Drove UT 191 through Monument Valley and Blanding, Utah. Monument Valley makes me think of Thelma and Louise. Know John Ford made a lot of western’s here too.
The village of Mexican Hat’s name is based on the rock formation on the left side of the picture. There is a rv park in town with great views and hookups.
Valley of the Gods. There is a dirt road that goes through it. Didn’t drive it this visit.
Gooseneck State Park near Mexican Hat. It is a viewpoint of the formation created by the San Juan River seen above. Morning would have been a better time to get a picture, but late afternoon had to do.
Took the time to visit Natural Bridges National Monument. It’s a beautiful park with a scenic drive that allows you to see it’s three rock bridges. The top picture above is of Sipapu Bridge. The picture below it is of Owachomo Bridge. It looks to be the most fragile one. My eyes showed my age, as it was hard for me to find Owachomo Bridge. Some young European tourists came up and found it right away.
There are trails through the park and a small campground (for small rv’s).
Utah 95, that goes by Natural Bridges National Monument, is a scenic byway. In the center of the top picture you see the where the highway goes through a long rocky ridge. The picture under it is the passage as you go through it on the way to the Monument.
Stayed at a campground in the Manti-LaSal National Forest above the town of Blanding. At 7,100 feet, in a juniper and pinyon pine forest, it was a lot cooler than Monument Valley and Mexican Hat. There were lots of birds too. Below is a scrub jay that just pulled some kind of treat from the pine tree, a pine nut? A large flock of pinyon jays flew through the campground in the late afternoon. They were too fast for me to get a picture.
The bottom picture is of a Clark’s nutcracker.
