Archive for the ‘Road Trip 2008’ Category

Finally a sleep in! Knowing that we only had a 4.5 hour drive into Vegas and we couldn’t check in until 2:00pm there was need need to rush. We got up, went to the hotel cafe’ and had breakfast then back up top the room to pack up and head out.

Our first stop for the day was a lookout just a few miles outside of Page, once again…WOW. If we had know exactly has amazing the scenery was we would have dragged our weary butts out the night before to get some pictures when we had good light. But we didn’t know and the rest before hitting Vegas was much needed. We carried on driving and came to a beautiful town named Kanab that is seven miles North of the Arizona border. We made a note to research this town further as a potential place to live, It had us written all over it.

The drive out of Page and heading back up into Utah was beautiful with the exception of the massive amount of power lines. I have nothing against power lines but these were always on the side of the road that had the great view. I see many hours playing with Photoshop to remove them from some of my photos.

Not far past Kanab we came across a sign for Coral Pink Sand Dunes and of course had to go see what it was. What we thought would be a side trip turned out to be a short cut down a dirt road, once again I love our GPS. The sand dunes were well worth the side trip and the dirt road with the beautiful scenery made it that much better.

We still managed to get into Vegas right on time, found NY NY with no problems and managed to wait in the long line for over half an hour to check in without losing our cool, after all its Vegas! I have been to Vegas before but it has been a long time, last time I stayed in Vegas was at Excalibur and NY NY was still being built. If you are going to Vegas I don’t recommend staying here, don’t waste your money. Our room was seriously a five minute hike from the elevators, how do they expect drunks to stagger that far? The room itself was very nice, we had booked a spa room and it was huge but the casino right now is not exactly our idea of fun. There is construction going on and the days are filled with the sounds of jackhammers.

When we finally got to our room we ordered room service and enjoyed a bottle of bubbly before getting dressed and heading out. We went to Excalibur, Mandalay Bay, Luxor and all the way down the strip to Caesars Palace stopping and having a drink at every hotel and casino along the way. We eventually decided getting one really big drink and carrying it around so we could drink all the time was a better idea so we got a couple of 32oz drinks from Fat Tuesdays and proceeded to get very drunk. Despite being fueled by alcohol our feet eventually gave out and we made our way back to the hotel and passed out.

Outside of Page

Going into Kanab

Coral Pink Sand Dunes

Getting closer to Vegas

Shane and I really enjoying our drinks and obviously all the ones before

I am not known for being a morning person and today started at 4:30am. Surprisingly I was out the door and loading up the Jeep before my husband who is a morning person. We started the day freezing our butts off in an open top Jeep while flying down the highway trying to make sure we got to Monument Valley before sunrise. We realized half way that we had spent what we thought was the last of our cash the previous day and with us being no where near an ATM thought we weren’t going to be able to scrape together the entrance fee. After scrounging around on the floor boards, through the depths of my purse and my husbands wallet we just managed to scrape together enough money to get into the park.

We were excited, there was a full moon that night and we could see the black outlines of the monuments and by the time we got there could see the glimmer of the sun threatening to rise up over the horizon. Everything was perfect, except the park was closed. I researched and researched this trip and everything said that the park opened at 6am, we are guessing the guy who opens the gate was late or the park actually opens after sunrise. Fortunately there was a great parking area and I managed to take some amazing photo’s of sunrise while we were waiting for the park to open. Eventually we got into the park and were the first ones in. We loved the drive around Monument Valley, the dirt road through it was poorly maintained and very bumpy, the scenery magnificent so to us it was perfect.

We had no plans for the rest of the day, we were going to our next destination of Page AZ and calling it quits for the day. We passed a brown tourist sign that said Navajo National Monument and decided to turn off and have a look. WOW!! It was a beautiful drive complete with horses walking down the road (no other humans in sight). We finally managed to find something free! The walk into the canyon was easy, walk up a different story. We were greeted at the end with great views over very well preserved cliff dwellings built in an alcove. I am still kicking myself over not taking the camera bag and not having my zoom lens to get a better shot.

It was then on to Page with one stop at a scenic viewing area with American Natives selling jewelry. We rolled into Page with the intention of going out later to get some good photo’s, the city itself isn’t much but the surrounding area is gorgeous. Needless to say that after our early morning start we were done for the night.

Sunrise at Monument Valley, worth the early morning start

Monument Valley National Park

Finally a Jeep pic!

