Page to Holbrook, Arizona

May 30, 2011

When we left Page, Arizona at about 3:30pm we headed south into the desert, with long roads stretching straight to the horizon. We had enjoyed our visit to the Glen Canyon Dam and were on the road again.

We went through an interesting badland area about 15 minutes out of Page.

This view covers a vast distance - in excess of 50 miles - and contains an easily identifiable road junction since it is the only junction for many miles. We are traveling Hwy 89 and will be making a long loop to come down on the road in the left of the photo. The road leading out to the right from the junction at Bitter Springs is Hwy 89A which crosses Marble Canyon and proceeds to Jacob Lake for access to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We came up Hwy 89 from the south and took that route on Thursday, May 27 (four days ago). I was intrigued by the dirt road leading out through the sagebrush. There are not many roads in this desert region.

About 50 minutes south of Page and we are in sagebrush country. Just a barbed wire fence and isolated utility poles with the ancient glass insulators broke the sagebrush scene. There were a few cows inside the barbed wire.

An hour south of Page we went through an area of rounded humps reminiscent of those in Petrifeid Forest.

About an hour and a half south of Page we get long views of grassland with dotted shrubs.

As we approached Flagstaff, we had growing forests up the mountainsides to snowcapped peaks. We reached I-40 at Flagstaff in a little over 2 hrs and headed eastward.

We roared out wide-open Interstate-40 for about 60 miles and Jeff wanted to stop at Winslow, Arizona for Darla to take a picture of him "Standin' on the corner in Winslow, Arizona" to send to Marty. Both Jeff and Mark could quote the lyrics to the song.

I had been trying for a hundred miles to photograph the road mirages through the front windshield with the 400mm lens. This is probably the best I got.

We made it to Holbrook about 6:40 pm and found the motel that Brenda had booked for us. It had taken about 3 hrs and 20 minutes from Page, a distance of about 220 miles. Since we had started with a tour of part of Zion National Park in Utah this morning, we had spent an eventful day.