The Painted Desert Loop: Day 5, Flagstaff to Kanab

 


The stopover in Flagstaff was refreshing. I think we are getting a bit road-weary, and a rest was welcome. I didn't take any pictures there. We stayed in the most upscale motel of the trip. The shower was large and the bed comfortable. The city has sprawled along Interstate 40 and the old downtown has been nearly swallowed up by new construction. Besides Northern Arizona University, there is a community college here, and Flag has become the closest thing to urban modernity we have encountered.

There was old snow on the ground when we arrived, and when we left there was new snow. Highway 89 begins in Flag and it rapidly rises to 7000 feet. The plows were out and there was slushy snow on the road. It was quite a contrast to the sunny weather we had experienced so far. There are no towns between Flag and Page, only a few groupings of houses which popped up once we descended from the Ponderosa forest to open country again.



                                                         

Our days of sunshine were over. The whole day was cloudy but we were able to get some good pictures at Glen Canyon.





The visitor center at the Glen Canyon Dam

Lake Powell is still low. It will be interesting to see what spring runoff brings, but right now, it's far from recovered. We've had plenty of snow on the Wasatch Front, but Lakes Powell and Meade depend more on Colorado.

In a few more miles, we were back in Utah. Hurray for good pavement! It was a relief to get away from Arizona's bumps and potholes.

On the way to Kanab, we stopped at the overlook at Paria Canyon. As it was raining, we didn't attempt to road into the old town and movie set.





Kanab calls itself "Little Hollywood" and many of the westerns filmed here were shot in Paria Canyon. When the town site was occupied, the people drove down the riverbed to get there. That's prohibited now but the road in is graded but not graveled so it's very treacherous when wet.

We arrived at Kanab too early to check in to our motel, so we drove on to Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. It was our second time here and it looked less colorful than before because of the rain. It was still beautiful.




This gap in the hills creates a Venturi effect with the wind, turning eroded sandstone into dunes.


Back in Kanab, we checked in to the Parry Lodge, a one-hundred-year-old motel. The lobby is filled with photos of movie stars in western gear. This is not unusual in this part of the country where John Wayne slept in more places than George Washington in Virginia and Pennsylvania. They claim, though, that everyone represented there actually stayed in the motel. All the rooms were named for actors. We stayed in Broderik Crawford.

Tomorrow is the last leg of our trip and we're ready to be home. I hope you'll keep following us! Ciao.


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