Beautiful Day - Early Start

Hey, Bosco here -
K keeps talking about this arch - Mesa Arch that glows on the bottom - only at sunrise. So since this was the last day we were going to be in this area, I decided that K & D needed to be up before sunrise. So I did everything I could. I jumped on the bed, I walked around a lot, I scratched, and just wouldn't leave them alone until they got up. So, it was 5:00 a.m. - it's before sunrise. I think she was really happy after D drove as fast as he could for the 35 miles to the arch. This is what she wanted...

The light this morning was wonderful. Here's a view of the canyon.

This is a picture from Arches - it's the Three Gossips and Sheep's Head.

And here's another view of the Delicate Arch with the lens that Dr. Cater let K borrow. She was pretty happy about it - closer view - not so much hiking.

Check out the tiny little people.

We went for a drive down this rocky canyon and came across some petroglyphs.

Also down this canyon - that had very straight,tall, rock walls were probably about 20 groups of people. Some were standing and some were sitting. Like this...

And this is what they were looking at - crazy humans. Why in the world would they want to do that? It's beyond me.

Tomorrow we're leaving this area and moving down to Cedar City.
More later...

Change of Plans

We were going to head off to Arches this morning - but K & D changed plans and went to Canyonlands and Dead Horse Point. Why they'd want to go see a dead horse is beyond me - but... we just went along.
The first stop was just outside the park on a dirt road where D stopped and gave us a chance to run. We have the best time just running as fast as we can in all directions. Tucker stays pretty close to K & D - but not me. I run in really big circles. I pretend that I'm not paying attention and that I'm free as a dog can be -but don't tell D, I've always got one eye on him - I don't want to miss anything.

After our run they took another dirt road - but this was their adventure. It's called the White Rim Trail. Named that because it runs along the RIM of the mountain and is white because of the type of rock that's there.
This is a picture of the road - looking back at the part we just drove on.

The view from the White Rim Trail was excellent. We understand why they wanted to go on it - what we don't understand is why K kept telling D to get away from the edge... turn around... I don't want to look down there... STOP. I don't think she was enjoying it as much as he was.
This is the view from the trail.


We then headed out to Dead Horse Point. Legend has it that wild horses would be driven out to this point and fenced in - with the intention of catching, taming, and selling them - and were left there too long by the people that caught them that they went crazy because of lack of food and water and seeing the water in the river below - jumped to their death. Thus the name Dead Horse Point.


Late in the afternoon we headed back to Arches because K wanted to do the Park Avenue hike. It's an easy 1 mile hike that goes deep into the canyon. There are rock walls, balanced rocks, and potholes to see. (We don't know why she had to come all this way to see potholes - we have those at home. But, what they heck, it's vacation).
Here's a couple of pictures from that hike.



We have to get going now - D's warming up the truck (it's 21 degrees outside) and K's packup the gear. We'll write more later.

Getting Ready to Go

We're heading out to Arches this morning.
It's cold - but clear and sunny.
Last night we had a lot of wind and a little rain but... NO SNOW.
Oh well, maybe D and K will take us to the snow later this week.
Bye.

Moving Day

Today we moved from Monument Valley to Arches National Park. It wasn't too far - but man was it windy. You should have seen Tucker's fur - he looked like one of those blond movie stars working in front of a fan.

We got to Moab and had a chance to set up camp and then headed into Arches National Park. It was late afternoon so some of the shadows were really cool. We only focused on a couple of sites but will be back tomorrow.

This was the first stop - Balanced Rock.

Considering how hard the wind was blowing - it was making us a little nervous to watch K out hiking under and around this rock.

Then K headed up to Delicate Arch. You can see the arch 3 ways - walk 100 yards, hike 1/2 mile, or just about kill yourself on a 4 hour round trip strenous hike. Since we waited in the truck with D... K took the middle hike and was only gone about an hour. This is what she came back with.

Tomorrow - back into the park.
More later.

Side Trip to Mesa Verde

We woke up around 5:00 this morning and decided to head out to Mesa Verde, Colorado. It was about 100 miles of open land. We got to see some more of the monuments and drove from the Navajo Nation through the Ute Reservation. Park of the national park was closed due to snow - but we got to see most of the highlights.
Our first stop were the dewllings at Spruce Tree. We really don't get why they call it Spruce Tree - because these dwellings are built into the side of a rock mountain. Never the less - it's beautiful.

This one is called Cliff Palace - there was a sign that said that this particular dwelling held 100 to 200 people.


We got back to Monument Valley pretty close to sunset and decided to wait it out for a pretty view.


The end of another great day.
Tomorrow we're off towards Arches National Park.

A new vacation to the American West

We're on the road again. We headed out on Friday around 1:00 and went as far as Kingman, Arizona. We only stayed there long enough to sleep. K&D really didn't plan on staying long - they didn't even put out the slide out. So needless to say we slept in tight quarters.

We woke up early and headed out to Flagstaff. D agreed to stop at Cracker Barrel so K could get her "fix". While they were inside enjoying eggs, ham, grits, and biscuts and gravy - we waited in the trailer. By the time they were finished with breakfast - it was really cold and snowing! We love the snow!

We drove for several hours in the snow heading north and east and towards our next destination of Monument Valley on the Arizona/Utah border.

Once we arrived there - we set up camp at Goulding's trading post - in the heart of the Navajo nation. It's funny - there are several radio stations that are... All Navajo... All the time! If you've never heard the Navajo language spoken... it's very interesting. K said she wasn't sure they used all 26 letters of the English alphabet. Like other foreign languages - there are just some words that don't translate into Navajo... like "parking lot". There was a commerical playing and it went like this... jlopweryhb lwjerieoeru parking lot ljolwieurij lowehernpdit. Really!

We went for a drive into the Navajo tribal park. It was a beautiful drive (although VERY rough dirt road)that wove between the monuments. Now these aren't monuments like in Washington, DC., they are just called monuments. They are large rock formations that seem to rise up out of the ground.

This was at the tail end of the storm...


And another...



We're always on the hunt for a square rock for Pam back at the office - but this is just plain crazy.


That's it for today... see you tomorrow.