Leeds UT

We arrived in Leeds on March 17th after a marvelous drive past the vast expanse of Painted Desert and a quite thrilling drive through Zion National Park. We stopped at the Lomaki and Wapatki Ruins National Monument while still in Arizona. These are the remains of pueblo inhabitants of this area who lived here a thousand years ago, long before Westerners arrived in the 16th century. The ruins are a testament to the skill and perseverance of these people in developing and surviving this harsh environment. They abandoned these settlements in the mid 1100s.

Our camper viewed from one of the pueblo ruins

A box canyon which was used as a watershed. The rocks down in the bottom right corner is actually a small dam the inhabitants used to trap water and stored for irrigation. They also used the canyon floor to grow their beans, corn and other staples

Two very informative volunteer rangers who explained the details of the pueblos and the lives of the natives

Further along the desert road we finally made it to the Wapatki ruins. These are much more extensive dwelling place not only as homes but as a central gathering place for all inhabitants of surrounding areas. Very, very impressive indeed.

On our way out of the pueblo ruins I took some photos of the desert landscape leading back to the main road to Leeds.

As we headed west toward Utah we passed through the Painted Desert. I got a few shots off but pictures alone cannot reveal the stunning raw beauty of this land.

Next on the journey was Zion and what a visual delight it was. I held tight to the steering wheel while Marilyn took a zillion pictures. Here are a few of them.

Even though we have senior passes to all National Parks which gets us in free, we had to pay a fee of $15 to pass through the long, narrow tunnel. The photo of the tunnel entrance you saw in a picture above was the larger of the two tunnels and two vehicles can pass each other. Not so in the longer tunnel. One way only when RVs need to travel through. This one is 1.1 miles long and is called the Zion Mt. Carmel Tunnel.

I got this interior photo from the web

We made a short stop at the visitor center to have a look around and a welcome respite for your overworked driver.

Finally reaching Leeds in the mid-afternoon we arrived at our campground.

While here we made several trips into St. George checking out properties and values. One of the goals of this trip, as I've mentioned before, is to scout out different areas of the Southwest and see if any seem to fit our preferences.

An example of what $120,000 can get you in St. George

There are also lots of historical places to see. We visited an old silver mining are near Leeds where silver was found in sandstone.

Boot hill

Along I-15 just south of Leeds and to the west is the Red Rock Conservation area. I was fascinated with the sheer size of this red rock wall and the enormous cathedral shaped hollow on its face.

Oh and one more thing to cast a juxtaposition into this nature stuff. Here's a shot I took of Marilyn while we were visiting the Lomaki ruins back at the beginning of this posting. Even in the middle of nowhere.......

We're never really out of touch anymore are we

Next stop is back to Page for two days then on to Colorado.