2024 Southwest Trip - Day 14 - Reef and Goblins

Gallery (20 images): 2024 Southwest - Day 14 - Reef and Goblins

After Bryce Canyon, we started heading for Moab but a winter storm warning with calls for up to 10cm of snow prevented us from camping at the entrance of the Burr Trail, where we had intended on taking the back road through Capitol Reef National Park. The dirt roads in the area have a lot of clay and with rain or warm snowfall, they become near impassable. So, we drove north over the 9,700 foot summit (beating the snowfall) and stayed near Torrey, Utah. The next morning, we drove the main paved route through Capitol Reef National Park but it was still quite cloudy and we weren't sure if the sun would come out any time soon. We waited around for about 45 minutes and finally saw a bit of sun hitting the reef and took a bunch of photos, although we never really had more than just hazy sunshine.

Alas, the sun left us again with some thick cloud cover that looked like it wouldn't clear for a long time, so we decided to continue on towards our ultimate destination, an area where back-country camping is allowed in Arches National Park near Moab. On the way we also stopped off at Goblin Valley State Park and there too, the cloud cover was quite significant. We also waited patiently there and eventually the sun broke through. I also often waited for the few people who were hiking around the Valley of the Goblins to tuck in behind formations so I could get the occasional pristine shot with no other people visible.

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2024 Southwest Trip - Day 13 - Bryce Canyon NP

Gallery (35 images): 2024 Southwest - Day 13 - Bryce Canyon NP

After a few hours of driving from Lee's Ferry, we arrived at Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. The lioght wasn't great as it was not a good time of day to be taking photos and of course the majority of the dunes are covered in ATV/Quad tracks since most of the area is open of OHVs. The first few times I visited the dunes, probably between 20 and 30 years ago now, there were no off-highway vehicles permitted at all, and it was wonderful to wander the dunes and take photos. especially across to where the sand starts moving up the sparsely pine tree populated rocky hillside. So disappointing now as a photographer.

We only walked onto the part of the dunes where OHVs are not permitted, only to spot some tracks there anyway. At least Emily got to see the uniquely coloured sand! So that was it... and off we drove with Bryce Canyon as our next stop. Just before reaching Bryce though, there is a very colourful spot known as Red Canyon, and we spent an hour or so wandering the trails there and taking photos. Bryce Canyon was wonderfully clear and the distant hills too, with a recent storm having likely cleared the air.

See the following link (opens in a new window) for some Native American Lore.

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Also, there is a stitched panorama from Bryce Canyon shown in my 2024 Southwest Trip - Highlights blog posting.

2024 Southwest Trip - Day 12 - Horseshoe Bend

Gallery (25 images): 2024 Southwest - Day 12 - Horseshoe Bend

Next up on our agenda was Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River in northern Arizona. Due to time constraints, we had bypassed the Grand Canyon since Emily had been there with her parents and I had been a few times, most recently with my father during our 2019 road trip. It had been quite a number of years since I had visited the Horseshoe Bend viewpoint and wow, what a change. Before, there was a nearly unmarked dirt road leading off the highway with a small gravel lot, then a short rocky trail leading to the overlook. The last time I was there, there was only one other person. Now... well now there is a huge paved parking lot that accommodates multiple tour busses, they charge an entrance fee (which I actually do not mind), and the trail to the viewpoint is built up to allow for strollers, wheel chairs and such. And the people... so many people everywhere! Before it was a wonderful, quiet spiritual spot to take in a magnificent view but now, you have a hundred or more people dotting the landscape, many taking selfies and somehow just ruining the experience, at least for me.

That said, I understand making beautiful scenery like this more accessible for people, especially those who might not otherwise be able to hike rocky trail, so I suppose I shouldn't really complain. However I am certainly very happy to have been to this spot a few times previously where there weren't masses of people, but this might have been the last time I bother visiting. To get a sense of some of the crowds, see this image in the gallery or open the cropped panorama below...

On the way to driving to Lee's Ferry, we walked out onto the old Navajo bridge and took a few photos, and then lastly some photos of the photogenic crumbling buildings at Lee's Ferry where we also camped for the night.

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2024 Southwest Trip - Day 11 - Petrified Forest NP

Gallery (45 images): 2024 Southwest - Day 11 - Petrified Forest NP

The first few images in the gallery are from when we drove through Rice, California, a modern ghost town with a handful of ruins, including what I believe are the remnants of a gas station that have been turned into a "shoe tree", a bush that appears to be growing COVID masks, and an old who-knows-what-it-was remains of a building that are near 100% covered in layers of colourful, artistic graffiti.

From there, we continued on to Petrified Forest National Park. At the south end of the park, there are fields of fractured petrified tree logs, just lying on the surface of the ground, some seeming as though they have been cut into sections with a chainsaw. These logs have been agatized, in other words, the wood has been replaced with very colourful agate while it was buried over the millennia. Arizona petrified wood is known to be some of the most colourful in the world and seeing these beautiful logs of agate lying everywhere is truly incredible. The rest of the park has some amazing scenery too, sculpted purplish badlands and to the north, an area known as the Painted Desert, an vast plain of red/orange badlands and mesas contrasting beautifully with the blue skies and fluffy white clouds.

Read: All the blog postings from my 2024 Southwest Trip

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Also, there is a stitched panorama from the badlands shown in my 2024 Southwest Trip - Highlights blog posting.

2024 Southwest Trip - Day 9 - Joshua Tree

Gallery (45 images): 2024 Southwest - Day 9 - Joshua Tree

While in Death Valley, we were surprised to hear that Emily's aunt and uncle, who live just south of Los Angeles, insisted we come for a visit while in southern California. So, rather than heading over to Joshua Tree National Park immediately, we cancelled one night of stay at the campground there and made the detour to drive to the coast again and stayed overnight with them. They generously made us feel right at home, gave us food to take, let us do laundry... and showering after hiking around in Death Valley was most certainly welcome as well!

The next day, after taking a few photos of their wonderful cactus garden, we drove off to Joshua Tree National Park to camp at the aptly named Jumbo Rocks Campground. We hiked around for a few hours that evening and took photos, but since we had pre-booked all of our campsites for the trip already, we couldn't linger at all. The following day was a five hour drive to our next campground east of Phoenix, Arizona, and I wanted to leave some time for the potential to sightsee along the way too.

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