Thursday 22 May
Trip Start
Apr 13, 2008
1
46
155
Trip End
Oct 27, 2008
Bluff,
Utah,
United States
Monday, June 9, 2008
We set out for Natural Bridges this morning. The weather improved as we approached the park although it was quite cold. We drove around the loop road and saw the three biggest bridges. These bridges are formed by water over 1000's of years and are huge (120 ft) wide. We hiked into the gouge and walked under one bridge. There were some Petroglyphs drawn under the bridge. It was quite a climb down steep cliffs and involved climbing ladders.
Holly and Zach did the Junior Ranges program for which they earned a badge - it was an excellent program and made them focus on the animals, geology, history and original people in the area.
The park headquarters and staff residences all use solar power
Solar Panels
. They have almost 1 acre of land covered in solar panels that produces 50 KHz and is stored in a huge battery bank.We left the Park around lunchtime and as we drove away it started to snow, we nearly ran out of fuel because this is a sparsely populated area. We managed to get some at what was the most expensive price we have paid yet $3.90 a gallon. We have seen fuel range from as high as $4.25 to our record low of $3.50. We have travelled just over 3000 miles now and remember Indy only does 10 miles to the gallon, so getting fuel at a cheaper rate does help.
We continued on and eventually stopped near dark at a State Park very near a river and a town called Bluff that had some of the best Petra glyphs we have seen yet. It is unbelievable that some vandals have drawn their own names and other silly things right near and some are even over the top of the ancient Anasazi artwork. Sickening really.
The weather is still quite cold here, so we aren't going to hang around. We are leaving early for Monument Valley.
