Slots of all kinds

Entering Utah we were quickly ensconced in the Navajo Lands, the Navajo Nation being the largest Native American nation in the US. Over 400k tribal members and a reservation that covers whats known as ‘The Four Corners’ region it is over 27k sq. miles. The Four Corners is so called because it is the only point (quadripoint) in the US where a single point, there’s a monument, is shared by Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. Within the area are many important geological sights. Antelope Canyon, there’s an upper and lower, is one of them and breathtakingly stunning and different. The five elements of water, wind, sun, sand and time work rhythmically to produce colour and form that is rare to see. On guided tours, we were able to walk through the narrow canyon, literally squeezing through in some sections, following the sandy route, to take one or two photographs…. recognise the Microsoft screen saver image?

Uniquely, in this area, there are two time zones. The main town is Page, which is within the Navajo region but on a different time zone to the land that surrounds it, thank goodness Apple recognises it! We keep saying it, but this area is very different again, geographically and geologically. There are lots of narrow canyons, known as ‘Slots’ but only 6 can easily be visited. The canyons are a natural feature of the area. We will be back in this area next Spring to explore some more, especially the famous ‘Wave’. We will stick to our van though rather than the alternative method we saw at the campground!

The Glen Canyon Dam close by is a spectacle of engineering that was worth a stop. Not only to marvel at it but also to explore further up the flooded valley into the Wahweap Recreation Area with views over Lake Powell, created by the damming of The Colorado.

West of Page on Hwy 89 is Horseshoe Bend, another phenomenal sight. Maybe in 1 million more years it will create an oxbow lake? The water was so clear, even from high we could see the edges of the rock below. The geology was so evident, what is tricky, is getting the head around the timescales and era’s of evolution on show. US geological history wasn’t on our syllabus!

In Page itself, a town living on the tourism through the area, there are a few unusual spots. We enjoyed the ‘Street of the Little Motels’ which still had little motels. Built to house the workers at the Glen Dam they were cutesy and small, some still operate. The road name is far more interesting than the buildings! Near the council offices in downtown there’s a great art installation. Tubes were taken from the old Navajo Power Station when decommissioned were bent and coloured to reflect the shapes of Slot Canyons. From there we drove the stunning Grand Staircase Escalante area which straddles the border between Arizona and Utah. A vast area of red sandstone cliffs, veins of colour running through the rocks. A huge scale, we likened it to a mash up of filo pastry (the delicate rock forms and layers) and raspberry ripple ice-cream (the colours)

After a night stargazing in the Utah desert, at a campground with A1* facilities, near Kanab, our next destination was Zion National Park. We checked out Kanab en route, finding it to be a bygone era movie location favourite. The historic Parry Lodge Motel apparently looked after the stars and there were lots of plaques with famous faces who’d been through town one way or another. Not the first place to live off its Hollywood credentials, it was a vibrant town with lots of galleries, cafes etc. Anyhow, Zion was calling so off we went, climbing high again over mountains through forests and seeing lots of Cottonwoods. Grand ‘mesas’ (Mesa is Spanish for table, depicting the shape, flat topped mountain) towered over sage bush scrubland, and sun drenched fields, home to some Buffalo. A couple of tunnels later and we were there, Zion, the third most visited NP in the US, reflected by the Visitor Centre jam packedness when we went for our customary sticker (big spenders we are!)

Its not easy riding a bike with your neck craned, looking up at the immense sheer rock formations, colourful and spectacular. Thankfully, the only way to view much of Zion is on foot, bike or shuttle bus so the roads were very quiet. Primarily Navajo Sandstone, the erosion is evident everywhere in the Zion Valley, swathes of rock have fallen as erosion takes effect, leaving sharp edges. At times, smiles in the rock. Much of the vertical sided valley and the way the rock faces looked reminded us of the face of glaciers, carving sheets of ice. Numerous places to stop along the valley floor, notable ones were Court of The Patriarchs, Big Bend, The Emerald Pools and Temple of Sinawava. Also of note were the stars at night!

