A day on the road! But we take our time, do stops, buy healthy salad mixes at gas stations and feed off the beautiful landscape.
The Mexican Hat near the town with the same name.And so we travel onwards, the roads are good and you see miles and miles ahead … until you don’t and you wonder if it will turn left or right around that wall of a mountain.Until it get’s very weird because there’s no more turns and no sight of a tunnel either! At this point we are slightly worried.And rightly so! The Moki Dugway found us!!!“Moki” is a local term for the ancient Puebloan people who inhabited the Colorado Plateau hundreds of years ago. “Dugway” is a term used to describe a roadway carved from a hillside. The Moki Dugway Scenic Backway is a stretch of Highway 261 in Utah where the blacktop turns into a dirt road that drastically switches back and forth down the side of a cliff at an 11% grade. My pillion rider is not amused.Entering Natural Bridges National Monument, at Sipapu Bridge vista.The canyons seem rounder but occasionally feature arches.One of the hiking trails is a short 20 min walk to the opposite hill of this old native american dwelling (“Horse Collar Ruins”).The autumny canyon.Owachomo Bridge.Red soil, contrasting to the rather fair rocks, is the main feature here, some of the water bearing streams are red, too.The great wide open.Carrying on through Fry Canyon.Road side turnouts are probably not for tourists, but better pulling out the camera on a paved shoulder than in the middle of the road.Descending into the Colorado River Valley.In the distance, the Hite Crossing is already visible.Red Colorado, a sight for sore eyes!The “valley” is more of a canyon, steep rock walls seam the raging waters.Next bridge: Dirty Devil Crossing. This one’s pink like the surrounding mountains.Beautiful resting area next to the Dirty Devil Lookout.Here, views over the vale can be taken in.Even if it doesn’t look like it, this person stands on the edge.Same point, different direction.Further up the Utah State Route 95 water induced coloration on cliff rocks.Cool roadside scenery.Arriving in Hanksville.Staying here for a few days to see some parks in the area, looks already interesting :)
