At 4pm today we checked into, what is to be our home for 3 months, in Mesa AZ . We left Hurrican in Utah at 8am in order to enjoy our sunny adventure through an amazing Zion Canyon scenic drive. The pink, red and white sandstone hills and deep cutout ravines & valleys give the 40 minute ride through Zion a vision of natures handy work over 1000s of yrs. The Escalante limestone Steps began in the Bryce Canyon area of mid Utah. Water, wind and time shaped the southerly extention of this wear & tear of mother earth through the Kolob Canyons, Zion Canyon, Glen Canyon and finally the mother of all canyons, the Grand Canyon of Arizona. Our trip took us east to the town of Kanab, then Page through rolling vast mesquite covered landscapes on route 89 down to Flagstaff on old route 66, now #40. Our elevation was between 6500 and 5000 feet above sea level. The ground was sprinkled with snow but the hwy was bare, with few semis to hinder our cruising at 60 - 75 m/hr.
We charged south on #17 from Flagstaff with elevation dropping as we approached Phoenix (about 2000 ft). The landscape changed from ponderosa pine to large Mugo pine to desert cacti. About 45 minutes south of the turnoff to Sadona (beautiful redrock country) we saw our 1st Sajuaro cacti, then tedibear, pricklypear and ocotilo cacti. We roared by the Outlet Malls on the outskirts of Scottsdale to Mandy's disappointment and managed to evade the state troopers who were out in force, a sunny warm day. Ah "the valley of sun" we have arrived.
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