The Zion valley is quite narrow, as valleys go, and it gets narrower further up such that there’s a feature called ‘The Narrows’ which requires waders to visit it and for the best parts, stamina. Cycling along we stopped regularly just to gaze at the colours as they changed in different lights, creams, pinks, reds all contrasting with a clear blue sky. We also stopped to remove the cricks in our necks! In the valley itself, the colours of the leaves were changing too, autumnal yellows and oranges and the waters edge cottonwoods shedding for winter. Certainly Zion is up there for us, no pun intended. It didn’t feel as busy as it was (maybe if we’d shuttle bussed it, it would have) and the array of canyons, buttes, mesas, monoliths, rivers, natural arches… (could go on!) in the wider area was wondrous. The Longhorn Sheep dancing across the rocks high up was just a bonus!

Culture shock alert, next stop Las Vegas, the polar opposite of Zion. Camping at a place called Sams Town, it really felt like a town, built around a casino and entertainment venue that’d dwarf our local Mecca Bingo hall in Frome. The drive from Utah into Arizona and then Nevada prepared us for it, the buildings became more frequent and bigger and taller as we went, ugly peppering of the desert really. Once set up we wandered into Sams Town and found a Nun with a bad habit at the slots and a few zombies. Struggling to find our way out we followed signs for Dunkin Donuts… rather than the Crack Shack!

We rented a car, it was dirt cheap and it was very worthwhile, non more so as we had a poorly cat so getting to the vets was easy, where they lightened our wallet and sorted her out… damn it, no spending money left for the slots! Treating Vegas as a pit stop we still explored. It was 1992 when I last went there and boy its changed. Back then, there were actually vast spaces between the grand casinos and you could actually walk up The Strip. Now, every square inch of The Strip is built on and as a result of the prep for the F1 Grand Prix, getting around was a drag. Everyone has an image of Vegas in their minds, take that image a multiply by 10. Massive hotel complexes (most have more than 4000 rooms) luring in punters by glitzy tasteless gambling halls and of course ‘The Residences’… at the moment Adele, U2, Rick Astley, Katy Perry…. (and plenty we’d never heard of) Vegas is a soulless place, the worst of excesses on show but still worth the visit… life’s rich tapestries and all that.

There are actually, to be a fair, some really stunning aspects. The Bellagio has a stunning Chihuly ceiling installation that guests didn’t seem to notice, to busy rushing to the slots? They also had a giant floral fantasy land. At Caesars Palace, not satisfied with a real blue sky they created a fake one, to go along with a fake Rome! Hello Kitty obviously makes an appearance!

Away from the Flashy and Trashy Strip, there are some fun places to see, off the beaten track. For example, The Neon Boneyard, which is a fabulous collection of old neon signs from all over Vegas. As tends to happen, hotels close, signs get updated and there’s a real art to the older ones. The Boneyard is where the signs are retired after their service lighting up the Vegas skylines. Many familiar names and iconic logos were there to wander around, a fabulous journey through a changed era. It’s now enormous digital screens, replacing the style and glamour that the Rat Pack and their pals brought to Vegas.

The original hip part of town was Fremont Street area, not The Strip. In old downtown there’s some brilliant buildings and signage which transported back to the times. Surprisingly, we came across “Big Rig Jig” outside Fergusons Motel. We’d first seen that at Banksey’s Dismaland in 2015, but it was originally from Burning Man Festival 2007. A pretty impressive, twisted sculpture, nice to see again!

We’d planned to head downtown to The Sphere, a brand new events venue, the whole surface of it, inside and out is a giant screen. U2 were the opening act and are ‘resident’ for a while. On a whim we looked up the price of tickets 🙂 It is visible from all over, the screen changing colour and images all the time, it really is most likely the way venues will be going as technology enables it. Not sure the neighbours appreciate the light pollution, but when in Vegas…. Can’t knock it, it is impressive. Anyway, we were scuppered in our quest to drive around it by the final day parade of ‘vehicles’ that had been exhibiting at a show there all week. That was fun in itself, seeing all the mad cap designs, the jacked up and the low riders (and there was me thinking they were styles by Levis?!)

The following day, back to normality…. Death Valley National Park!