Day Five - Desert Trek Photos

Click on photos to enlarge. Captions are below the photos

This was another day spent in admiration of the beauty of the outdoors.

This is a photo of the mountains that make up the Manti-LaSalle National Forest just north of Blanding, Utah taken from the intersection of route 95 and 163/191

Hmm, to cross or not to cross? I decided against because I had no desire to get stuck in there!

This is another view of the same riverbed with the sun sparking off the water. Who knew that brown muddy water could sparkle?

I thought this ridge was really cool and I could not wait to get on the other side to see what it looked like.

And this is the other side. It is amazing to me that one side is white rock and this side is red.

An up-close shot of the red cliff wall.

A good photo of my trusty steed along the red wall of rock.

The view of a butte along route 95 on the way to the Natural Bridges Monument.

Hmmm ........ decisions, decisions ....... I went on to the Natural Bridges Monument.

The Sipapu Bridge

An alternate view of the Sipapu Bridge.

A canyon carved by water near the Sipapu Bridge.

Another view of the same canyon.

I think this is the still the Sipapu Bridge.

That rock formation in the middle looked like a petrified flying saucer. Hmm, this is not too far from Roswell, NM!

A rock formation I liked at the top of the Mokee Dugway.

The view down from the Mokee Dugway - it is 1,100 feet to the bottom - straight down, as you can well see!

This is a German couple I met who are on their last leg of a world tour on their Honda motorcycles. They had traveled across north Africa in Tunisia, back into Europe through Italy, Greece, Ukraine, Russia, Mongolia, China, south Korea and then to Seattle, WA. They are on their way to Texas where they will put their bikes on a boat and fly home.

Looking down off the Mokee Dugaway at the gravel road I will have to negotiate. That switchback looks terrifying!

Yup, no guard rail and a long way down!

It was slow progess down the steep grade - you can see the drop-off to the left of the road.

Finally at the bottom, just by the intersection of routes 261 and 163 I saw this multi-colored formation.

A bad tire caused me to change my plans to visit Monument Valley in the distance so I added that to the unfinished business I need to come back and attend to!

These are some hills in the Hovenweep National Forest near Montezuma Creek on the Colorado and Utah border.

An interesting formation at the intersection of routes 491 and 160 just south of Cortez, Colorado.

My rear tire is not going to make it back to Cleveland with me and I am really hoping to make it to Farmington, NM about 50 miles away without it going flat so that I can look for a replacement. I only noticed this at the TOP of Mokee Dugway so I had to make the 3 mile descent on this tire and then drive 180 miles to Farmington through the desert!!

Ah, New Mexico, closer to my destination.

All in all it was a good day. It sucked that the tire shredded but cutting short the side trips allowed me to make it here in daylight. Next order of business on Wednesday morning is to get a new tire and then get to Colorado Springs, 450 miles away, before dark. The tire place I found does not open until 9:00. I am normally well underway by that time. Oh well, we will see what this day brings!