On the road by 9.30, north into the Grand Canyon again then East on route 64 to Cameron. We took one last look at the Canyon on the way at Grand View, still as fabulous as it was yesterday! At Cameron, we visited the Trading Post, a cornucopia of all things Native American though we did note some items were made in China or Pakistan, didn't buy anything as the provinces were way above what we had seen elsewhere, but a fascinating shop all the same.
North on Route 89 through the Navajo Nation lands, mostly desert/scrub but beautiful scenery with mountains as a backdrop. About 20 miles in Ruth spotted signs for dinosaur tracks, so we swung off the highway heading for Tuba City but soon came to a signpost and track to a few shacks and a couple of very elderly Navajo ladies, in the middle of a very dry desert and lo and behold, dinosaur footprints in the rock. There were also some fossils which not very distinct, but their star attraction was a footprint of a T.Rex. It was huge and marked out with little stones.
Climbing all the time, with mountains either side we hit the crest at Cedar Ridge at just under 8,000 feet. The mountains, Echo Cliffs, were beautiful, mostly red with bands of yellow and in the distance we could see Vermillion Cliffs, more red sandstone mountains. At Bitter Springs we joined Route 89A, designated a National Scenic Route, which ran along the length of the Vermillion Cliffs. A quick stop at what was signposted cliff dwellings which turned out to be rock dwellings. Huge boulders had brick walls cemented to their sides to creat single room dwellings.
Across more desert we approached the Kaibab National Forest, we seemed to have been in this forest a lot, it is a vast area of low growing pine trees and desert scrub, not really a forest as one might imagine. We climbed up higher and higher to just shy of 8,000 feet at Jacob Lake, before descending pretty quickly to Fredonia, then on to Kanab, famed for the setting of many western movies - we saw little evidence of that but we're just driving through. We did notice from a public clock that the time had changed - we were now on Central Mountain Time, an hour later than Arizona.
At Kanab we rejoined Route 89, latterly named the amount Carmel Scenic Byway, leaving it at Carmel Junction to join Route 9, the Zion Scenic Byway! Mathis took us all the way into Zion National Park. By this time it was late afternoon and the low sun lit up the rocks and mountains, it was beautiful. To start with we drove through an area of fossil sand dunes, the layers could be picked out easily, the hills and mountains all rounded and smoothed. Through a long tunnel some one and a half miles long exiting into a fabulous view of a deep canyon with soaring red sandstone walls and spires, absolutely beautiful in the setting sunshine.
Just outside the Park, in a little town called Springdale we found our accommodation for the next two nights, Bumbleberry Inn, not as quant as the name suggests, it had modern spacious rooms and plenty of parking. An ok Mexican dinner then bed, we were tired from driving all day.
