Day Seventeen

Wow, what a day. A fairly long drive south, but broken up by lots of different activites.

Woken up by some spanner at 3.30am. Phone received a text and made a right noise. Looked at message half asleep thinking it must be important to send it here at extra cost. Turned out to be some muppet from the cricket club asking if I was back and if there was a game tonight. Seeing as there had never been a game scheduled for the 11th August I wondered if anybody ever checks emails they get sent. Don't know who it was from either. Tried to go back sleep whilst being very annoyed.

Had breakfast at a diner so we could eat early. Watched a fight at a baseball game on the news. Hilarious.

Left Moab at 8.15am, full of fuel and supplies, and headed south towards Arizona. Our first stop was at Butler Wash, a very small place off of a very quiet road. We completed a mile walk to see some Indian Cave dwellings.

Cave Dwellings

Next we headed further south and then took a very small dirt track to Muley Point overlook, which is in the eastern tip of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. From there you get a great view south, overlooking some great sights. The track to it was just over 3 miles long and very bumpy.

A certain famous valley in the distance

We then made our way back to the main road and down Mokee Dugway, an 1100 foot drop in 3 miles on  an unpaved road.

At the bottom of Mokee Dugway we then turned left onto another little track which takes you into the Valley of the Gods (Forrest Gump, Airwolf). This track was a bit rough to start with but then got much worse with steep hills and drops and massive great lumps missing. It was a good job we had a Jeep to get us through the 13 miles it lasted.

Gradually we got further into the valley until we were up close with the rock formations

On our way out of the valley we saw many things, someone driving an RV towards the really difficult bits, good luck mate, and a woman having a pee behind a car not realising cars were coming from the opposite direction too. Having got back on to tarmac we headed to Gooseneck State Park where the San Juan river meanders through. We stopped here to eat our packed lunch.

Noticed lots of dark clouds towards the way we were heading. Had no choice but to drive towards them. Stopped to top up with fuel at Mexican Hat, named after a nearby rock which looks exactly like a sombrero. Fuel very expensive, for the USA, so only put a little bit in. Also the fact there was lightning all around the gas station helped me decide to get out quickly. We then continued south to the day's main event. Went through more heavy rain and storms before reaching our last stop of the day.

Track through the Monument Valley (2001, A Space Odyssey, Easy Rider, The Searchers) was our third off road trip of the day. Ann was quite happy to not go off road again.

Having completed all our scheduled stops for the day, we then started the 170 mile journey south to Flagstaff, Arizona and the Pony Soldier Inn. Arrived at 8pm. Unloaded then headed to IHOP, having enjoyed the one in Michigan so much. Ate a scrumptious dinner before heading home. To make things even better we noticed the sat nav saying the time was 8.50pm, not 9.50pm that we thought. Turns out Arizona goes to Pacific time in the summer, so we had gained an hour. Awesome. Now I can finish this and still get to bed early. Result.

Tomorrow's aims: Get up later, wash car.

Fast Show tribute