Rocky Roads

The next morning we woke to find our other camping neighbors aroused and talking with one another. As Katie and I emerged from Calamity, we saw one RV pulling away and a guy walking past our car who asked if we wanted some coffee. We accepted and followed him to his RV which was parked in the spot next to ours. The first thing we noticed as we

began to walk the short distance is how beautiful the sight we were at really was. We were on top of a huge canyon with the San Juan river below us and 4 giant goosenecks in the river slowly meandering like a snake through the desert. In the distance we could again see Monument Valley, only this time clearly in the light of day. After taking in this beautiful scenery our host emerged from his RV with 2 cups of coffee and we began to sit and chat. Katie was reading Travels with Charley at the time and was instantly reminded of John Steinbeck who, in the book, frequently asked strangers to join him for drinks in an attempt to get to know his fellow travelers and divulge truths and assumptions about them as well as the places which they lived. Our host was no Steinbeck and turned out to be more of an eccentric nomad who had spent the last 45 days camped out at this same spot. He told us how he ventures out everyday to another place to

discover ancient ruins via his ATV or fly off canyon walls on his personal plane, which consisted of a go-kart strapped with wings made out of a tarp and a giant fan to propel him. After we sat with this guy for about an hour, watching him crazily chase after his dogs and tell us many long winded stories, we knew that we could be trapped here all day if we weren't careful. We awkwardly forced ourselves out of the conversation and began to pack up the van. I don't mean to portray this guy in a negative light by any means. He was nothing but kind to us, but like anyone traveling by themselves for months, he was desperate for some human contact and we just did not have the time to spare to sit all day and chat. We set off, giving our friend a cheerful honk as we left, and headed south to get a closer look at Monument Valley. On the road into the valley, Katie and I pulled off at one of the most well recognized

spots in the area, the road into Monument Valley. A nearby sign told us that we had stopped at the exact location that Forest Gump ended his cross country run. We snapped a few photos and took the road that skirts the outside of Monument Valley. The area is on an Indian reservation and thus admission is charged if you want to go into the actual valley. Because of our lost time

with our friend in the morning and because we honestly could see as much as I cared to see from the nearby road, we opted not to enter the park. Instead we drove to a motel down the road in which John Wayne used to always stay at during the filming of his many westerns in this area.

After Monument Valley we went to nearby Valley of the Gods. This is a 17 mile drive down a primitive dirt road that snakes in and out of various sandstone formations and deep cut valleys. It looks very much like Monument Valley only on a smaller scale and, not to mention, free. This drive is rough to say the least and after we successfully made it out with no flat tires we proceeded to head straight

to the Moki Dugway. This is a series of steep switchbacks along a dirt road which brings you from the valley floor back to the top of the Colorado Plateau. The road is pretty scary and we couldn't help but thing of what Angella would have done had she been in the car with us. We made it up without overheating or falling off the edge, both of which were valid concerns of ours, then headed down the road into Natural Bridges National Monument. This place has the largest concentration of natural bridges anywhere in the world with 3 large bridges along a 9

mile loop trail. Here we chose to hike to the bottom of one of the natural bridges which is apparently the best way to view these giants. From the road there are various lookouts from which you can see all of the bridges but you cannot possibly grasp the scale of them from these lookouts. Once you are at the rivers edge and looking up through these giant bridges, you get a real sense of the

vastness of time and the crushing power of water both needed to form these impressive formations. The hike itself was actually a blast. We had to take many steep rock walls down as well as some wooden ladders and stairs carved into rocks. By the time we got back to the canyon rim we were both pretty tired and didn't feel the need to hike down to the canyon bottom again. We drove around the rest of the park and viewed all of the bridges from their respective lookouts

then hit the road, only we didn't know where we were going. It was already later in the day, so traveling on to Capitol Reef National Park would have been pointless. Also there were no rest area's anywhere along our route at which we could stop at for the night. We continued in the general

direction of our goal, west, and finally agreed that we would camp for the night at Goblin Valley State Park. This was a park that Megan had enthusiastically suggested to us during our stay in Park City. We had passed it up originally in favor of Arches and other National Parks in the surrounding area. But now we figured that this would be a perfect stop to camp and spent the evening, maybe doing a hike or a drive before setting up a fire and relaxing all night. We bought wood in the only "town" for hundreds of miles, then headed up to Goblin Valley to get our camping spot. We were greeted there by "campground full" signs and after we confirmed this

information with the ranger, we headed back to the road to rethink our plan. We had already bought all of the supplies needed for camping and we were determined to spend our night this way. Ultimately we ended up traveling all the way to Capitol Reef National Park and spent the night at a campground there, intending to spend our entire next day exploring the park. We picked up some info at the visitor center to help plan our day and grabbed a campsite. This campsite had an abundance of wildlife. Capitol Reef is famous for its orchards that were planted in the valley by early settlers and which still survive today. In my opinion, these orchards are what brought so many animals into the area. There were deer running everywhere through the campsites and I even came across a grey fox just outside our own as I was coming back from the bathroom. None of the animals were scarred of humans and it seemed rather like they had been fed often by its inhabitants, frequently getting almost too close for comfort. Our fire roared late into the night and we both feasted on the beer and camp food we had acquired for the night before finally turning in.