Sunday represented a new page in my book; everything before today I had already done at least once but as we turned off of hole in the rock and onto left hand collet canyon I was entering the unknown.
This is part 2 of a 5 part story. Click for Part One
Not 2 years ago this road wasn’t here, it had been washed out completely and made “impassible” to all but the most hardcore, today it was graded and slightly wet in places but really pretty. Having gotten our CB issues sorted out on the way down (Code: Id10t) we were enjoying the ability to chat with each other on a whim and without having to strain to hear or worry about batteries as we have had done with the FRS radios we’ve been previously using. In addition, as we climb up onto the kaiporowits we can be treated with the likes of “one eyed jack” out of New Mexico and his escapades in finding a girl in California. Radio is fun.
Smokey mountain road, the north to south passage down the Kaiporowits, is so named because the area is one giant coal deposit with active natural coal fires underground that occasionally erupt out of the ground in a display of smoke. I guess the government actually tried to quench these fires in the 70’s but for every one they put out a new one would spring up so they gave up and they are still raging out there somewhere. Crazy.
Aside from the interesting history of the area, there isn’t too much to the road itself and as it winds itself higher up onto the plateau it gets progressively less interesting, right up until you get to the decent on the other side.
Wow. Views of the majestic Lake Powell in the far distance, framed up against the innocuous looking puffy white smoke emanating from the 3 stacks of the Navajo nation power plant near Page and standing on what is essentially a giant coal ridge so rich its was literally barfing out coal onto the road was a pretty visceral image.
That’s all in addition to the road itself which was sliced into the side of the mountain like a XXL version of a trail from middle earth as it rapidly snaked down into the valley a thousand or more feet below. It’s hard to capture places like this in images as it’s really the kind of place you feel more than see and it made the droll bits of the road totally worth it. As a bonus (?) we were now back in cell coverage, time to let the family know I’m alive and to get in touch with Dan, who was leaving Expo and headed up towards us…this was going well.
Our next stop for the night was Alstrom point, an accessible ledge high up above Lake Powell overlooking gunsight bay and the main channel. The road out to the point alternated between burned out post apocalyptic wasteland
a kind of black and white Martian landscape, sandy fast 2 track and slickrock bluff driving.
It’s a lot of fun and before too long we are high on a ledge overlooking the exact beach I used to camp at back in high school, when I had friends with houseboats. Its an amazing spot, in fact as I was walking to board the plane I’m writing this from I saw in the terminal a large metallic print of the exact spot I took these pictures from...wish I was there now.
As cool as the site was, it was only 12:00, having blasted down the easy and fast smokey mountain road much faster than we had anticipated. First things first: lunch, then camp then play.
After we had lunch and got camps set up we decided to look around and then drive down the road back towards “town” (Big Water) and down into Crosby canyon in an effort to see if we could get down to the lake.
Crosby canyon was also neat, the truth is…there was very little we did that I didn’t love…and sure enough it eventually spat us out on a lovely little beach next to a couple who had driven down in their Subaru for what appeared to be a Subaru ad; Tent on the beach, a couple in their camp chairs, their trusty dog sitting quietly by their side next to a campfire all behind their outback.
They didn’t seem to mind too much that a retiree, a Mt. Dew marinated marshmellow and two of his class IV (Robin Williams level) harry beach apes got into the water and began acting like this was their first time on a beach or seeing a fish jump…good job hiring your models Subaru.
Back towards camp we get word that Dan has finished his hour long vestige of responsible adultitude via Page McDonnalds WiFi and was on his way towards us. Woo! On the way back we get behind a late model power wagon with a 4wheel poptop towing a sportbike on a trailer and despite our hopes that the faster traffic would be able to zip past him and get to camp I think he thought we would snake his spot on the ridge and therefor did his best to block our passage. Little did he know he was too late, or rather, that we had no interest in getting his spot because he had our own (there are plenty to choose from). Later on his nightly vanishing act walks Joe reported back that he had a nice chat with the man and found him to a personable, if a little solitary type. I wish I could be more of a people person like Joe; He probably talked to more people on this trip than I even acknowledged the existence of.
Dan had joined us not long after getting back to camp and our quartet was now a healthy 5.
Dan brought with him stories of expo and an infectious love of the area that really added a much needed perspective shift for the veterans of the southwest who may take these amazing places for granted.
Pork Kabobs tonight over open coals as the moon would rise up over the lake washing out the bright red dot that is Mars to the south and Uranus and Saturn in their more northerly azimuths in the sky. Stunning in every sense of the word, it was an amazing place I will never forget.
Stayed tuned for day 3, coming tomorrow.