Long lonely road heading into Arizona

Navajo National Monument

When Shane and I met it was not love at first sight. We were great friends, liked to drink and had a lot of fun together. We had been dating awhile and decided to take a road trip down the Great Ocean Road. We started driving from Sydney and were planning on making it to Melbourne about 9 hours away. We did not book accommodation for the first night and were going to stop when we got too tired. It was about 2:00 when we left Sydney and when we made it to Melbourne we found that all the hotels were booked for a big air show that was going on that weekend. We drove further and still nothing available. In the end we decided to pull off at a road side park and sleep. Little did we know that “park” was sitting on top of a cliff with an absolute perfect view of the sunrise over the ocean. It was a wonderful morning and the view was well worth sleeping in the car. We traveled well together and on this trip we fell in love.

Most couples would have been at each others throats at the though of sleeping in uncomfortable car seats out in the cold. Shane and I take things as they come and deal with it. No need getting grumpy over things that are out of our control.

What made me fall in love with him besides his infectious smile and huge personality, his love for adventure. He is happy to jump in the car and drive for 14 hours with no real agenda. He takes things as they come and he makes the most out of life. Shane and I decided on a whim to move to Harrison and that worked out perfectly. We are now looking at little towns along the Utah/Arizona border and thinking that might be where we want to spend our lives. Anyone that knows us knows we do what we want and nothing is set in concrete. I love that he shares my need for change and adventure. It took me a long time to find the perfect man for me and I have no doubt that he is the one I am meant to spend my life with. I have no regrets on the many states, paths and countries I had to travel to to find him.

This adventure through eight states has renewed the extreme love I feel for this man (and the Jeep of course

There is nothing better to wake you up than starting the day with heart stopping fireworks and a bang in your hotel room. One of the forgotten items we picked up in Albuquerque was my straitening iron. I plugged in the new one and sparks started flying out of the top and that was followed by a bang. Shane and I are still in shock that I wasn’t hurt by it. Needless to say this one is getting returned and next time I’ll be purchasing a different brand.

There were really no plans for today, we just wanted to see some interesting things and make it to Bluff in time for dinner. We started out backtracking 15 miles to Aztec, NM to visit the Aztec Ruins. We decided to see this on a whim and were very happy we did. The tour of the ruins is self guided and took us just over an hour. The architecture is amazing and I find it amazing that parts of these buildings are still standing over 800 years after they were built.

After leaving the Aztec Ruins we headed West to four corners. I love it that we were able to drive an hour out of the way to stand in four states at once just because we wanted to. After days of hardly seeing any tourists we found all of them in one spot. Apparently four corners is a very popular place and was flooded with tourists, most of them German. Four corners also has some Navajo  Indians selling jewelry, pottery and t-shirts. We picked up Shane an arrow head made of flint, Georgie and Ethan two little turtle necklaces and Georgie a turquoise necklace.

We started heading North into Colorado and stopped for lunch in Cortez. It was a beautiful little town with great views of the mountains. Shane took over driving duties and we headed to Hovenweep National Monument. It was boiling hot but we managed to do the two mile hike down into the canyon and back up to see all of the cliff dwellings. It was a steep 80 foot drop into the canyon and an immediate 80 foot hike back up. Once again we were in awe of how these buildings were constructed. They were perched on tiny little ledges high above the canyon floor.

After the walk we jumped in the Jeep and headed on to Bluff Utah; our stop for the night. We love our GPS, its a Magellan Crossover and it directs us in the most interesting routes. Today it gave us a short cut through a field and down a dirt road. The word for the day was "wow", the scenery was amazing and we loved every second of the day.

After arriving in Bluff we checked out the town. it took all of three minutes. It is a beautiful little town surrounded by bluffs, go figure. We ate dinner at the Cottonwood Steakhouse which was OK. I think our waitress was ready for tourist season to be over, she was not a happy person. The food was good but thanks to the mozzies that were attacking us we took our dessert to go. It was a really fun day and the alarm is set for 4:30am tomorrow.

Almost forgot, tonight’s accommodation was at the Rosewood Inn. It is a big beautiful log building and has gorgeous log beds. We had a room on the back side of the building with a beautiful view of the bluff.

Aztec Ruins – unfortunate that we had bad light for photos

View near the New Mexico/Arizona border

On the way to Cortez

Between Cortez and Hovenweep

Cliff top dwelling at Hovenweep

The road less traveled

Sunset/moon rising at Bluff Utah