Back Again

By now, some of you probably thought we had fallen into a canyon and disappeared. No, we're still out here having a great time. But lately, we have rarely had electricity, let alone internet access. I hope to be adding more photos soon, but to catch you up since I last posted, we have been to Navajo National Monument (beautiful, quiet, and peaceful), Monument Valley (gorgeous, but very busy), and Mesa Verde National Park (Very interesting ruins from a huge population with highly developed weaving, pottery, building, and agriculture. Near Mesa Verde we stayed at an amusing campground attached to an Indian casino. They give campers coupons for free casino play. We had to have a worker show us how the video games worked, but then we won back most of our camping fee.

After Mesa Verde, we went to the southern part of Canyonlands National Park, called the Needles, where we did some fantastic hikes through spectacular scenery. Our last one was our most ambitious so far: 6 miles with 1750 feet of elevation change, a walk through a narrow crevice, and some scrambling over rocks so steep we needed both hands as well as feet.

Today we are taking a day off in Moab, UT for shopping, cooking, cleanup, battery charging, making 2 loaves of bread etc. Tomorrow we are off the northern section of Canyonlands, called Island in the Sky for a couple of nights, then Dead Horse Point State Park (where the last scene of Thelma and Louise was filmed), and then Arches National Park before circling back to Moab for another "chore day".