Saturday, March 29, 2014

Such Beauty for Just a Day Trip

Al and I set out on a day trip from Monument Valley, UT.  We decided we would go to some places recommended by Goulding's Campground in our brochure.  The first place we stopped at was called Mexican Hat. It is a small community in Utah overlooking the San Juan River.  It is named for the Mexican Hat Rock formation.
 
 
                                                          Mexican Hat Rock Formation 
                       It was hard to miss this as we drove out of town. There was a pull-off and
                      we took lots of pictures. They all came out pretty much the same though.


      Our next stop was the Goosenecks State Park in Utah- known for it's impressive sandstone formations.


                         These next few pictures are of the overlook at Goosenecks State Park







As we left Goosenecks, we saw these beautiful painted rocks. This is all natural.
 

On our way to the next stop we saw these cute cows lined
up perfectly along the road, and not crossing that white line.
Nobody was around, just the cows. 
 
 

Our next place we stopped is called Valley of the Gods. I must say it was an amazing drive through this place. It actually took us 2 1/2 hours to go through. We went in from one road and came out on another. The road is impassable during the rainy season and it is sorta like an off road experience. Of course, Al loved driving it. It is so beautiful, that I just know if we are ever in that area again, we will definitely return. I hope you enjoy the next several pictures we took. Some of the pictures with the light on the sandstones are just beautiful.






 
 
 
 
 



 
 

 
one of my favorite photos 
 

 
 

 
 


Our next stop is called Moki Dugway.  It is a narrow gravel switchback road that winds along a
steep cliff with a fantastic view. The road is only about 3 1/2 miles, but it was pretty scary to me, not to Al though. We climbed really high as you will see from the first picture of the road we traveled.

                          See the winding road below we had already traveled!  Pretty scarey!


I had a hard time taking pictures as I didn't like looking down. Mostly Al took a few whenever there was a pull off and he was able to.





                      Just to give you an idea what the road was like.  Mostly gravel and curvy!


Once we came out of Moki Dugway, we decide since it was just a short ride to our next stop, we would take a ride over to Muley Point. It was only about 4 miles, so we decided to make this our last stop of the day. Muley Point is a beautiful and breathtaking overlook.  Pictures below are of the overlook. No words to describe are necessary.


                          At least I'm not in the truck on a gravel winding road looking down.





 
 
 
 
 
Needless to say, it was a long day.  We wanted to visit another place called Natural Bridges National Monument, but that will have to wait until the next time we are in the area as we ran out of time, And and we were leaving the next day.  We had a great time and saw a lot and just couldn't believe all we had packed into one day. Whew, what a day. Everything was within a few miles of each other, so that is why we did it all in one day.  We hope you enjoyed all the pictures.

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