April 28 and 29 From Meteor Crater to Lake Powell

April 28 - Up early to tour Meteor Crater which was much, much larger than we thought it would be. The exhibits explaining the science behind a meteor earth strike were well presented and easy to follow along. Joe and I sometimes watch “Meteor Men” on TV, a show about two guys who search the earth for meteor fragments. We walked as far on the rim as you could go without taking an hour tour.

Travelled west on I-40 through a lot of smoke from preventive burns on to Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. This is a hidden gem of an area rich in geography and early Indian culture. We walked the trails at the volcano down through the lava beds and up into the cinder cone area. Very little vegetation has returned as the ash is very deep and hard.

There are three pueblo ruins and also exhibits at the visitor center 20 miles from the lava fields. What resourceful early Americans the Indians were to move around the land guided by the weather. We try to change the land, they used the land to their advantage.

We ended this interesting day at Wahweap campground on Lake Powell near Page, AZ. I was surprised at the depth of color in both the water and the surrounding rocks. Campground was very busy with most of the campers hauling boats. I sat and enjoyed a beautiful sunset and watched the jackrabbits hop by. No, none of them ended up in the stew pot but one is large enough for a meal.

April 29 - Travelling the way back roads

We want to be Wazoo ( a fellow truck camper who lives in Arizona and who makes incredible back country trips) when we grow up. What better place to try our wings than in the west. Wandering north from Page, Arizona we saw this small road to the right that led back up into the incredible rock formations. So we turned in to Smokey Mountain Road. Mapping software showed it as the back road into Escalante and Capital Reef.

The geography reads like a book with all the sediment layers and tortured rocks left behind after millennium of upheaval. This nice small graveled road just kept going.

I figure hey what the heck – we’ve got emergency gear with us, a whole truck camper full of supplies and we’ll just do what Wazoo does and just keep going. Joe is starting to look a little concerned

when he sees this ahead of us.

Out I get to see how wet, dry, good, bad it actually is. Turns out it is dry and the ruts are from someone who ran the road right after a rain. Since he didn’t drive off in reverse and leave me, we continued on.

Eleven miles later and about a bazillion stops to walk the road and look at rocks, flowers, washes, canyons, we were still Wazooing along.

Those of you who have been here, done this are laughing by now. We get to this sign. Hmmmmmm…..

Common sense won. We turned back knowing that a hard body tall truck camper would not play like Wazoo’s pop up. Was it worth the drive in? Absolutely. Joe was so happy that I wasn’t acting stupid that he smiled all the way back to Route 89. Bye, bye road and thanks for our introduction (newbie style) to Wazooing.