Scenic Hwy 89A ...

11th May 2009

After the fantastic photo tour at Upper Antelope Canyon I wanted to drive by myself to Lower Antelope Canyon to get some more pictures. But, I heard that the drive would be on a gravel road which I would never try alone. Now, the change of plan was to drive up to Zion National Park. And I took the Scenic Hwy 89A (alternate) instead of the Hwy 89. This hwy is the route to the North Rim of Grand Canyon.


I started ... I drove over all high rocky cliffs ... and few vehicles around ... Navajo women selling jewelry ... I stopped at the Navajo Bridge to see the mighty Colorado on its way to carve Grand Canyon. Actually Marble Canyon is the starting point of Grand Canyon. I sighted some condors with the help of a Novajo girl who is doing a research on these birds. I visited the NPS visitor center before I continued my journey towards Vermillion Cliffs ...



It was very scenic drive ... the red cliffs all along were so beautiful ... I was thinking ... the world is so beautiful ... notice it ... I was wondering how many cliff dwellers were hidden there ... far away and far up in the cliffs ... would their souls still linger around ? ... and then I reached the Cliff Dwellers ... There was one car and a Navajo man with the jewelry shop and there was another car with a young couple who were tourists ... I took pictures of those weird looking rocks and the abodes ... and the young couple left ... I lingered around still trying to take shots of some more cliffs in different angles ...



Truth of travel is always unexpected ... I started to realize that the Hwy was scenic indeed but it was extremely lonely too ... miles and miles together I didn't see any traffic except that a ruined truck behind me ... it was a bit of concern ... then it was a one lane road so ... with the sheer force of will I continued ... As I entered the Kaibab National Forest I saw few more cars parked at a view point ... may be they were coming back from North Rim. I too stopped at that view point to see the view of the cliffs and the road I drove all the way ... and the truck went away ...


As I drove, I noticed completely different landscape now ... there were no cliffs and there was no barren red anymore ... it was all green trees and black volcanic rocks ... but the loneliness on the road lingered along ... At Jacob Lake I filled gas ... it was nice to see people around for once ... and a hotel ... This is the place where the road forks into North Rim Parkway. I continued with my journey ... drove past Fredonia ... entered Utah ... passed Kanab ... the landscape again changed ... the red in the landscape returned ... the cliffs looked much rocky and much higher and there were bushes around. The presence of green made the earth look much cooler ...

When I had started my road trip, my first and foremost hope was to experience the freedom of travel solo ... and I did ... it was total freedom ... I felt the peace and knowledge i was looking for ... I felt like a new person. With a I sigh of satisfying exhaustion I turned left on to UT-9 towards Zion National Park ...