We woke up in Kanab, Utah and wondered what exactly to do with our day. The friendly folks at the local Holiday Inn Express (we can only stay at IHG properties right now because Jackson is trying to hit a stay goal to get more points) told us to take a little tour of the area. They even had a little document telling us which mile markers to stop at and what to look for when we stopped.
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| Little tour guide |
Listen, this tour was not fancy. It was still a really pretty 16 mile drive. We stopped at a little ATV track because they said it was good for hiking, too.
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| Let's go!! |
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| The trail doubled as a restroom |
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| A sandy trail! |
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| You guys, look how handsome he is! |
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| Desert trees |
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| Hiking views from Johnson Canyon |
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| Petefish. |
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| Exploring... |
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| Jackson going off trail |
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| Knocking a tiny Jackson over- ha! |
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| I love this shot. |
We finished hiking around and the little tour and headed down the road to see the Toadstools.
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| I'd follow him most anywhere |
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| Striping detail on the canyon walls |
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| Jackson. |
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| It looked otherworldly |
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| The first toadstool we saw |
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| Jackson climbed to them, of course |
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| Close-up |
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| The trail did get a bit skinny |
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| The river wash we hiked through a bit, too |
We finished that quick hike and headed to Page, Arizona for the rest of the day.
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| Mexi lunch |
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| Laura Bush ate here once! WHAT! |
We needed to work off that lunch so we headed to a hike called "Hanging Garden"
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| Well marked trail |
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| Awesome views |
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| TIRED. |
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The hanging garden.
Wouldn't seem like much outside of the desert. |
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| Jackson giving me a heart attack. |
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| A feel for how high up he was |
Listen, I've been married to Jackson for almost 10 years (WHAT?!) so I'm normally OK with his antics. Today, though, he pushed it. He was climbing down from that area (which I am nearly 100% certain was restricted) and just disappeared from sight. Just gone. I panicked. I cried. I was rehearsing what to say to his mother and the police when he finally came into view. I just stood there crying for a bit before I could resume hiking. It turns out he'd been snapping photos without a care in the world. Siiiiiiiiiigh.
Next we went to see their famous dam a bit closer. I was completely freaked out by the height of it. Jackson was, again, unfazed.
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| The dam. |
There are little hiking spots all over town so we went to another area and got a different view of the dam.
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| Huge. |
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| The landscape here is something else! |
Finally, the whole reason for the trip, we made it to Horseshoe Bend. I've wanted to see it for years now. I was unaware, however, that it is just beyond a large drop off WITH NO GUARDRAILS AND PEOPLE EVERYWHERE.
THE INTERNET CLEARLY DOES NOT LOOK OUT FOR THOSE OF US WITH FEARS OF HEIGHTS.
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Jackson and the nice man who put his leg out for me
to keep me safe- HA! |
The people at the edge had a good laugh at my fears. I army crawled out to the edge to shoot photos and get a good view. Jackson kept asking when I expected people to start shooting at me since I was down so low.
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| Thinking about getting to the edge... |
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| Horseshoe Bend: worth it. |
We met some nice folks and ended up hanging out there for about an hour before heading to higher ground to catch the sunset.
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| Lovely. |
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| Arizona showing off |
We're really impressed by how lovely the Page area has been. We took some much needed showers, started laundry ($3 per load!!) and went to a local place called Taco Bell for dinner. Listen, the options around these parts are limited. We plan to call it an early night tonight as we have an early tour of Antelope Canyon tomorrow morning before heading to Flagstaff for the day. We had a busy, adventurous and tiresome day...our favorite!
