We left Kanab, UT, unimpressed with the city. We had originally planned to stay there 3 nights instead of staying at St. George. At the last minute, we decided to make the change. Boy, were we glad we did! There is not much of a town there.
National Historic Site #18 - Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
Our first stop was Grand Staircase-Escalante Visitor Center. We found out there are 3 Visitor Centers, each one specializing in a different aspect. We stopped at the one right outside of Kanab which specialized in Archeology and Geology. The rangers explained that the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is the first national monument managed by the United States Bureau of Land Management rather than the National Park Service. It is a geological formation spanning a very long period of time and is a territory of multicolored cliffs, plateaus, mesa, buttes, pinnacles, and canyons. being a series of connected cliffs and terraces. Many of the National Parks we had already traveled to were part of this formation, beginning with the Grand Canyon. Here are some of the formations we saw along our drive.
We traveled on and came across a second Grand Staircase-Escalante Visitor Center at Big Water, UT. It specialized in Paleontology. We saw dinosaur bones that had been escavated right there in the area.
National HIstoric Site #19 - Glen Canyon Recreation AreaWhen we left there, the Glen Canyon Recreation Area was just around the bend. We stopped at the Carl Hayden Visitor Center to view the movie, watch at the movie, and, of course, shop.
We discovered that we could take a tour of the Glen Canyon Dam which was right there. We learned so many things on the tour.
- The Glen Canyon Dam is the 4th tallest dam in the United States. It is the 2nd tallest gravitational arch design; Hoover Dam (also gravitational arch design) is 16 feet taller.
- It took 17 years to fill Lake Powell completely for the first time after the dam was built.
- It is the first dam (out of 8) on the Colorado River so it begins the process of sending water downstream.
- The main job of the dam is to control the river and not to produce electricity.
- It does sell its electricity to the grid as soon as it leaves the dam.
- Lady Bird Johnson dedicated the dam as First Lady.
It was very interesting to go down to the bottom of the dam inside the halls and feel the coolness. Our tour guides informed us that there was no air conditioning, only the coolness from being so deep in the ground.
When we finished the tour, we headed just down the road to Horseshoe Bend in Page, AZ. This is a very unique curve in the Colorado River. After parking, we climbed a steep hill to what we thought was the top. We were wrong. It turned out to be a 1.5 mile hike to actually get to the spot where you could see the river bend. Dean joined another group of people who stayed at the waiting area while Robin took the hike for the other 2/3s of the way to reach the river. It was hot and very steep so it took her 45 minutes round trip to get back to Dean. However, the photos taken were worth the hike. At the rocks around the curve, people were doing absolutely crazy things to get pictures. Then they wonder why people fall or get hurt.
From Horseshoe Bend, we drove quite a while. What beautiful and unique rock formations we saw!
We finally reached Four Corners Monument. It was on the Navajo Indian Reservation. This is the only place in the United States where four states intersect at one point: Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado. We stopped to have a photo opportunity but also did a little shopping at the craft booths surrounding the monument.
We left Four Corners Monument and headed towards Cortez, CO. Again, we saw amazing sights!
We arrived in Cortez, CO where we stayed for the night at a Holiday Inn Express. When we checked in, the front desk informed us that they had upgraded our room to a king-sized suite with a hot tub in the room. Of course, we were thrilled. The room was beautiful. It had a completely separate sitting area with an additional television. The decor was all western from the carpet to the lamps to the tile having petroglyphs etched into them in the wet areas. Everything was very well done.
Before we could settle in for the night, we needed to eat. We went to Lotsa Pasta for good Italian food. We sat on the outside balcony with mountains all around us. It was beautiful and the food was awesome!
We had been through so many time zones during the day, we had to ask what time it was there. The lady at the next table informed us we were in MDT. Because we had come back through Arizona, we had been in MST. Arizona presented many challenges trying to keep time zones straight.
As we ate, we had a young family next to us. They had two little girls, a 2 and a 4 years old. We knew we were missing our grandchildren because we couldn't stop listening to their conversations. The youngest we found out was 2 weeks younger than our Lucas. She was trying to eat her "padetti" (spaghetti) by twirling it on her fork. She was doing a great job until her mom stepped in to make it easier by cutting it. As we ate, the parents started to talk with us. The two year old turned to her daddy and said, "Why are you talking with strangers?" She knew what she had been told. We all had a good laugh!
We went back to the hotel for the night. Dean tried to fill the hot tub for me and made a huge mess of water squirting all over the mirrors surrounding the hot tub. It took quite a few towels to clean up the mess. This is how it looked upclose BEFORE Dean!
Oh well, we relaxed and enjoyed our upgrade for the night!
