50.33 Arizona: Page: An Introduction: Sunset and Climbing Rock Walls alongside Lake Powell. "You are the sunshine of life." 50.34 Toadstools & Canyon. A double thriller.

A late afternoon wandering near Lake Powell to try to capture a meaningful sunset. In the process, we took a couple of shots of a wedding party on the rocks. Hopefully, the marriage will not ever experience 'the rocks'.

A glimpse of Lake Powell. 

 

 I remember the early years, probably more than sixty years ago, when I ‘occasionally’ annoyed my mother. Of course, it was always unintentional but Mom sometimes took things literally. One of her responses was: ‘You are driving me up the wall’. I began to dislike the phrase as it never promised good tidings. Because of the effect it had upon her and then the resultant consequences for me, I decided never to use the term or even contemplate ‘driving up walls’. I could never envisage that one day, one of my favorite outdoor activities, of which Jen feels similarly, is not only climbing mountains but even more enjoyable, walking and climbing up walls, boulders, large rocks and hills. Note: We do not mention driving although we do encourage rather than drive each other up these fascinating natural wonders. 

  Two places amongst many others that provide these types of natural wonders are Page and Sedona, both in Arizona. The former town, with the magnificent Lake Powell, Glen Canyon Dam and passing Colorado River provides ideal opportunities to scale these sandstone beauties which border on the water. We find we spend many opportunities not on formal hiking trails in this region but rather, making our own way across the desert surfaces and of course, walking up the walls. The process of discovery rewards us with fantastic opportunities to spice up the already, mostly good, hiking opportunities. Delightful! 

Jen snapped this one. Love it.

Whenever we see this icon, we cannot help but call it the Voortrekker Monument. So much so that I often forget its true title. To a South African, it is obvious, but to the rest of the world, not. The Afrikaners, a nation then in its infancy, evolved from the Dutch, French and others, trekked from the Cape and Natal into the interior and settled in two newly established provinces. They wished to extract themselves from British Colonial rule. The monument stands in Pretoria. Many years later, the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand, brought the British back to rule over the Afrikaners. Anyway, that's a tidbit, hardly objective history, but the rock formation is wonderful. May every person enjoy peace.

Long before the sun even thinks of setting.

The sun is just about asleep and we've got some walls to walk up and over. Try to forget (fight) the darkness enveloping us and seek and seize the light. It is truly inspiring and uplifting.

We wrote of walking up walls: Here's a few from this week at Toadstools in Utah, 20 miles from Arizona and a couple from an obstacle course in a wash :-

The next couple are from Cathedral Wash to reach the Colorado River. It is an exciting and risky hike finding one's own way up and down the drops and along the ledges. Great for adrenaline flow. 

The rocks below are to break one's fall and ankles at the same time. Efficient?
Jenni's on a narrow ledge about to make her way down, hopefully, into my arms. That's her favorite prayer position.
The following photographs focus on the 'Horseshoe concept' of the Colorado River and Lake Powell. (Could not resist inserting them early.) 

A particular gratifying experience during which we discovered 3 horseshoe bends.
Page is well-known for Horseshoe Bend, a destination spot. Thus far, including the three today, we've seen at least six of these bends. Understandably, we're going a little round the...
Because we wandered into the desert, there was not a soul about in nearly four hours but for a few kayaks and a coyote. (The former were not wandering about the desert though.)
Apparently, Kayaks tend to remain on or in water.
Cheers, 

Jenni and Jeffrey