Gooseneck, The Mokee Dugway, Muley Point and the Natural Bridges Park

By a stange quirk of fate we were forced to move on from the Cadilac Ranch, i.e. we had not booked an extension to our stay and they were full up. So we uprooted ourselves and moved on to The Gooseneck State Park. The name gooseneck refers to the encised meanders in the San Juan River, which has spectacularly cut down through many layers of sandstone. We camped on the cliff top, above the meanders, 1200 feet above the river! From where we were you could see several meanders and at the bottom the, by now, green San Juan River. Sally has real difficulites with heights, so had great trouble going to the edge, but was quite confident when there was a wall or railings between her and the drop, so she was able to enjoy the view as well. She was reasonably happy even though we were camped only a few feet from the drop.

As we had arrived there in plenty of time we decided that we would attempt some other items on our tourist agenda:
Moki Dugway.
Before we could visit elsewhere we had to climb the Moki Dugway.
Part of the backdrop to our local scenery is a massive mesa, called Cedar Edge Mesa. It runs for perhaps 30 miles and is 1200 feet high. It has almost sheer cliff sides. However in the 1950's Uranium Ore was mined on the Mesa top, and had to be taken to Mexican Hat (at the bottom) for initial processing, so they built a road. It is paved along the top of the mesa, it is paved at the bottom of the mesa, but they dug a narrow, unpaved, twisty road out of the side of the 1200ft cliff to carry the ore down. It twists and turns through a series of switchbacks, there are no guard rails, it has a gravel surface and is steep. What an adventure! I was really impressed by Sally as she grittted her teeth and stuck in there as we ascended this mammoth cliff. I tried where possible to drive on the cliff face side, rather than the correct side of the road, but when a car came down we had to go to the correct place on the road, which even made me feel worried. But the view was amazing.
Muley Point
We eventually got to the top and stopped to enjoy the view which extended Eastwards over the Valley of The Gods and you could see the Durango mountains away in Colorado. Well done Sally. Once we had got to the top of the Mesa we took a little side road to the southern most tip of the Mesa to Muley Point. From here, 1200 feet above the landscape we could see the meanders of the San Juan, a further 1200 ft. just below us and away in the distance the buttes of Monument Valley. What a stupendous view.
Natural Bridge National Park.
From Muley point we rejoined the road and sped along the top of the mesa to a small National Park called Natural Bridge N.P. Here in the steep canyons cut by streams were a number of incised meanders which had cut deep into the rocks. The meanders had cut back and worn away at the little bit of land on the inside of the loop, until they had cut their way through, taking a short cut for the water, but leaving a bridge of rock. The end result was imilar to Arches, but made in a different way. We saw three of the natural bridges by following a 9 mile scenic tour. Two of them are over 200 feet wide. I walked down to one of them, it was quite spectacular.
After our visit there we returned to our trailer, this time coming back down the Moki Dugway. This time we were dry camping, no water, no electricty. Fortunately no problems, just great and breathtaking scenery. What a fabulous day of sightseeing.