This morning we woke up to a breathtaking sunrise view of Monument Valley. This ancient Navajo Tribal land is like nothing I have ever seen before. Looking out at these magnificent rock structures and formations made me feel so small!
We had an early start this morning because we wanted to go see Four Corners Monument (we were going to go last night, but it was closed after our car incident). Four Corners is where Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico meet in one location.
Because the monument is a Native American tribal park, the monument was surrounded by many different local Native American art shops. Here we found things like handmade dream catchers, sand art, pottery, magnets, and MANY MORE! We loved how unique every piece was, because they were made by local artists, so we ended up getting a couple different things, and we can’t wait to display them in our apartment!
After Four Corners, we headed for Canyonlands National Park, and saw The Needles section of the park. It was a long way into the park, and we saw so many awesome rock formations along the way. In order to see the Needles, we had to drive off the main road along Elephant Hill (ANOTHER narrow dirt road!). Luckily, the viewpoint was only a mile out and it wasn’t nearly as scary as the past few narrow dirt roads we’ve driven recently.
We may have underestimated how deep we would be going into the Park, because we went into it with ¼ of gas left (our car estimated 98 miles left), and figured we’d fill up in Moab. If there’s anything I could emphasize while driving in these parts of the country..ALWAYS HAVE ENOUGH GAS, because the next gas station will most likely be miles away.
We were about 10 miles away from the park’s exit when our car went from an estimated 35 miles left to the dreaded signal “0 miles to empty.” We hadn’t run out of gas yet, but stopped at a pull off where we saw some people to ask if anyone had any extra gas or a tube to syphon. Finally a young couple drove in and helped us.
The guy had an empty 3-liter jug, which we could use while siphoning gas from their truck with the use of his girlfriend’s hula hoop..how do you like that for a DIY?! We were so thankful that they were able to help us out. We offered them money for the gas but he refused it and told us to pay it forward.
It ended up being enough to get us to the next gas station in Monticello, UT. At this point, it was about 3PM, and we had not eaten lunch yet. We stopped into The Peace Tree Café for a Panini sandwich. When we got back into our car, we saw that the external temperature was 104 degrees!
Our final stop for the night would be Arches National Park in Moab, UT where we are camping for two nights in Devils Garden campground. Because of this heat, we knew we couldn’t go set camp yet or else we would fry in the sun. Instead, we took a pit stop at Moab Brewery to try some craft beer while we waited for the temperature to cool down a bit.
The drive into Arches National Park was unreal. We felt like we were on another planet! It is truly amazing how these rocks have been shaped by water and wind over the past millions of years!
We drove up to our campsite, which is right next to gigantic rocks! We strategically picked out the shadiest spot to set our tent, so that the sun wouldn’t hit us too hard throughout the next day. We can’t wait to explore this park tomorrow!
