Today's journey took us from Page, Arizona to Provo, Utah. We traveled on state highways 89 and 20 in addition to Interstate 15.
As a side note, you have to be aware of what time zone you are in when you are at the Arizona/Utah border area. Depending on where we were, our clocks kept switching times. The Navajo Nation is semi autonomous, with the power to set its own time system. Since the Navajo reservation extends into neighboring states that recognize daylight saving time— Utah and New Mexico — the nation decided to follow suit to keep the same time throughout its land. The Navajo Nation observes Daylight Saving Time as well as Utah. The rest of Arizona does not change time: it is always Mountain Standard Time. We could travel 15 miles and change time zones three times. The woman whom checked us in last night at the Marriott in Page, Arizona said she lives on the Navajo reservation and the time changes certainly can be confusing.
It is very difficult to describe the scenery we passed along the way so this writing will mostly be pictures. We saw rock formations in a variety of colors. There were sections of pine forests. Long sections of flat land stretched on for miles and miles.
For a short distance we traveled along Lake Powell.
Lake Powell is a man-made reservoir on the Colorado River, straddling the border between Utah and Arizona. It is the second largest man-made reservoir by maximum water capacity in the United States behind Lake Mead, storing 24,322,000 acre feet (3.0001×1010 m3) of water when full. However, due to high water withdrawals for human and agricultural consumption, and because of subsequent droughts in the area, Lake Mead has fallen below Lake Powell in size several times during the 21st century in terms of volume of water, depth and surface area.
"Lake Powell was created by the flooding of Glen Canyon by the Glen Canyon Dam, which also led to the creation of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, a popular summer destination. The reservoir is named for explorer John Wesley Powell, a one-armed American Civil War veteran who explored the river via three wooden boats in 1869. In 1972, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area was established. It is public land managed by the National Park Service, and available to the public for recreational purposes. It lies in parts of Garfield, Kane and San Juan counties in southern Utah, and Coconino County in northern Arizona."
Lake Powell is a water storage facility for the Upper Basin states of the Colorado River Compact (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico). The Compact specifies that the Upper Basin states are to provide a minimum annual flow of 7,500,000 acre feet (9.3 km3) to the Lower Basin states (Arizona, Nevada, and California).
The Colorado Plateau, through which the canyon cuts, arose some 11 million years ago.
We drove along the Grand Staircase- Escalante National Monument
The view on the right side of the road
The view on the left side of the road. Quite different!
Kanab, Utah
Kanab is located on the western Colorado Plateau. U.S. Routes 89 and 89Ameet in the center of town. US 89 leads north 21 miles (34 km) to southeast 74 miles (119 km) to Page, Arizona, while US 89A leads south 7 miles (11 km) to Fredonia, Arizona.
Kanab has a borderline Mediterranean climate, more typical of exposed regions around Arizona's Mogollon Rim. The town is wetter, especially during the winter months, and hotter than the typical Mountain West cool semi-arid climate. It was 96 degrees when we went through this area.
Main street in Kanab
I found this motel to be interesting and inviting. It just seemed out of place but still charming.
You can pass the hours sitting in the rocking chairs.
Didn't expect a white picket fence either.
The scenery changes again in Mount Carmel, Utah. Mount Carmel is 12 miles east of Zion National Park.
The Virgin Anasazi were the prehistoric settlers in the area. Among other areas, nearby Parunuweap (East Fork of the Virgin River) contains evidence to their presence. This group occupied the area until about the 13th century. The people were agriculturalists who maintained a diet of mostly maize.
The next town we rode through was Orderville, Utah. Orderville is a small town of about 600 people located in western Kane County within the Long Valley, formed by the East Fork of the Virgin River. The town has a total area of just over 9 square miles and includes the communities of Mount Carmel and Mount Carmel Junction. From Mount Carmel, State Route 9 leads west about 20 miles to Zion National Park.
Orderville gets its name from its unique history. The town was established in 1875 under the direction of President Brigham Young and was founded and operated under the United Order (a voluntary form of communalism defined by Joseph Smith) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Although the United Order was practiced in many Utah communities during the late 1870's, Orderville was unique in both the level of success it experienced under the communal living style and in the duration of the Order. In the course of a few years, Orderville grew into a thriving, self-sufficient community. The success and relative wealth of the community attracted more settlers, and Orderville grew to about 700 people.
The Order continued in Orderville for approximately 10 years until eventual tension and internal disruption, as well as national legislation, led to its demise.
We kept seeing signs for this bakery and we just had to stop.
When we vacation in Switzerland, Michael is able to practice speaking German. Who knew we only had to come to Orderville, Utah.
Cinnamon sugar. I had to taste before taking the picture. Very tasty!!!
Apple Berliner
It was like eating an apple tart. It is hard to see but there were big pieces of apple inside.
It might be fun to rent out one of these places.
