And Into Arizona

Today, I read in a brochure "Most people come to this part of the World to see the Grand Canyon, but there is so much more". We have a couple of days before we're due to see the Grand Canyon, and it better be all it's cracked up to be, because we've seen some wondrous things so far. Today we started off in the town of Springdale, Utah, which is a gateway town to Zion National Park. To be honest, I wasn't too fussed about this part of the journey before we left Australia, but today I saw the light. Zion is a beautiful combination of rocks and valleys, a blend of colours that bring nature vividly to life. The only down side to the area was the lack of running rivers. We're at the end of a dry summer and things were looking pretty arid. Saying that, it was still magnificent.

Multicoloured mountainsides of Zion National Park

The rivers in Zion were very low

Beautiful fir trees cover the lower slopes in Zion

We then headed back east to Page in Arizona. Page is situated next to Lake Powell, a reservoir created in the 1950's and 1960's after the building of Glen Canyon Dam. We had to cross the dam today, and got our first glimpse of the mighty Colorado River running through enormous red faced cliffs. Tomorrow is our main day of exploration around Page as we're staying here for the day. Moving out of Utah, we have headed on to the borders of the Navajo nation, which we'll enter tomorrow. It is very obvious that Page has been shaped by the Navajo culture.

Sitting in front of 'Checkerboard Mountain'

The Colorado River at Glen Canyon Dam