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Alstrom Point to Johns Canyon

Arizona Strip & Southern Utah Wanderings | Day 5
Wednesday, October 10, 2012

On Wednesday morning, after a great night sleeping under the stars on Alstrom Point, we woke up just as dawn was starting to break. I rolled out of my sleeping bag, grabbed my camera and walked a few feet to the edge of the cliff overlooking Lake Powell. Looking towards the sky to the east I had a feeling that there was going to be a great sunrise.

My campsite for the night as the sky begins to light up. I’ve had a lot of questions about my tentcot in the past, and another great feature of it is that I can use it as just a regular cot, too.

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Morning View by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

Lake Powell and the cliffs in the distance as the sky above turns pink.

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Warm & Cool by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

Right before the sun came up, the sky exploded with color! One of the best sunrises I have witnessed.

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Alstrom Point Sunrise by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

Of course I had to get a sunburst as the sun came up to the right of Navajo Mountain.

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Lake Powell Sunburst by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

A view of our camp after the sun was up.

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Alstrom Point Camp by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

Jared in the distance…probably taking a photo of me…

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Jared Sunrise by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

Nice warm light striking my Jeep.

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Jeep Sunrise by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

When the sun was higher in the sky and we were done taking photos, we packed up our camp and started the drive back to Page for a late breakfast. On the way we took the short side trip down Crosby Canyon to the edge of Lake Powell since neither of us had been down that road before, yet we’ve driven by it many times. I really like to find out where roads lead…

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Leaving Alstrom by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

After our breakfast in Page we started our drive back into Utah through Kayenta and ending up near Bluff. We spent some time searching for some new rock art around Bluff.

I’ve been to this petroglyph panel before, but took a new photo anyway.

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Riders by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

I had missed this faint Glen Canyon Style petroglyph panel before, which is pretty detailed if you look closely.

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Blending In by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

This has to be one of the more strange and interesting historic panels in the area.

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Interesting Panel by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

A few more Glen Canyon Style anthropomorphs.

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Glen Canyon Style by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

I’ve been wanting to find this highly stylized anthropomorph for a while now and was glad to finally locate it. The sad part is that I’ve been within 20 feet of finding it before…better late than never!

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The Most Interesting Man by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

A few small jumping or dancing figures next to two larger anthropomorphs.

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Celebration Right by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

This flat slab of rock contains at least eight different horses.

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Horses by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

Another very large horse petroglyph with Jared in the photo for some scale.

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Jared and the Horse by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

After exploring around Bluff for a little while we drove through Comb Ridge and made our way to Mexican Hat, where I topped off the fuel tank in my Jeep and started our drive into Johns Canyon, where we planned to spend the night.

We passed a few more petroglyphs along the way, including this small panel found on a large boulder.

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Dotted Man Panel by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

We couldn’t drive by the amazing Duckhead Man without stopping for another photo.

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Duckhead Man by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

We drove to where the road was washed out and setup camp. This small panel was nearby and contained a much smaller duck-headed figure.

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Small Duckhead by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

When sunset got near, we grabbed our cameras to try and get some photos up Johns Canyon. The clouds in the sky were a little strange this evening. In this photo it looks like the upper portion of the clouds were blurred, and that’s how they really looked in person. The light on the canyon walls in the background is pretty nice, though.

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Lonely Road by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

We were treated to a little nice spot-lighting on the canyon walls above our camp.

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Spotlight by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

Here’s one more sunset photo looking up Johns Canyon without the distracting blurry clouds to end the evening.

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Johns Canyon Sunset by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

>> Alstrom Point to Johns Canyon Photo Gallery

One Comment

  1. logan white
    logan white October 27, 2012

    Do you have a GPS track for Flag Point?

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