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Returning Home
Sunday, April 12 and Monday, April 13
We awoke to brilliant sunshine and mostly clear skies, with a few wisps of clouds here and there still lingering. Mostly, though, the unsettled weather of yesterday seemed to have cleared out.
The Hat Rock Inn
Southern Monument Valley
Buttes and Mesas
We started off west without having breakfast. Instead, we wanted to catch the early morning sun on a particularly famous bit of southwestern scenery: Monument Valley. The highway we had to drive went right through it, and when the sun hits the eastern faces of the buttes, a drive west towards them is truly spectacular.
courtesy PChen
Doing the Gump
Pu at Monument Valley
Classic MV Shot
Monument Valley is only a short drive west of Mexican Hat, so it wasn't long before we had stopped and were snapping picture after picture of the iconic scene of highway 163 as it heads straight towards Eagle Mesa, Brigham's Tomb, Stagecoach butte, and the other famous towers of Monument Valley. Jenn even posed for a Forrest Gump shot along the right spot on the highway.
Westward, Ho!
Lonely Chair
Buttes of Monument Pass
We continued on through scenic Monument Valley, then stopped in the Navajo town of Kayenta for a buffet breakfast at the local Best Western. From there, we continued west towards the town of Page, where we had to wait for a bit as Brian and Caroline returned to Kayenta to retrieve a forgotten wallet.
courtesy CDoucet
Heading into Arizona
Hwy 98 and Square Butte
Marble Canyon and Navajo Bridge
From Page, we took a slight detour to take a southern branch of US 89 (there are two branches of US 89 that head west from Page). This highway took us across the gorge of the Colorado River at Navajo Bridge, where we stopped for a good look at the historic bridge and scenic canyon). From there, we continued west, climbing high onto the high, 8000+ foot Kaibab Plateau, north of the Grand Canyon. It had been nearly 30 degrees C down near Navajo Bridge, and now, less than an hour later, we were driving through forest with patches of late season snow on either side of the highway, and with a temperature a full 15 degrees lower! Quite a change of scenery.
courtesy PChen
courtesy PChen
Jenn and Andrew
Admiring the Bridge View
Half-a-Bob
The rest of the ride back to Vegas was still scenic, but as we had had an overload of great scenery already, it passed by through our desensitized eyes. We had had a strong craving for a Dairy Queen Blizzard along the way back, but every one we tried was closed. Not so suprising, I guess, considering it was Easter Sunday in fairly religious southern Utah!

So, we arrived back in Las Vegas, Blizzard-less, around dinnertime. We had pre-reserved some very cheap rooms at the tower-like Stratosphere Hotel in Las Vegas (in fact, the prices were lower than some of the bargain-basement motels that we had stayed at -- times must be hard!). We had a nice dinner, headed up to the observation deck of the Stratosphere's tower, and took in the night view of Vegas.
Vegas from Stratosphere
Vegas from the Stratosphere
The Strip
The next morning, we rushed around to complete the last few remaining tasks - pack up, one last breakfast buffet, return the stove fuel containers to a local outdoor store, and gas up and return the rental vehicles. We arrived at the check-in for our flight not a minute too soon, and boarded for our flight back east. The flight's track offered some excellent views of much of the terrain we had just hiked over the last 7 days. A fitting end to a wonderfully varied and densely-packed trip.
Leaving Las Vegas
Escalante River System
The Waterpocket Fold
Upper Lake Powell
I'd like to thank everyone that went on the trip this year. We managed to do and see quite a lot! (And many thanks to Asmir for picking us up so late at the airport in Ottawa).

P.S. if you're interested, we've got a lot of extra pictures in our supplemental picture section. And don't forget to check out Brian's neat-o panoramas.
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