Day trip to Lake Powell and Page, AZ

The colors in the rocks and in the sky here are simply amazing.

The light on the rocks changes with the hour, while the clouds provide a backdrop for it all.

The folds in the sandstone amaze me...remind me of folded dough or filo.

How do these trees get even this large?  There are few nutrients in the sand and even less moisture.

Now that's a rather sizeable tree, considering its foundation!

A home in the rocks...not a cave.

These holes probably could be considered caves.  They are natural openings, probably formed by water eroding the holes.  They connect behind the outward face.

57 miles of southern Utah "nothingness", but the sky was that wonderful shade of blue, and the clouds danced across the sky.

The rock formations are changing back to the familiar sandstone, but with a different look.

Yes, the landscape is beginning to look different after all that flatness and sagebrush.

Is that the sentry on the bluff?

It's a crazy mix in this part of Utah.

Is that water or a mirage in the distance?

Water!  By George, it's Lake Powell, or what's left of Lake Powell.  Actually, Lake Powell has made somewhat of a comeback after succombing to years of drought..

Lake Powell is formed by Glen Canyon Dam.  The Escalante River and the San Juan River join the Colorado in the upper reaches of Lake Powell, giving it more of the necessary water and power to furnish much of the Southwest.

 It is a MIGHTY dam.

Back on the road again in sandstone territory.

This is not exactly what I expected the mighty Colorado River to look like!

This shot was from the pedestrian walkway over the river at the Navajo Bridge Interpretive Center near Lees Ferry in north central Arizona, below Lake Powell.

The pedestrian walkway over the Colorado, the muddy Colorado.

The pedestrian bridge from another perspective.

The afternoon sun shining through a canyon in Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, AZ.

...and yet another perspective.  These are the Vermillion Cliffs also.

This bolder broke off and tumbled from...

...this cliff!  That's the same bolder front and off center.

The clouds out here are so different from back home.  Maybe it's because the sky is bigger here!!!!

Yes, the sky definitely IS bigger here!!!

And the rocks change overy mile.

Just look at all the colors here in the desert.

...and then climb up onto a ridge in Kaibab National Forest with all its aspen, cottonwoods, spruce, and cedar.  I drove along the top of this ridge for probably 30 miles or more.  The state highway that connects to the North Rim of Grand Canyon drops down south from this ridge.

Looking down from the top of the ridge just before dropping down to the floor of the Arizona - Utah border.

A little hazy, but after a 300 mile day trip and multiple photo ops, I'm hazy too.

"Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home", my Western home.

This is the sun setting over Zion as I dropped down from the East entrance to Canyon Junction and the 3 mile drive up the canyon.