Goosenecks, Moki Dugway and A Bridge For Helen

Now if that isn’t a strange title to this post, then I don’t know what is.

About a year ago I saw a photo of the Colorado River in Goosenecks State Park. It showed the meandering river and how it had cut into the soft rock to form an amazing curving canyon, called Goosenecks. I knew I wanted to see it for myself. When I saw the picture, I realised the shot was taken with a fisheye and this was the inspiration for me to go out and buy one of these lenses for myself.

Being quite near to Goosenecks, I knew I would get there early in the morning and it was going to be a sunny day. On the way, I just knew the photos I took wouldn’t be good because of the sun making such intense shadows and I was right. The picture below is over exposed just to get some detail in the shadows....

It doesn’t look far with the view through the fisheye lens, but the rock outcrop in front of me was quite a long way away and I know I should have walked there to take the photo, but to be honest, I didn’t have the energy to do this as I knew the resultant photo would still not be very good. I resigned myself to sticking with what I had got!

Instead I walked along the ridge to get another shot of one of the bends....

In the car park at Goosenecks, I did meet a German couple who had shipped their own camper van over and were on a year’s road trip of the USA. I got a shot of the back of their van as they were driving away....

Very close by is a road called Moli Dugway. I have no idea why it is called that, but I will look it up. I had heard about this on a motorcycle forum I used to read and I had learnt it was a steep gravel road, but I didn’t know much more about it. This sign was the first indication I was near it....

The road rises up a steep cliff. As you ride up the cliff along the flat ground you cannot see any indication of the road and as I got nearer to the bottom of the cliff I wondered if the road did in fact climb the cliff at all as all I could see was a sheer cliff in front of me. I had mounted a video camera on the bike, so I will let the video tell some of the story of riding this road....




That was quite a road. I am getting somewhat used to riding on gravel roads now so I wasn’t too worried about this one. As long as I take it slow and brake only very gently, I feel relatively safe. Here are some photos I stooped and took....

This is the best overall shot of the road I took....

The road as it rises ....

I said it was steep!....

I love this bend....

This is a road that you really don’t want to fall off!....

Looking down at where I had just ridden....

The view from the top is stunning....

When I was at the top admiring the view, I met David and Lei Nani (a Hawaiian name). They are from Farmington, in North Western New Mexico. We chatted for sometime abou my trip, Lei Nanis ancestors and guns....

They were a really interesting couple. He had driven a huge rig on the Moki Dugway road about 20 years previously and he wanted to show Lei Nani where he had been. It was tough getting such a big vehicle around the bends, so he had to sleep here overnight before continuing his journey. She told me about her Mormon family that had travelled across the area in the 1880’s when her Great Grand-Father was a settler looking for somewhere to live. Times were very hard back then and I learned a little about how the settlers had to use ropes to raise and lower their wagons and supplies in order to cross the canyons that are prevalent in the area.

We talked about guns and David went and retrieved his from their truck to show me...

Coming from a country where it is illegal to have a gun, it seems strange that people feel a need to carry one. David told me he felt safer having one. I thought about this as I continued my journey and I suspect that if I lived in the US, I too would probably carry a gun, especially in particular areas such as near the Mexico border. I have watched some recent news items about the trouble the Mexico border states have with “illegals” and drug runners. I wouldn’t want to carry a gun, but so many people have told me they feel they need to, that I would probably feel the same way if I lived there....

I spoke on the telephone with my cousin’s long-term partner, Helen. I wanted to congratulate her for some terrific good news she had about a health issue she had been battling with for many years. Great news Helen!

When we were on the ‘phone, Helen told me of her love of bridges and just how much she had enjoyed seeing all of the photos of the bridges I had posted on my blog. Obviously encouraging me to include more, I thought today was an ideal opportunity to meet her wish, but not with the usual type of bridge! On day 114 I was to go see the Natural Bridges National Monument in southern Utah.

Located in White Canyon, there are three natural bridges. The most impressive of these (and thankfully the easiest to walk to down into the canyon and back up again) is Owachomo. This has a 180 foot span, is 106 feet high, is 27 feet wide and 9 feet thick. Made of sandstone, the desert stream would occasionally wear away at the rock and form a bridge structure. As the river bed got deeper, the bridge got higher. Today, the stream runs nearby and no longer runs underneath the bridge span. The natural bridge is spectacular and I hope Helen likes it.... I photographed it from both sides....

I walked down to where the desert stream runs today and the power of its waters became immediately obvious. It was not flowing, but it became clear that it had been just a day or so ago because there was water in parts of the river bed and undisturbed mud / sand patterns....

This is a wider shot of the stream bed....

If the water could move sand and mud into these patterns, then it must have been flowing quite fast. I can see how this would erode the weak sandstone rock over a long time.

After moving on from the Natural Bridges National Park, I headed west on Highway 95 and was intrigued to see the road run up a huge cliff. This is known as Comb Ridge and not only did it rise along the face of the cliff, when it nears the top, a whole section of the cliff has been removed to allow the road to pass through it. You can see the gap in the cliff in the photo below....

This is riding along the rising road just before it turns left and goes through where the cliff used to be! There were signs saying no stopping or parking because it was clear that many rocks had fallen in this area and no doubt many more would do in the future. The cliff was heavily cracked and huge (and I do mean HUGE) sections of the rock face looked as if they could fall at any minute. I didn’t hang around!....

I had to look twice when I saw this sign. Surely that should say Cottonwood?....

I checked the sign facing in the opposite direction....

Yep, Cottnowood was mis-spelt. Now, that’s not something you see every day!

As I rode north towards Moab, my stop for the night,, I passed Church Rock. Does it look like a church? I don’t think so....

Then I passed Wilson Arch, named after Joe Wilson, a local pioneer....

I then reached what must be one of the most over-the-top and inappropriate signs I have seen anywhere. What person in their right mind would paint this on a cliff, just to advertise a shop? This is commerciaslism gone mad....

If you look closely on the left of the sign, there is also a huge lizard sculpture fixed to the rock. This is a close up. Actually I like this, but I still didn’t go into the shop on principle as they had defaced the cliff....

I hope Helen liked the bridge!