Day 32 – Canyonlands, Newspaper Rock - Utah

Tuesday, October 12^th, 2010

Another night in Moab. I went to the McDonalds for breakfast, to work on the blog and catch up on some emails. I was there the night before and found that they had free wifi, a flat screen tv on the main wall with sofa and chairs and another tv in the corner. I spent the evening surfing the internet and glancing back and forth between the Monday Night Jet’s vs Viking’s game and Fox News.

Today I was going to explore Canyonlands National Park, about 30 miles southwest of Moab. Canyonlands has three distinct sections; Islands in the Sky, Needles and the Maze, each sculpted and carved by the waters of the Colorado and Green Rivers. The park covers 527.5 square miles and unfortunately each section is too far away from the others to be able to do them all in one day. I decided to focus on Islands in the Sky, which sits atop a 1500’ broad and level mesa from which it gets its name, and overlooks giant, steep canyons and the two rivers. When the sky is clear, views up to 100 miles are not uncommon. The Needles and the Maze sections were also visible from Islands in the Sky and the views of them were good enough from here to not warrant driving 150 miles to see them in their own designated section of the park. I thought about camping at the bottom of the canyon for the night. I wanted to take my Subaru down there, via the Shafer trail, but the park ranger said it was a 65 mile long, uneven dirt road that takes about 2 days to make it all the way around and back out, and there were no camp sites available. After seeing the Canyonlands, my expectations are elevated of what to expect from the Grand Canyon! It was now almost 3pm and I wanted so start making my way south as I was spending too many nights in Moab.

I heard of a neat place outside of Monticello, Utah, about 60 miles south of Moab, which features one of the largest known collections of petroglyphs, so I went in that direction. I arrived at the Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument around 4:30pm and one of the rocks, a 200 square foot sandstone cliff was visible from the road. This rock was covered by hundreds of ancient Indian carvings and is one of the largest and best preserved samples in the southwest. It is estimated that these date back almost 2,000 years, from B.C. to 1300 A.D. I could’ve hiked around for a few hours to see more but I was getting tired and hungry. Although interesting, I figured the other carvings would have been more of the same.

I headed into the town of Monticello to get a bite to eat but the only options were Subway and a pizza shop. I continued on to Blanding, White Mesa and then to Bluff. Amazingly, the further I went, the smaller and smaller the towns became. The town of Bluff consisted of small café and a trading post, which just happened to be closed. I think the only reason for these towns to exist is to offer overpriced gasoline at $3.20.

I pulled out a map and tried to devise a plan. The next town before venturing into the Navajo Indian Reservation was Mexican Hat. If there wasn’t anything there, I was going to drive to Flagstaff, AZ, about 190 miles away. I have heard that Indian Reservations and the Military are similar in that they abide by their own laws. I wasn’t going pull off to the side of the road to sleep and run the risk of answering to a Navajo lawman. I was either going to stay in Mexican Hat or have another 4 hours of driving ahead of me. There was nothing in Mexican Hat, except for another overpriced gas station. Good think I filled up in Moab.

I crossed over the San Juan River and into Navajo territory. There was nothing around except reddish, clay-like mounds, some of which rose hundreds of feet above the ground. But really, there was nothing there. I had lost my cell signal back as far as Blanding, and Blanding was metropolitan compared to where I was. About two hours through the reservation, I came to a town called Tuba City. I needed gas and the price was down to $2.89, a real bargain. I was approached by an older gentleman who had no money and was thumbing it from California on his way to New Mexico. He was looking for a dollar or two for a cup of coffee so I took him inside and bought him a coffee, Gatorade, sandwich and a bag of chips. I almost had a road companion when I left the gas station. Not the guy I just mentioned, but a 9-12 month old, abandoned, friendly yellow lab who was eating scraps from a garbage can. If only I had some more room in the car. I felt bad leaving that little guy behind to fend for himself.

Somewhere along the way, I crossed the line into Pacific Standard Time. I finally reached Flagstaff, AZ at about 10:30pm, with the time change it was technically only 9:30pm. I was ready for sleep and found a dimly lit residential street to call home for the night.

Mileage Update: 4,676.9