The weather having improved, we hitched up the wagon and started South. We drove through the red desert to one of our favourite campgrounds - Goosenecks State Park, with its fabulous 1200ft overlook to the San Juan River. This park used to be free, Utah have now added picnic benches and a fire ring, but now charge $10 a night to camp there. Next morning, with bright sunshine, we headed South again to pass through Monument Valley, where the light was just right to get some lovely pictures as we drove through. After a stop in Kayenta for gas and a cuppa we continued towards Page. At this point it is worth mentioning that more or less from Goosenecks to Page, which is some 150 miles, we were travelling on the Navajo reservation, more aptly named Navajo Nation. So our stop in Kayenta was deep into the Navajo Nation. we stopped at the Blue Coffee Pot and noticed several things: First the name Blue Coffee Pot - On the menu it mentioned that the blue pot is a traditional sign of welcome and hospitality to the Indian, we had noticed a number of enamel coffeee pots for sale in various shops, now we knew why the are popular. Second the cafe was a large round open plan building, much like their Hogan, to maintain that theme the entrance was also traditionally facing East, to welcome the sun and for good fortune. Third, there were quite a few Indian groups in there eating, almost every group was multi-generational, not just children, but parents, grandparents and children. In our culture you often see groups of the same generation, but not so often across the generations, interesting.
Page was interesting, but not excessively so, many of the activities revolve around Lake Powell, for which you need a boat, or the wonderful rock formations, for which you need a 4X4, so we were unable to access much of the scenery there, the most famous of which are Antelope Canyon and dead Horse Bend.
We left Page on Thursday and headed South again, making it to Camp Verde, which is about 20 miles south of Sedona.
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