Alstrom Point, view of Gunsight Butte

[Brakelate]

Took a little drive yesterday up Route 12 - a unpaved Scenic Byway through the Glenn Canyon National Recreation Area (right across the street from the house) to Alstrom Point, which is a Bluff overlooking a finger of Lake Powell called Warm Creek Bay, with an amazing view of Gunsight Butte slightly below and in the distance.

Despite being a wet season, the road was mostly dry and hard packed, with a nice smooth ride over rolling hills and an occasional stream crossing. It is about a 25 mile ride (total) one way from the house to the point, with all but about 4 of those miles being on pavement.

The trip was well worth it and rewarded us with a incredible view, some fun super lightweight hiking (you can basically just pull up and look right out the window if you wanted) and a great Sunset on the way home.

It was very overcast and grey out, preventing the colors from really "popping", and limiting the site distances a bit, but it still made for a bunch of good shots.

I need to get a REAL camera. I can only imagine the quality of shots I could grab were I using anything other than my silly Cell Phone!

Anyway, I don't get much of a response to these threads, but I thought I would share the beauty with those who cared to look.

[Brakelate]

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[Brakelate]

A narrow trail that eventually runs down to the waterline.

We didn't make it all the way down, as the trail continues to increase in difficulty and decrease in width as you near the bay. But the water has receded so far, that it goes forever and I got distracted and had to stop and look for photos at the various rock formations and soak in the incredibly steep and tall canyon walls. We ran out of daylight and it was getting cold. We will go back another day all the way down. Rumor has it there are Coal mineshafts from early settlers and those who needed to fuel the single paddle boat that once navigated these waterways prior to the Glenn Canyon Dam, when one could float all the way down to the one primary point where you could ride a Ferry across the River; Lee's Ferry.

[Brakelate]

At some points it was a bit of a challenge squeezing the larger than life Power Wagon down the narrow creek trail between boulder outcroppings and under or around over hangs and climbing or dropping down the multiple old waterfall steps.

In the narrow, shaded portions, there was still a little snow or frozen sheets of ice covering the path.

[Brakelate]

The 'Wagon handled it all with ease. And I am getting more comfortable getting it in and out of tight spaces and better at judging the ground clearance of it's under-belly low points and skid plates. Not a single scrape or spin of the tires all day, never having to even use 4-Lo or either of the Lockers. The swaybar disconnect is nice just to smooth the ride and add some flexibility. Just too bad the feature can only be activated in 4WD, at speeds no greater than 19 mph. With such good tires and tight LSD, it sure would be nice to have the option of leaving it "loose" while running at higher speeds, and 2WD when one would like to save fuel and not just go at a snails pace. Prime example is when covering the many miles of gravel "road" out here. Sometimes it is so much nicer to just float along at speed.

[SonicVenum]

Amazing views, Jay! Absolutely gorgeous.

On a side note, Dodge could really use some of these shots in their advertising.

[Tetge]

You should check out cameras since you are always taking pictures. These days, a really nice one would not be very expensive and it would take much better pics than a cell phone. Of course, a GoPro would work to make some nice videos of the action and you allegedly have a GoPro.

[Brakelate]

No kidding. But the GoPro Gremlins have done a REALLY good job hiding it from me. I STILL have not found it.

I think about the great action vids I could have already collected, but no. I am tempted to even consider the latest / greatest GoPro edition to bring it up to the next level. But, it would be antiquated by the time I got it out of the box. But, I understand that they still manage to somehow keep taking legitimate steps forward in it's functionality, battery life and external simplicity.

I will just have a lot of making up to do, once I find one, or buy the other.

[Tetge]

No kidding. But the GoPro Gremlins have done a REALLY good job hiding it from me. I STILL have not found it.

I think about the great action vids I could have already collected, but no. I am tempted to even consider the latest / greatest GoPro edition to bring it up to the next level. But, it would be antiquated by the time I got it out of the box. But, I understand that they still manage to somehow keep taking legitimate steps forward in it's functionality, battery life and external simplicity.

I will just have a lot of making up to do, once I find one, or buy the other.

The newest GoPro is well integrated with smart phones and appears to be yet another step up from the previous one. But, it costs $100 more for the nice version. A pro photographer who is a friend of my brother's said that he was going to have to break down and get the latest GoPro as it was just too good to pass up. And, that is saying a lot. In my case, since I have only a dumb phone, it would not be a great thing, but, for those with phones, it apparently rocks. And it does have 10mp capability, so it should shoot nice pics.

[jhwalker]

Great pictures, Jay. The next time I travel out there to mooch off of you, I will play to hang around for a day or two if that works for you, and see some of those sights.

James