Sand Island Campground, Utah

We headed West on 160 from Durango a little after noon. Being typical procrastinators, we had to get our tax extension form mailed while we were near a post office. After we left Mancos, Co, there were no more traces of snow by the road. The skies had an occasional cloud but it was nice and sunny all day.We stopped by Four Corners and each took our turns at being in four states at once. We also enjoyed a piece of Indian Fry Bread from on of the vendors. It was tasty. Now we can say "Been there, done that." Today was a driving day, driving through four states in one day.

We stopped at Sand Island Campground, about 3 miles West of Bluff, Utah. It's right beside the San Juan River. It seems to be mostly used by rafters. It's a BLM campground an is very nice. Cost, $10 a night. We'll be here at least a couple of days to look around.

Today is the first day without worry of impending snow for a couple of weeks. it was over 70 degrees here today. Shortly after we stopped, we noticed the drivers windshield has a crack over 12" long at the bottom center. When we move, it will like grow bigger as well. This has been a bad few months for windshields. We just replaced the drivers before we departed on this trip. The passenger side broke as we were headed through Nevada on this trip, now the drivers is broken again. I don't think the insurance company will be happy.


Our new campsite at Sand island. The San Juan river by the campground.


Some flowers in the campground.

Saturday:

We looked over the Cottonwood campground off Highway 95 near mile marker 114. It looks like a place we'll need to return to.


Some Indian ruins along Highway 95.

Above left, the Sipapu natural bridge. On the right the canyon nearby.


Two more bridges from Natural bridges National Monument, Kachina and Owachomu.

A flower along one of the trails at Natural Bridges, NM.


There is a steep hill on Highway 261 headed toward Mexican Hat. A 10% graded road clings to the side of a bluff as it decends over 1100 feet. I'm glad we're in the car, not the RV.


Above, the rock near Mexican Hat, Utah from which the "town" gets its name.


We had lunch in Mexican Hat at the San Juan Inn. I had the Navajo Cowboy Beef Sandwitch made with Indian fry bread. very good. lou had beef stew with fry bread. The fry bread was good. We then headed over to the Gooseneck State park.
At Goosneck State Park, the San Juan River has a hard time deciding which way to go. it makes several "s" turns in about 2 linear miles while the river distance is about 8 miles. Mexican Hat.

We drove through part of the Valley Of the Gods. This is an area like Garden Of the Gods where there are a bunch of nature carved rocks.

Above left looks like a group of faces. The one on the left with the sunlight is particularly good.



The rocks can represent whatever the viewer desires. I thought the outline on the right looks like me , relaxing against a rock.



Some flowers on the side of the road near the Valley of The Gods.

After we got home, we got out the lounge chairs. the weather was perfect so Lou read and i worked on this website. Later in the evening, we noticed that the wind had stopped. So, we got out our RC planes for a flight just as the sun went down.