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Gulliver's travels 04/25/2022

4/25/2022

Dale Sievert (Gulliver)

Part 3 Utah & Arizona--November 2021

Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona

This 133-square-mile park is on Navajo Nation land in northeastern Arizona. The floor of its deep canyon has been farmed by indigenous people for thousands of years, and it continues to be farmed today by their descendents. This park of red sandstone cliffs was established in 1931. The name Chelly is pronounced as "shay," one syllable and a long a sound.

Spider Rock, about 800 feet high

Farm fields are on the canyon floor.

Near the entrance of the canyon

An abandoned cliff dwelling

Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona

This very remote park is in southeastern Arizona, bumping up against New Mexico. These rugged mountains were the stronghold of the Apache Indians until the 1880s, including Geronino and Cochise. It was established in 1924 primarily to protect its many hoodoos and balanced rocks.

Lichens (symbiotic combinations of an algae and a fungus)

The yellow coloring on the rocks are lichens.

Epilogue

Well, that's all folks--of Utah and Arizona. I almost always drive there, just loving the area and the way out. You might wonder why I spend so much time there. Well, it is just so phenomenally beautiful. The second reason is that every day I spend there is a day I do not have to take the chance of getting run over by some old driver in Florida, South Texas, or "Sun City and Environs"--not to mention "catching" old age from them.

The next Gulliver's Travels will be of my February-March trip to southern Brazil and northern Argentina.

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Gulliver's Travels 04/04/2022

4/4/2022

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Part 2 Utah & Arizona--November 2021

White Pocket, Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, Arizona

White Pocket is a one-square-mile wonder within the 459-square-mile Vermillion Cliffs National Monument in Arizona, just south of the Utah-Arizona border. It is part of the Paria (Pa REE ah) Plateau and is composed primarily of swirling formations of Navajo Sandstone. It takes a three-hour-drive from Kanab, Utah by 4WD vehicle to reach. It is only a mile away from The Wave, an even more famous formation requiring winning a lottery to visit. I've already failed to win it three times. I'll keep trying.