Rocks with Wings

We had Red Rock reservations again on Saturday morning, but with a long drive facing all of us, we packed up first thing. I’d had grand plans to spend the coming week somewhere en route, then return to Big Bend National Park next weekend for an anniversary hike — one year since Emory Peak. However, a friend in the area mentioned that the situation out there is rough. And Vegas may as well be a leper colony; I should keep to myself.

I was already driving, still weighing my options. Take a scenic route home, but go home? Hell-ride it back like the others? Head toward southern Arizona anyway? Between plague concerns, being tired, and staring down the barrel of a heavy week at work, I decided I should head home, too.

But at the last possible second, I grabbed the I-15 northbound exit instead of US-59 south. If I was going to drive home, it should at least be beautiful. I made the best choice.

I took 15 past the CasaBlanca in Mesquite, NV — where our Grand Canyon Parashant excursion started on the Offroad Trip — through to St. George and Hurricane, UT where it ended. From there, I took a series of state highways that paralleled the Utah/Arizona border until I could pick up US-89A in Fredonia, AZ.

It’s another scenic alternate that serves some of the Grand Canyon North Rim entrances as well as running through the Kaibab National Forest, Navajo and Hopi Nations, and the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. A six hour panorama of the iconic mesas and cliffs of the Four Corners region.

I did not stop until I got to Page, Arizona. But I am now determined to visit northern Arizona one day. That was a spectacular drive through some breathtaking rocky scenery, with some snowy forest for good measure. Perched just outside Page is an overlook to Horseshoe Bend, which I got to just after sunset.

After a dinner stop, I continued on through a brilliant, full-moon drive through the dramatic landscapes of the Navajo Nation back to Shiprock, or “Tsé Bitʼaʼí,” the Rock with Wings. I stopped for some night photography, but you wouldn’t know it. The moon out-shone the stars, leaving this sacred site brightly illuminated.