AZ

We have covered a lot of ground the past few days. When I last left you, we were in Montrose spending a night with my cousin. We got a great home cooked meal, did some laundry and slept in real beds. It was a nice little break. From Montrose we drove north to visit the Black Canyon and then the Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction. They were both great views of impressive canyons and landscapes. We continued west into Utah and then south to Arches National Park. We drove a scenic by-way rte 128 along the Colorado River. The weather was beautiful and the sites were even more so. I am sure Tempe will post photos but those wont begin to do it justice. It was spectacular. I am a big fan of water in landscapes so having the Colorado there was perfect.

In fact we camped along the Colorado on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land. Don't worry folks we were in a designated campground and there were 4-5 other sites with people in them. There are certain perks to camping on BLM land like it is really cheap and certain setbacks like there is no running water...unless you count the mighty Colorado. It was no big deal though we had plenty of our own water to cook with and drink. This particular evening was very windy...a warm wind so at least we weren't cold, but the wind shakes the tent and it is difficult to sleep through the vibrations.

After a restless night and the wind seemingly getting stronger as we awoke, we continued into Arches National Park. We had planned a 3 mile hike but as soon as we stepped out of the car at our first overlook point our plans changed. Our legs were pelted with grains of sand and we started to feel a few rain drops. The rain never developed but the winds were around 30 mph with gusts around 55 mph. The day did not turn out as planned and after driving around the park and hopping out of the car in a few key places we called it quits around 12:30. We did get to see most of the sites the park has to offer. There were some real neat rock arches but even more exciting to me was to think about the geological processes that had to happen before the landforms even existed. Long story short...millions of years ago there was an inland sea --evaporation--erosion--the strongest of the rocks survive and create what we see there today.

We continued our drive south and took a detour to Monument Valley which is right on the border of AZ and UT in Navijo Nation. We skipped going into the park because the wind was still so strong (the sky was hazy with sand) we had seen some of the incredible landforms from the road. We took some back roads through Navajo Nation and into Canyon de Chelly. Apparently it is supposed to be a mini Grand Canyon. At this point it was just another canyon. We stopped at some of the highlighted view points which were cool and you could see the remains of old cliff dwellings (not nearly as cool as in Mesa Verde). We could have camped here but it was still really windy so we kept driving.

We ended up here in Holbrook, AZ in a little cabin because the wind was still gusting to 50 mph last night. Today the weather is supposed to be nicer with winds from 10 to 20 mph and the high is 78. We are off to Petrified Forest National Park today.

Side note- AZ is weird because they don't do Daylight Savings like the rest of us so we are now 3 hours behind those of you loyal east coast readers. It was confusing to go south and switch time zones.