After arriving in Tuba City, Erich had four days of orientation for his position at the hospital here. We never get his full schedule right away, so we were surprised to see a four day gap between orientation and his first three shifts. We decided to take advantage of the break and head out for a little explore-cation. We ended up in Mesa Verde, Colorado where we were able to visit the cliff dwellings of the ancient Pueblo Indians. It was awesome. I love history, so imagining a life lived on the side of a cliff, is so fascinating to me. The actual tours don’t open until mid-April, so we weren’t able to see them up close, but as you can tell in the pictures below, they were still super impressive, even from a distance. After Mesa Verde we headed back to Utah where we boondocked in the Valley of the Gods. Boondocking is one of our favorite things to do. There are Federally owned public lands all over the U.S. where you can camp for free, basically anywhere you want. They usually request that you stick to the roads and we always follow the unspoken “Leave No Trace” rule of thumb. The next day we did some 4x4ing through the Valley of the Gods and then drove up the craziest gravel pass on our way to the Natural Bridges National Monument. The pass was called the Moki Dugway and it had the craziest switchbacks I’ve ever seen, except maybe in the mountains of Haiti. There were no guardrails and in a lot of places there was only room for one car. Nothing like living (or driving) on the edge! I don’t scare too easy, but Erich’s truck doesn’t turn on a dime, and we were pulling the small camper, so my heart might have been racing a little quicker than normal. The Natural Bridges N.M. was pretty cool. There were three natural rock bridges in this deeply unique valley with white and black streaks in the rock walls. We decided to take a different route back to our previous boondocking spot where we spent one more night. The last morning we headed to Monument Valley. You might recognize the pictures, there have been many commercials and movies filmed there. It surpassed our expectations and we were thankful to be there before the crowded season begins. We left with no real plans, but managed to pack a lot into those four days. There are so many National Parks and wilderness areas to explore in this part of the U.S. We are really excited about this contract and looking forward to 6 days off in a row next week! Stay tuned!
Wander More 