walk nearby and outside, next to the San Juan River, with a gentle breeze the hot weather is not so oppressive.

READING: Our perspectives represent our unique national view; the objective is honed throughout our experiences which are the frameworks to organize and understand the world.

The cliffs of Mexican Hat, Utah.  Most of the surroundings are BLM land south of the river is the Navajo Reservation.   As much of our Travel Tour 2020 route, the San Juan River originates as snowmelt in the San Juan Mountains (part of the Rocky Mountains) of Colorado, it flows 383 miles through the desert of northern New Mexico and southeastern Utah to join the Colorado River at Glen Canyon (Lake Powell).

We are exploring the local landscapes.  Gooseneck State Park a few miles to the northwest of Mexican Hat is one of the best examples of entrenched meanders in the world.  It windes 5 miles yet stretching only one mile as the crow flies.

The San Juan River twists and turns through the meander flowing west on its way 

to Lake Powell.  

Above the sinuous river meander known as a gooseneck, the park affords impressive views of one of the most striking examples of an entrenched river meander on the North American continent.

300 million years of geological activity is evident as the San Juan River winds and carves its way through the desert 1,000 feet below.  The San Juan River is a major tributary of the Colorado River.  It provides the chief drainage for the Four Corners region of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona.

There is a tourist van parked next to picnic tables on the canyon top.  A couple had the use of this tour all to themselves.  We had our own personal tour of our own in our Tundra.

Not far from Gooseneck State Park, we take our personal tour approach straight north on Highway 261 to the Moki Dugway.  The highway is part of the Utah section of the Trail of the Ancients, a National Scenic Byway.  

We watch for Falling Rocks and all rocks!  Some scenes of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"were filmed in this area.

The switchbacks traverse the Moki Dugway.

Mexican Hat on the far horizon, 38 miles.  The Moki Dugway was constructed in 1958 by Texas Zinc, a mining company, to transport uranium ore from the "Happy Jack" mine to the processing mill in Mexican Hat.

We head back to our RV site to discover Ron in his 

Ram Truck Black Knight drove the Moki Dugway today too!

Ron was very proud of his Ram Truck and 4-wheel Black Knight proven road warrior!

Time slows down here, this is untouched, protected, and preserved.  We went out on the town at the "Hat Rock Cafe" where only beer or wine is licensed.

Tim and I drove around 'the hood' our last day here to find residences on the Indian Reservation.  Some of the houses were vandalized, with other happy families living inside.  This community sign has been painted over.  Our waitress told us her story of house funding from the Navaho Nation for a house on half an acre for $1,200.  She and her husband and grandmother are saving up in order to build a house.

Here is one example of "the hood' with some housing.  We saw other homes in Monument Valley where acres were provided for those ranchers or sheep keepers.  Plenty of power and water is provided.... not a problem.

It is time to continue our 2020 Travel Tour to Lake Powell.  Ron&Fran and Mik&Sherry have been along on this travel tour since June and they must return to their 'sticks and bricks' houses to resume their life business.  Mike&Sherry are selling their HighCountry 5th wheel to replace it with a Grand Design they must define and order.  Ron&Fran are returning to family in their Las Vegas House and then on to their Reno House to take an SYC boat cruise for Labor Day!   On to seeking still waters!