Travel Diary - Going West Again! (Part 4)

 The next morning we left for Lone Rock Beach at Lake Powell in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. It’s located on Highway 89 in Utah just north of Page, Arizona. 

Any guesses as to why it’s called “Lone Rock”?!

     We had done so much driving we decided it was time for a relaxing day at the beach. Lone Rock is a massive “monolith” that towers over Lake Powell. There is a very spacious beach along the lake that allows campers to set up with plenty of space for privacy. If you arrive early enough, you could even camp right next to the water. After our mishap in the sand near Joshua Tree, we stayed a bit away from the soft sand. Usually, there is a fee ($12?) to enter the site, but the fee booth was unmanned when we entered. 

     After a few cold beers and fun watching some crows mess with people’s food, we left for a camp at nearby Alstrom Point. Alstrom Point is an overlook of Glen Canyon that is located around 25 miles down a sandy dirt road. I can’t remember exactly how long the drive took us in our Vanagon, but I wanna say it was around 2-3 hours including many stops for photos. We enjoyed the many colors of sand and rock formations on the drive in as much as the overlook at the final destination. 

After much driving, it was nice to come upon this sign letting us know we were going the correct way.

How cool is this landscape?!

     Once we reached Alstrom Point, we made a left to an open area as we could see a few vehicles parked to the right. We ended up have a big, wide area to ourselves all day and all night. We must have snapped off a thousand pics. It is gorgeous everywhere you look. We were lucky enough to scavenge firewood from a number of previous campfires to have a nice campfire of our own. This was one of our all-time favorite campsites. 

     We made a big, hearty breakfast in the morning of pancakes, eggs and bacon. We took our time because we really didn’t wanna leave. We ended up getting a bunch more photos on the drive out. It is quite the beautiful drive. 

     Next stop: Valley of the Gods. We consider this our “home away from home”. The Valley has quite the pull on us — we can’t explain it. We were able to score a dope campsite right in the middle of it all. We were completely surrounded by rock formations of all shapes and sizes! This was our final real camp of the trip, and we made the most of it. We took a little hike exploring the surrounding before eating a big dinner. We finished off the evening gazing at the starry night sky with a few beers by the campfire. It doesn’t get any better. 

     We were very slow to rise the next morning because we knew packing up camp meant we were on our way home. We really did not want this trip to end. We had seen and experienced so many new things. 

     We hit the road and decided to stop by Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Colorado. We had driven by the entrance twice in the past. We weren’t gonna drive by a third time without stopping! We were so glad we stopped. There are a number of lookouts to park at along Rim Drive Road in the park. Pictures don’t do justice to the insane depth of the canyon. It is over half a mile in depth at its deepest point. The cliffs are so steep and narrow, it looks like much more than 1/2 mile. One day we’d like to hike down into it. That would be quite the experience. 

Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Becky snapped this one hanging out the van’s window while we were driving through the Colorado Rockies!

     After taking in the Black Canyon, we drove a bit more until we stopped at a rest stop in Kansas. We got some shuteye and hit the trail home — reflecting on quite the journey we experienced. On to the next trip! 

-Andrew