Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is just gorgeous

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is just gorgeous.

It's shared by both Utah and Arizona and it's a very special place whether enjoyed from the land, the water or the air (I thoroughly recommend that way as detailed in a previous post).

The signs around Glen Canyon National Recreation Area are almost as impressive as the natural beauty which they highlight.

I left my campground and went for a drive around part of the lake until I came to this spot at the Coves. The painted part of the sign is mirrored in the stone which supports it.

Very creatively designed to make a statement about the place.

Photographing signs on a trip actually defines where the photos were taken, breaks up the series of photos taken e.g. all landscapes, and some are just worth photographing anyway.

Click on the photo to enlarge it and enjoy both the sign and the scenery behind it.

I can definitely feel the urge to create some interactive jigsaw puzzles about Glen Canyon and Lake Powell. Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, check out my "Canyon Country" post.

Rainbow Bridge To Monument Valley: Making The Modern Old West

Rainbow Bridge To Monument Valley: Making The Modern Old West, by Thomas J. Harvey looks to be an interesting read if you can get past the cover. Stunning photo of one of the Mittens in Monument Valley.

I just had to visit Monument Valley after seeing the Red Bull Air Race on TV. No wonder so many movies have been made in this area. Flying over Rainbow Bridge in the early morning was also one of the highlights of my trip to the Southwest. Put this area on your bucket list. A bit of reading beforehand, like this book, wouldn't go astray to add to the appreciation of these significant places.



Rainbow Bridge to Monument Valley: Making the Modern Old West

The Colorado River Plateau is home to two of the best-known landscapes in the world: Rainbow Bridge in southern Utah and Monument Valley on the Utah-Arizona border. Twentieth-century popular culture made these places icons of the American West, and advertising continues to exploit their significance today. In "Rainbow Bridge to Monument Valley," Thomas J. Harvey artfully tells how Navajos and Anglo-Americans created fabrics of meaning out of this stunning desert landscape, space that western novelist Zane Grey called "the storehouse of unlived years," where a rugged, more authentic life beckoned.

Reviews
"Thomas J. Harvey's work on the Utah-Arizona border region . . . will stake out new intellectual terrain for scholars seeking to explore the relationship between geography, cultural nationalism, and Occidentalism in twentieth-century America. . . . Harvey shows quite clearly how layers of meaning continue to be attached to the region and how modern mythmaking is perpetuated."Carter Jones Meyer co-author of "Selling the Indian: Commercializing and Appropriating American Indian Cultures".

Lake Powell, Arizona/Utah, has the Seal of Approval

Lake Powell, in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, has got the "Seal of Approval"! However, you do have to use your imagination a bit.

At Wahweap, I managed to take two boat trips on Lake Powell, exploring the canyons, visiting Rainbow Bridge and cruising around this vast and magnificent lake. Perhaps the attraction isn't so much Lake Powell itself but the rock formations around the edge.

This particular rock formation is really only visible from water level whereas many of the others are more obvious from the air when gaining a bird's eye view.




You will have to zoom in on the photo to enlarge the "seal" on the right hand side of the picture just above the water's edge.

Cruising on Lake Powell and manoeuvring through the canyons is one activity you have to put on your list of "must do" tours. The boat captains are very skilled and well versed in the history, culture and geology of their patch. They also have a great imagination, a wicked sense of humour and an eye for the unique beauty of the area.

Looking up at these great hunks of rock really brings home the fact that we're just tiny specks compared to the vastness of nature. Quite a humbling experience.

Here's more information on Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.