Page and Lone Rock, in Arizona

Page, Arizona
Elks Lodge


I'm kind of liking the 2 hour drives or less to the next stop.  Before we knew it we were back in Page and parked in the Elks Lodge for a few nights.  Nothing much planned.  Just resting, catching up on blogs and making more concrete plans for Utah with some friends.

It's a pretty drive.  You see some of the pink layered rock formations.

And a lot of wide open space.

We keep an eye out for any slot canyon hikes we can find.  They are so fun.  Faye and Dave told us about an nice drive but we didn't have that much time.  I think someone else told me about hiking in Stateline Canyon? (Please remind me who you were as I didn't take good notes.)  I got some directions off a couple of sites but it didn't really pinpoint where you start.  We walked until we found the beginning of a canyon and took the one to the right like it said.

Down we go.

We were able to get only so far when the drop offs got a bit long.  Easy enough for us but challenging for Hurley.  Even with a boost.

We had to scramble up and down the canyon to go around the bigger drop offs.

This section dead-ended where some water was seeping down the ceiling and walls.  Nice spot to cool off. 

It got too narrow in spots so up we'd go again to get around it.  This was pretty exhausting and it was pretty warm down in the canyon.

Up above the terrain changes constantly and the shapes of rocks were very interesting.

Hurley taking another rest.

We enjoyed the section we hiked but either we were in the wrong part of the canyon or the descriptions don't do it justice with the steep drops.  Remember, you can climb/slide down, but you have to be able to get back up!  We don't use ropes, so after a while we called it an outing, climbed out and walked back via the rim.

It was slick and the rock streaked gray.

Some neat designs on the rocks.

After our hike we wanted to check out some boondocking out on Lake Powell.  We heard from several friends that they had camped on the beach and it was fine taking their 5th wheel down there.

The drive down Lone Rock Rd takes you to the entrance of the Rec Area.  We bought our America the Beautiful Pass and it was $15 to camp there.  They had a dump/water station at the top and some bathrooms scattered about.

Picture looking down at Lone Rock and you can see some of the folks out camping along the shore.

It was beautiful.  We decided then to not extend our stay at the Elks and come down here for a few days instead.  We had wanted to kayak out around the rock too.

Some don't want to take the chance on the sand or want to be further away so they stay up higher on the firmer ground. 

The bridge crossing over the Lake Powell Dam.

Before we head down the next morning we stopped in WalMart to stock up.  We turn around and who do we see?  Harry and Vicki that we just had dinner with in Surprise a few nights ago!  We knew they'd be coming through here on their way to Zion.  So funny to randomly run into each other!  They were just going to Wallydock for the night and noticed our truck in the parking lot.  We kind of stand out when you see a large brown dually truck with a red kayak on top with South Dakota plates!  They knew it was us so walked through Walmart to say HI!

We stopped in at the museum to look around.  It was small, but very nicely done.  There was much information on the local tribes and first Americans through the area.

It always amazes me of the adventurous spirit of those early adventurers that would travels these areas, land or water, not knowing anything about what they were getting into.

I was pretty amazed that these two guys would swim down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon!  Can you imagine?  Sounds like something our youngest son would do.

The next morning we said goodbye to the Elks and drove the 20 minutes to Lone Rock.   We will return to the Elks tonight though as it is Wings Night!

We found a nice spot and backed in as far as the gravel went.  It's pretty hard packed out here as long as you stay on the rocky parts and avoid the deep, soft sand.

What a great spot and nice weather.  Excellent Verizon service too!  Tomorrow we'll take the kayak out once Steve finishes work.

We've got a nice firepit that was already there so we put our chairs out and enjoyed the sunshine.  It's a wonderful place but I was just telling Steve it wouldn't be a place you'd want to be when it's windy.

 

 

 Steve's office with a view!

Our Raven friend kept visiting too.

 Our neighbor has such a shiny rig.  We've seen a few of these in our travels.

It was about time to leave for the Elks for Wing Night and all of a sudden the sky turned very dark.  We decided it would be a good idea to weigh down the rug as the wind was coming up a bit.  So all the chairs and tables were folded up and placed on the perimeter of the rug just in case it got real windy.  We weren't too sure of leaving but we were craving wings for some time.

As we got back to Page you could see the crazy dark sky back towards our camp.  The wind was blowing really strong with large gusts.

 The wings were delicious and we sat with some very nice people that gave us more info on the area.

After eating wayyyy too much, we wanted to get back to the trailer.  The sky looked a bit bluer and the winds had calmed down some.

The sand had really blown while we were gone and made some large drifts onto our mat.  At least it didn't blow away!  We got some good news that our friends, Lee and Trace, were heading up to Utah a bit sooner and thought they might join us here and we'd drive up in a couple days together.  Yay!

Next Up: Utah!