Okay, TECHNICALLY we don't have any Navajo roots, but at least now you're reading (though it's possible that you've now stopped reading...) After the Grand Canyon, Laura and Pete headed down to Tucson to meet up with family a day or two early, but Winter and I were still geared up for a few days driving around the southwest. These photos are all from that stretch.
First up, Winter needs to see the Grand Canyon. She stayed in a kennel while we backpacked in and out, so it's her turn. After heading as far east as the rim road goes, and just after nearly getting pulled down INTO the canyon by an over-excited Winter:
"I don't understand -- where are the tennis balls? You SAID there'd be tennis balls."
On the road to Cameron, AZ
The very farthest end of the Grand Canyon, where it's a lot less grand
The landscape starts to change to Painted Desert
It was actually dark when I passed into Utah at 90 mph. It was well below freezing, so camping wasn't much of an option, but only one hotel within a 200-mile radius of Monument Valley accepted dogs, and they closed at 8 pm (hotels can CLOSE??) At 5:30, with no cell phone signal at all, the 200-mile race to Bluff, Utah begins...
I don't remember much of the 200 miles, except a few questionable decisions to pass a line of cars already going 70 on a one lane backroad. Keep in mind this is in the gigantic Navajo Reservation, so there's basically no cell phone, no services, and no rules.
At 7:55 we made it to the Kokopelli Inn. With no food and only a little water, I decided to just go straight to the room, rather than buy any food and water at the store next door that ALSO closed at... everyone together now... "Eight o'clock." So, after completely draining myself of any fuel over the past two days in the Grand Canyon, it's time for a dinner of pasta shells soaked in lukewarm sink water and sunflower seeds. Not a great move. Meanwhile, Pete and Laura have made it to a fully stocked kitchen in Tucson, where they get to cook their pasta all the way through. Oops.
But we woke up to these views, which were a nice surprise
A big front was moving in, with snow and freezing rain. It kind of looked like it ended a few miles ahead -- you can kind of see the edge. Remind me to tell you about Snowflake, AZ later on...
This is the first time I've ever seen a "Watch out for falling rocks" sign and actually seen fallen rock.
The landscape shifted every 50 miles or so -- that made for a great day of driving
I see blue sky...
Almost out of it...
The town nearby is called Mexican Hat. Any idea why?
And then it began to snow. As soon as the first winds picked up, a small herd of wild horses begins sprinting in the opposite direction. This is one of those classic road trip moments where you've been driving way too long, you're more or less in the middle of nowhere with no cars for miles, then you see something, pull off onto some rancher's dirt road for a half hour, and just watch it unfold. Does it make it less classic to call it classic? Classic.
Then only a mile later we're suddenly out of the clouds
Looking backward
Had to turn around and come back for this view
This whole time I'm thinking, "At what point do I know that I'm in Monument Valley?"
Found it. Annnnd it's closed. This ONE day of the entire year, they close it. At least I got the classic view (that's five "classic" mentions so far, for those keeping track)
This guy wanted to play with Winter SO BAD. Winter whimpered and whined for a few minutes while I took pictures, but to no avail. Then the dog literally just walked right off that ledge and hiked into the park, right up to those rock formations in the pictures above.
At this point I realize that road tripping alone is REALLY boring. Instead of two days of driving, I decide it's time to hightail it down to Tucson. That's nearly 600 miles, and it's already noon. A little quick math and... ok, with an hour at Canyon de Chelly and another hour at the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert, and I'll get there at around 12 or 1 a.m. No sweat. I can probably stay awake that long... right?
We saw this sign EVERYWHERE, but never once had any wildlife or livestock cross a road in front of us.
Agathla Peak. This thing rises out of nowhere like one of the towers from the Lord of the Rings. THAT'S RIGHT. I MADE A LORD OF THE RINGS REFERENCE. Inspiration has to come from SOMEWHERE, you know.
Holy crap. HOLY CRAP. Google "tower lord of rings" in Google Images, and look at the 28th image. Or just click here and scroll down until you see the Lord of the Rings reference. Looks like I'm not the only nerd on the interwebs...
So here's the first half-ish phase of the drive. Start way up there north of Kayenta in Oljato-Monument Valley, then head over to Chinle and into Canyon de Chelly National Monument, then another few hundred miles to see the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest as the sun sets. Then just another five-ish hours to Tucson, if I drive fast.
And the landscape changes again...
The most expansive and unrestrained game of fetch of Winter's life thus far
At a certain point, a layer of dried red mud has washed over the road, and I think "Is this actually a road?" GPS says probably not. But we're going with it.
From a distance, this looked like a general rise in elevation up onto a plateau, but it was just a wall, in the middle of nowhere
I've been waiting all trip to see a dust devil, and I finally get one
SO close to getting to drive right through it. Maybe next time (there's never a next time...)
Chinle, AZ
Not a lot of people know about Canyon de Chelly (I say that because I had never really heard about it, and I assume that everyone else knows exactly the same things I know, and that's how I form all my assumptions about everything) It's basically a small canyon that Anasazi and other Indians have inhabited -- I think consistently -- for nearly a thousand years. There are still people living down there now, among the ruins. The only way to get in is to hire a Navajo guide to take you through the canyon.
See the farmland?
Ruins of cliff dwellings on the left
She REFUSED to come sit up front with me for hours. After nearly 24 hours she finally gave in.
What I saw here were the beautiful wispy clouds. What I should've picked up on was the darkening clouds just beyond...
Twelve thousand miles I think? I'll go back and recount... (yup that's right)
(This one just looked better in black and white)
Ok, you know you're in trouble when it's below 20 degrees and suddenly rain clouds (snow clouds) completely obscure the sky. That front we supposedly drove through already? Yeah, that was just a gap in the storm. It's WAY worse down south. But at this point, I still don't know that. We of COURSE have to wait for the sun to go down for me to stop and figure that out.
Perfect timing. JUST before sunset. Time for some awesome pictures of the Painted Desert.
Orrr not. Well, that sucks. Guess it's time to start the 300-mile drive to Tucson. At least we'll get there an hour earlier than expected, since we're skipping the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest, right? Wrong. The next five hours -- no EIGHT hours -- were insane. We made it about two hours before passing through Snowflake, Arizona where, of course, the snow began to fall. Hard. Suddenly 80 mph becomes 35. Or, in our case, 40 mph -- how do I know this? Because a police officer pulled us over for passing her while she was driving 35. After a 30-minute delay, during which she threatened to search the van for drugs with her drug sniffing dog (which I can kind of understand because if someone were doing something illegal, it probably would have been in this mess of a van from California), we finally get back on the road. But by this time I've had a chance to look at the radar map and it's not looking good. The storm is HUGE and unprecedented in the past several decades. That means we have to drive allll the way around to Phoenix, rather than through Snake River Canyon, and then down the highway, right? Nope, we drove straight through the canyon at 40 miles per hour. Got to Tucson at almost 2 a.m. It was...harrowing, to say the least. The weirdest part? At this point I haven't even left the town yet. Right after the Snowflake, AZ cop pulls away, I turn on This American Life. The first story is about a famous alien abduction from the 70s. It was apparently the basis of a cult classic (that's seven) called Fire in the Sky. It took place in a small Mormon logging town in northeastern Arizona: Snowflake, AZ.
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