Thanks to a friend's four wheel drive vehicle, I got to experience some more rugged landscapes today. First on a bumpy road through multiple wash outs to Paria, where they filmed a number of Hollywood westerns. The buildings themselves were burned in a fire and haven't been rebuilt. But the valley itself is quite lovely and full of rainbow-colored mudstone layers. The mighty Paria River (at least on this day) defeated us, as we didn't want cold and muddy feet that early in the morning.
We drove on, through the mostly melted snow near Bryce Canyon and over into unexplored territory. Through valleys, mountains and plains we drove, north of the vast Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Eventually we took the Hole-in-the-Rock road, originally blasted by Mormon pioneers that leads all the way to Lake Powell.
After a hike through Entrada Formation hoo doos and arches, we drove down the rough road to Egypt--finally arriving just before dark to an audience of skittish cows. It was clear why the road ends there, and we turned around and headed back, bouncing slowly over potholes in the dark.
