Today, as we left Moab on a light cloudy day, we took a side route towards Castle Valley and were treated to again amazing stone cliffs hugging the road on one side and the Colorado River on the other along with the cliffs as high as you could imagine. The cyling bridge in the photo crosses the Colorado River.
We drove up out of the canyon and we soon were in flat desert country where ATVs, 4-wheelers, dirt bikes are extremely popular.
We crossed the Green River (further south it will meet up with the Colorado River). We are in the San Rafael Desert with the LaSal mountains on our left, way off on the horizon. We saw two pronghorns by the roadway (we thought they were mule deer but found out later that we were wrong).
Just before lunch, we turned in to the Goblin Valley State Park, which had been suggested to us by our new Danish friends. It was really neat. The photo with Ross will give you an idea of what we saw. The valley is full of these wonderful stone shapes made of Entrada sandstone, again sculpted by forces of nature. It was fun to be able to go down, walk amongst them and touch them. Really neat and very special.
Back on the road, the terrain next to the road is like a sandy beach. The cliffs nearby are getting gravel-like more and more. At one point, Ross remarked that it felt like we were driving through a gravel pit. Our temperature is now 26.5 degrees C. We saw another 8 pronghorns along the roadside.
We had an apple stop and walked along a ledge where the Fremont River narrows (see photo). That was a beautiful spot.
After a couple of other stops, one for petroglyphs on a cliff wall and the other to walk around a very small red stone cabin and read the story of the Behunin family (10 children) who actually lived here back in the 1800s. The father and mother slept in the house with the two youngest children. The boys managed to find shelter in the cliffs and the girls slept in a chuckwagon. Can you imagine!!!
We eventually made our way to the Capital Reef National Park Visitor Center and obtained a couple of tour maps to get us ready for tomorrow's scenic drives.
Tonight there is a lovely slip of a moon in the sky. The winds were very strong when we arrived at the campground but now they have died down completely. We are ready for our night's sleep.
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