Glendale, Utah had these planters along the main street.
We also saw a sign for the Zermatt Resort. Hate all these reminders of Switzerland. But...this is different and we are still having a wonderful time together.
Hatch, Utah
Population 133 people. I think they have more cattle, though.
It was difficult to get a picture of the winding zigzagging stream and the wild flowers along the roadside, especially as there weren't many places to pull over and take a picture. And... Michael was zipping along at a decent speed.
Panguitch, Utah
Panguitch, a Pauite Indian word meaning“Big Fish”, is undoubtedly named for the plentiful lakes in the nearby mountains offering excellent year-round fishing and summer boating. ...Panguitch, a national historic district, traces its roots to early Mormon settlers.
Cedar City, Utah
The leaves look like the are starting to change.
Beaver, Utah
Butch Cassidy whom was a notorious outlaw in the American West was born in Beaver.
The speed limit on Interstate 15 is 80 miles per hour.
Traveling along an Interstate is not very exciting. We had to stop in Beaver, Utah in order to charge the car. The Timberline Restaurant is next to the chargers so we decided on a late lunch. The restaurant uses and also sells Redmond Real Salt. I purchased some salt last year when Michael and I went to Yellowstone.
"There is a vast difference in the quality of salts on the market today. A quick glance at the ingredients label on most salts might surprise you! Many salts contain anti-caking agents and even dextrose (sugar). Others have been heat processed and stripped of their natural trace minerals. Real Salt® brand sea salt on the other hand, is unrefined and full of natural minerals and flavor – the way salt was meant to be savored."
"Redmond’s story begins in 1958, when a prolonged drought forced two brothers to abandon their farm in central Utah. Aware that Native Americans had once harvested salt rock from their farmland, Milo and Lamar Bosshardt borrowed a little money and went into the salt business with little more than sledgehammers, picks, and a determination to provide for their families. Their salt deposit, the result of prehistoric volcanic activity that encased an ancient seabed, provided a naturally-balanced mineral salt that local ranchers credited for healthier herds. As the salt’s reputation grew, the Bosshardt brothers purchased land from their neighbors, giving them access to the entire deposit, estimated to extend several thousand feet below the surface of the earth.
According to geologists, the Redmond salt deposit is the remnant of an ancient inland sea, probably part of what they call the Sundance Sea, which places the deposit within the Jurassic Period. Over time, the salt that settled at the bottom of the sea was trapped within the earth and then pushed up near the surface close to the town of Redmond, Utah.
The deposit occurs with over 60+ natural trace minerals which gives the salt its unique color, unique flavor, and numerous health benefits. Because this deposit comes from an ancient sea bed, nature created the salt long before the earth experienced any pollution or contaminants that are troubling our oceans today.
The Redmond salt deposit begins about 30 feet below the surface, covered by a layer of bentonite clay, which has protected it from erosion and from the possibility of modern contamination.
Real Salt is unrefined and unprocessed, nothing added, nothing removed. The process begins with the salt being removed from the walls of the mine with a stainless steel hydraulic rotary tool. Once the salt has been removed from the wall, it goes into a lined food-grade truck and up to mill equipment used solely for our Real Salt. The Real Salt mill is made of stainless steel and entirely enclosed, ensuring food safety and protecting the salt from contamination from the surrounding environment. If you walked into the food-grade veins of the mine and picked up a crystal, you could take it home, pop it into your blender, and crush it into the same salt you’ll find in our packages."
It is a very tasty salt!!!
Nephi
This town of Nephi has a population of 6,111. It even had a famous citizen by the name of Roger Mark Boisjoly (April 25, 1938 – January 6, 2012). "He was an American mechanical engineer, fluid dynamicist and an aerodynamicist. He is best known for having raised strenuous objections to the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger months before the loss of the spacecraft and its crew in January 1986. Boisjoly correctly predicted, based on earlier flight data, that the O-rings the rocket boosters would fail if the shuttle launched in cold weather. Morton Thiokol's managers decided to launch the shuttle despite his warnings."
Wonder what they are mining?
Payson, Utah
Pioneers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints led by James Edward Pace Jr. first settled what is now Payson, Utah. On Sunday, October 20, 1850, Pace with his family and the families of John Courtland Searle and Andrew Jackson Steward, totaling 16 settlers in all, arrived at their destination on Peteetneet Creek.
Payson, Utah Temple
The Payson Utah Temple is a a temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The temple is located on the southernmost edge of Utah's Wasatch Front, and is the15th dedicated temple in the state. When construction was completed in 2015, the temple became one of the largest built in recent years, at 96,630 square feet on a 15-acre lot.
We are over nighting at the Residence Inn in Provo, Utah as the hotel has a destination charger and the Tesla will be fully charged in the morning so we may continue on to Sun Valley, Idaho.
Hope you enjoyed today's unique scenery and you learned something new, too.
Good night!
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