The next day was not so lucky. As we past Albuquerque, we stopped and had some delicious fried bread (which is a bit thinner that funnel cake). After our morning meal we drove to the South entrance to Chaco Canyon National Historic Park. Chaco National Park is supposedly the largest trading village of the Pueblo people with a large amount of petroglyphs.
I should have researched the park a lot more because the South entrance was a 14 mile dirt road with a sign warning us that our car and little guy might not survive the drive. So instead of visiting the park we drove through Navajo country to our next destination, Ship Rock.
Unfortunately, the Navajo had closed any possible route to the huge rock formation off to tourists. I only had one choice, I ended up taking some photos from the side of the road.
Our next destination: Four Corners
Once we had reached Four Corners we realized the Navajo charge, $10 per person, to stand on a plaque. Finding it absolutely absurd to pay for a photo we continued North to destination number four.
We then drove North to Hovenweep National Monument in Southern Utah. It had been such a long day of driving that we ended up settling in at the monument campground.
Wanting to get a lot done the next day, we woke up bright and early to see frost on the windshield and snow flurries on the little guy.
Not waiting for the monuments visitor center to open, we guided ourselves to the main trail. It was cold hike in the snow but the old dwellings, some in the canyons side, were really incredible.
Once we were back in the little guy we began driving North to Natural Bridges National Park.
Although the flurries had settled and the sun came out from Hovenweep to Natural Bridges it was still chilly outside.
Natural Bridges is one of the smaller National Parks we had visited so far. The park consists of a one way scenic drive with plenty of turnouts to see the three featured natural bridges.
I’m sure that if we had hiked to the base of each bridge we would have been able to notice each of their unique features. However, staying close to the paved paths gave us a beautiful view from afar.
Within a few hours we had finished the drive and after filling up our water bottles we left for Arizona.
Route 261, the direct route from Natural Bridges to Arizona, was very long and dangerous road. The first 33 miles are nice and smooth however, the end of the road, Moki Dugout, is a 2.2 mile drive to the base of the mountain. The whole road becomes unpaved and with a 10% grade and sharp switchbacks, the road becomes very scary. From the top of the mountain we were able to look down at the road ahead of us. A huge rock formation and sandy surface filled the landscape in the valley. Looking up we noticed dark snowstorm clouds forming in the distance. Alone, the view from the top was incredible however, the ride down was something else. I have a video of the long trip down and if anyone wants to see it I’ll send it via e-mail.
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