Moving Days: Zion to Lake Powell to Valley of the Gods

Wednesday and Thursday are moving days for us as we depart the southwestern corner of Utah and work our way to the southeastern end. With a 5-6 hour drive ahead of us to get to Valley of the Gods, I suggested we split the trip in two and spend a night near Page, AZ. There’s a first-come-first-served campground near Page on Lake Powell, Wahweap, so with an arrival before noon we thought out chances would be good.

Along the way Julie remembered that she had wanted to hike the Toadstools near Kanab when she went glamping there with friends several years ago. This was a great little hike with an amazing array of formations and topography.

While the toadstool formations were beautiful we liked the recess alcoves along the northern hill barrier even more. This would be a great place to have a picnic lunch in the shade. And maybe some solitude as this is a fairly busy place with high traffic.

The full hookup sites were all booked (we didn’t need and couldn’t use one of those…) but there were plenty of tent sites available. We enjoyed an afternoon of rest, showers, laundry, and some work catchup. This campground is fully wired with decent WiFi; even at our campsite. The photo above is yours truly composing this very post.

We are in Page so we had to go see the famous horseshoe bend. Fun fact: when we went backpacking at Big Bend (in Texas) a few weeks ago, they have a photo of horseshoe bend in their main flyer (or newspaper?) saying, essentially, that you won’t find that here. Apparently folks think that “big bend” is this same bend. Different rivers, different states.

Within an hour we will depart for Valley of the Gods. That means my next few posts will have more photos of rock art and paintings, cliff dwellings, and the beauty of the valley below Cedar Mesa.