Monday - what time is it?

I'm confused, what time is it now?  Here in Beluga its 9:30 p.m., but at the entrance to the National Park (a few miles down the road) its only 8:30.    Which clock do I believe?  Do we have dinner at 7:00 or is it really 8:00, what time will we get up, when is cocktail hour?     The Navajo Indian Reservation honors Daylight Savings Time and, evidently, we're on the rez.     Page, Az, however, does not.
Sheesh.....its hard for a New Yorker to keep track of.


So, we're here, wherever THIS is, and I promised I'd tell you about our drive yesterday.

We left Dead Horse State Park on the early side, so did everyone else, it seems.   We had to wait a bit at the dump station, but then got on the road.  We drove through interesting scenery changes on the way to Page.    First, through the arid desert we'd become used to.    As we gained elevation, we started to notice pine trees and grass and snow covered mountains ahead of us.

Mt. Humphreys in the San Francisco Peaks

Let me apologize right now for taking pictures through a very dirty, spotted windshield.  Beluga's exterior hygiene leaves much to be desired, but we don't want to embarrass her by pointing it out just yet.   She's carried us over 10,000 miles so far on this trip and we're quite fond of her.

Dave was holding on tight as we drove past Mt. Humphrey and its little cloud topper

As I mentioned, the wind was really kicking up and Dave had his hands full keeping us between the lines.  Often a gust would blow so hard it would lift Beluga's windshield wipers up away from the windshield and I noticed Dave wiping his damp hands on his jeans once in awhile.   Thanks for doing such a great job sweetie.

The scenery turned from alpine to high desert grasses, not yet greening.  The color was fantastic, my picture doesn't do it justice.  You almost needed sunglasses to look out at the bright straw colored expanses in front of us.  No more trees.

We were on the Hopi and then the Navajo reservations now.  I don't know where one stopped and the other began however.   We passed small clusters of houses, corrals and almost every house had a little round Hogan somewhere nearby.  Some looked like they were lived in, one even had a satellite dish on its roof, but  mostly I think they are maintained for ceremonial purposes. Most were very austere, packed earth and wood.

a less traditionall pink Hogan

The views were changing again.  The ground was becoming red and the vegetation was changing also.

The landscape was becoming less flat, more and more interesting rock formations were revealing themselves to us.  Two giant monoliths right next to the highway were called the "elephant feet" for obvious reasons!

elephant feet

I'll leave this one to your imagination!

big box?

We knew we were getting near our destination and were both very glad.  This had been a really interesting ride, in more ways than one!   The detour took us on roads we had never traveled and that is something we both enjoy, but it added quite a bit of time to our already long hard drive.  North of Flagstaff I noticed many, many crosses and makeshift memorials along the roadside.  It was sad to think of all the lost lives they represented, and a little alarming to think that there were so many accidents on this stretch of road in the past.  We could only think it was alcohol related, because the road was in fine condition, with light traffic and good line of sight.

passing over the Glen Canyon Dam
not a bad picture for having my eyes closed is it!

first glimpse of Lake Powell

all settled in, time to relax

Got to close for now, Dave is telling me the "big" wind is here and we need to pull in the slides!