Kanab, Utah

Good morning, my friends. We had a drive of approximately 230 miles yesterday. For some reason it seemed longer. We're at a nice park here in Kanab, and we'll be here for three nights (two now). 

Before I tell you what we're going to do here in Kanab, let's just back up to yesterday when we left Gooseneck State Park. We passed through the town of Mexican Hat, so named because of the rock formation you see below. Use your imagination, and you can see that it appears as an upside-down sombrero.

Driving through, we crossed this bridge over the San Juan River.

This is the same river that carved the canyon at Gooseneck State Park.

We saw the other side of this formation we'd seen from our campsite the night before.

We chose this route in order to drive through Monument Valley. We drove this route many years ago, and I've always wanted to make a return trip. You can see the monuments in the distance.

We passed by this structure. You might have been able to purchase some Navajo handmade jewelry here, but it looks as if it's permanently closed. Or permanently open. It's hard to say, but I'm betting there's no merchandise here. There were, however, many other choices along this stretch of road.

Does this scene look familiar? It's the iconic stretch of road seen in the movie, "Forest Gump."

There were several "scenic turnouts" on both sides of the road here. We wondered about the hubbub, and then I remembered the scene from the movie. If you don't remember the scene, you can watch the video clip below. (If you can't see the video, then click right here.)

So that was fun. Driving on, we saw lots more red rocks and monuments. Our eyes are pretty nearly full of this by now.

Shortly after that, we crossed the state line into Arizona. We would only be here for a little while...maybe about 100 miles.

Along our way and through the town of Kayenta, we saw "Owl Rock." Do you see the owl?

There was plenty of red rock in northern Arizona, but we noticed the landscape changing to more of this white sandstone.

It was more green with more sagebrush and more color in general.

Eventually, we got a glimpse of Lake Powell and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

We were nearing the state line with Utah here, and we crossed the bridge over Lake Powell. You can see the visitor center for Glen Canyon Dam near the center of the image below.

There's the reservoir. The water level is down.

Crossing over, you can see the Glen Canyon Dam through the fence there.

After crossing the bridge, we had a better view of the lake and the canyon.

And then we crossed the state line back into Utah.

The landscape continued with reds, whites, and tans.

Until we got closer to Kanab. Here, we returned to the red rock.

Not too many miles further, we reached our final destination. This is our view from the RV park.

We have three nights here (two now). Our goal is to hike the Belly of the Dragon trail. It's a trail I've wanted to do for along time, and finally, we will get our chance. We had in mind to do another hike here, but I've learned its much longer than I realized, and so we'll bag that. Instead, we'll give ourselves a day off. And, yes, I know that Zion and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon are right nearby. We've visited both several times, and so we'll give others a chance. We're also within walking distance of a recommended restaurant. I don't know who or why I put it on our agenda for Kanab, but there it is. And it's only 4 minutes away on foot. Seems like a perfect opportunity for someone else to make dinner.

If you've enjoyed this post, you can thank Sadie again. Her editing efforts have been invaluable in our travels this time. I think she's found her calling.

So there's much to do, even with a day off. I'll be back to tell you about the hike tomorrow.