Black Mesa (Sedona to Moab part 1)

We departed Sedona Saturday morning for our run up to Moab, Utah.

I found something striking in my reaction to some of the various rock formations in Sedona - I think the human mind tries constantly to fit things it sees into existing patterns. Whenever I saw formations like the one below I kept thinking that they looked like bas relief carvings from antiquity, especially weatherbeaten and partially destroyed ones. Of course, they're entirely natural but there are enough human-like forms visible that I kept thinking they were sculpture. In this one I saw an outline of a figure with his or her left arm outstretched facing right.

This effect became particularly noticeable later on in the journey.

Northeast Arizona is quite empty and very sparsely inhabited. It's also where the Navajo Nation has a large reservation.

The outstanding moment of this part of the run was when we passed a sign for Black Mesa! For many of you this will mean nothing, so please indulge me. The rest (and you know who you are) can certainly appreciate how awesome this was and how surprised I was to see it.

Unfortunately I couldn't get a picture of the sign and it was only repeated once, as you would expect...

I did manage to get a picture of the facility.


Yes, it did have a tram...


One thing not found in the records however is the existence of its inverse twin. We found it further on.


Anyway, as we drove towards Utah the color of the ground became redder and redder, which meant we were approaching one of the core destinations of the trip...