Lake Powell was a weird place, like something out of a sci-fi painting. I was in between being impressed by the scale of it and depressed by the ruination of a beautiful natural place by human intervention. The Mechanical Engineer and Environmentalist were pitted against each other and I'm pretty solidly on the side of nature now.
The landscapes in Southern Utah were stunning, especially this flower-studded moon dust field on the edge of Escalante National Monument. I had the good fortune to drive back and forth through this beautiful place a number of times as I shuttled everyone back and forth to hiking and camping spots in the one car we had that could handle the high clearance roads.
We stayed overnight at Monument valley on the Navajo Reservation, definitely a different feel than the national lands that I'm so used to. The signs were different, the rules were different and there were vendors at every viewpoint selling jewelry and food. We couldn't figure out where to camp the first night, accidentally set up in the wrong place and had to move along when a Navajo woman came by in a truck and chided us. Above are the "Mittens".
Rez Dogs and children were wandering around the place. Some of the homesteads had a really nice family feel. We met a bunch of great people just getting by in their ancestral home, including a very motivated high school student editing an essay on the Son of Sam. Southern Utah is a place that demands more exploration.
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