Thursday 10 November 2016

From Page to Panguitch.

Monday 7th November.
We both slept well and awoke to yet another beautiful morning. We have been blessed with good weather on this trip and, according to the locals, it is unusual to have such clear blue skies and sunshine at this time of year. We were even able to have our breakfast outside on the picnic table next to the RV.
 
We set off after breakfast in search of a pay phone (the wifi on the campsite was not up to voice calls) but instead found an Indian Heritage "Living Museum". There was nobody there but the people in the local store said that we were welcome to look round. In many ways, the round houses resembled the Iron Age ones that we had seen at Butser in West Sussex!
 
A short way south of Page is a famous landmark and viewpoint called Horseshoe Bend. We drove there, parked the RV and walked the three quarters of a mile to where the Colorado River turns through 180 degrees around a 1,500 ft pinnacle. As with many of these canyons, from a distance there is very little sign that there is anything there...
 
Until you come up to the rim of the canyon and find that there is a huge canyon with the river running through it at the bottom. The view of the river was marvellous and we even saw a small fishing boat travelling downstream round the bend.
 
There were many people there, of all nationalities but predominately from the Far East.
We drove back past Page to the Glen Canyon Dam, an impressive - but to M, oppressive - and intimidating sight. We went into the visitors' centre where we watched a fascinating film about the construction of the dam. The scale of the work was staggering, but it was a pity to see the desecration of magnificent rock structures that had survived for millions of years.
 
We decided against doing the "tour" of the Dam and decided to drive on towards Bryce Canyon. We did stop for lunch, parking in a high viewpoint overlooking part of Lake Powell, the lake formed by the Glen Canyon Dam.
As we drove, we passed ever changing scenery, every turn of the road (or even the very long straight stretches) opened up new vistas.  We drove through Kanab, which M declared to be the nicest "small town" that she had seen on our travels. After driving for a couple of hours, we arrived in Panguitch and our campground, the "Hitch'n'Post", which has a decidedly western feel. 
 
It is 23 miles from Bryce Canyon, but it was the closest that we could find that was still open (many shut on 31st October) and that had electric and water hookups. Electricity being increasingly important to run the heating overnight as the nights get decidedly chilly!
32,321 miles, 148 miles today and 1,151 miles for the trip so far.


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