Road Trip, Day 7 (Pt. 3); Horseshoe Bend & On the Road

We were both pretty hungry when we got back from our tour of Secret Canyon (on May 14th,) so we stopped for some lunch. During the tour, our guide had pointed out the sign for Horseshoe Bend, which was conveniently on our way out of town. I'd looked into it when planning our trip, but it seemed much more out of the way than it actually was. Since we had extra time, I suggested we make the stop, and Charles agreed.
After a short walk uphill from the parking lot, we came upon a sign stating that we were about to undertake a 3/4 mile hike down to the viewing area, and that no shade or water would be available. We'd gotten into the habit of bringing water everywhere we went as a sheer necessity, and after getting pretty badly sunburned at Bosque del Apache NWR some days prior, I'd been more diligent about sunscreen and my hat.

Here are some of the tallest plants in the area. They weren't kidding about the lack of shade! Fortunately it was a partly cloudy day, at least.

Horseshoe Bend was definitely worth the stop. Most photos of this site are unmarred by the desert rocks seen here in the foreground. Considering the 1000' drop, however, I wasn't taking any risks, and stayed safely back from the edge. This image is actually a composite of 3 shots I stitched together. Without a wide-angle lens, the bend was just too massive to fit in one shot.
"Daily Nature Photo" on The Nature Conservancy's website, Jun. 28, 2011.
"Nature Photo of the Week" on The Nature Conservancy's blog and facebook page, Jul. 1-7, 2011.
3rd Place (photography,) Slidell Art League's "Cirque du Sol Art" show and Purchase Award, Slidell Memorial Hospital, Jul. 15, 2011.
Winner, Momentum magazine's "freshwater" photo contest, Jul. 28, 2011.
Homepage of the Win! blog, Aug. 2, 2011.

Here's Charles at Horseshoe Bend. As cool as it was to make the hike, the 3/4 mile hike back UPhill in dusty/sandy soil was a whole lot of not fun. I stopped often to rest.

During one of my stops, I got this shot of a long-nosed leopard lizard and eventually we made it back to the car. Our next stop was Cameron, AZ. Wanting to avoid the kind of lodging problem we had in Page, I called to book a room in advance.

On the road to Cameron; some wide open vistas and some of the driest, roughest badlands we ever saw.



It felt like we could see at least a hundred miles from this overlook.

Next stop; the Cameron Trading Post.