Road Trip - Day 8 - Kanab to Chinle
Kanab, UT to Chinle, AZ
7.30 a.m. 63 degrees. Warm.
We went down at 6.30 for breakfast and the place was packed out. The bus group had taken over the place. We were relegated to sit in the back room.
We checked out, fueled up, cleaned the windscreen (the cashier came over the loudspeaker saying we had missed a bug) and we were off.
The first part of the journey took us through the southern end of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Although this road is not marked as scenic, I think it is. Lots of unusual canyons and rock formations. The rocks appear to be older here, especially around Big Water. You can see how fragile some of the formations are and they seem to be disintegrating before your eyes.
Lake Powell comes into view. At 8.30 we cross the state line and we are back in Arizona. We cross the Glen Canyon bridge. It was completed in 1959, is 387 m long and 213 m above the water and is a steel arched bridge. We approached it with a few trepidations, trying not to look down, but we made it over OK. Page was just up the road but we bypassed it but frankly it does not look that exciting. I wonder why we could not find a room here for last night? Tom say it might be because Lake Powell is a huge recreation area.
We turn left onto Highway 98 and pass a huge power station with three tall chimneys. It’s been in our sights since Big Water and it’s a blot on the landscape but I’m sure it does a worthwhile job. Soon we enter the Navajo Indian Reservation. This is a huge area which completely surrounds the Hopi Indian Reservation and covers all the north western part of Arizona including the Four Corners. For those that have not heard of Four Corners, it is the only place where four states meet up.
At 9.50 we turn left on 160. More traffic around. The condition of the road in parts is not good and is much worse than the road we have just turned off.
The weather so far today has not been too bad. The forecast earlier this week said it would rain at the weekend but it doesn’t look as though it’s going to rain today. The sun is quite hot, temperature 72 degrees, but there are a few clouds around.
At the junction of 594/41 intersection we stop to stretch our legs. There is a gas station and mini mart with Indian arts and crafts. We get something to drink and some chips. The restrooms were out of order but tom was told he could use the employees restroom. He said the only light source in there was a flashlight on the toilet tank.
We were hoping to take the 591/59 Indian road to Highway 191, thereby cutting about 70 miles from our journey but when we turned onto 591 it was a dirt road and we didn’t want to risk it. It’s a pity because we want to take that same route back on Monday. The entrance to Monument Valley is to the left of 160. We may be doing a lot of driving on Monday.
At 191 we turn right and we’re on the last stretch to Chinle. We have made very good time. At 12 we are just a few miles from Chinle. Check-in time at the Holiday Inn is 4 p.m. so we have some time to kill. We decide to take a trip to Rough Rock, so at Many Farms we fill up with gas and take the 15 mile trip on Route 59. This is the other end of the road we were hoping to take to Highway 160. Rough Rock is an Navajo village with several schools. We followed the signs to the trading post. The last part of the way is a very rough unmade road. No wonder most of the locals have pick-ups. The shop was quite large but did not have a lot of stock. It was owned by a lady who came originally from San Diego. She is also a local teacher. There was a small craft section with some Indian hand made jewelry and we were assured it was made by the local community. So we bought a couple of bangles. We also bought some ice creams. Of course we also asked whether the road went all the way through to 160 and it does. The map is not quite right. So we will venture down it on Monday.
We hit Chinle at 1.30. Still too early to check-in so we went to the Thunderbird Lodge Gift Shop just inside Canyon de Chelly (pronounced che) to see about booking a jeep tour of the canyon tomorrow. We were thinking about doing a half day tour but then decided that as we have come all this way we might as well see as much as we can while we are here. So a full day we booked, which includes lunch. It starts at 9 a.m. tomorrow.
As there was nothing much else to do in Chinle we decided to see if we could check-in early and we were lucky. At 2 p.m. we were in our room.
The evening we had dinner in Garcia’s, which is the name of the restaurant at the Holiday Inn. For an appetizer we tried the local specialty - frybread. The bread is about 12″ round and flat. It looks very much like a pizza with no topping. Of course it is deep friend and was served with honey. I must say it tasted really good but very filling. We could hardly eat much of the main course.
Tomorrow Canyon de Chelly. Now it gets interesting….
September 30 2007 06:43 pm | Further Afield
