March 16, 2018 Utah

Day 8: Friday March 16, 2018:

It was 11 degrees when we woke up this morning but crisp and clear and we likely missed a stunning sunrise.  But we had a great breakfast then got on the road around 8am and the first leg of the trip was back down Route 12, the scenic road that goes by Red Rock Canyon and is known for the red tunnels.  

We drove first to Page (where we spent some time on our Spring Break last year) and checked out the Horseshoe Bend Lookout again.  There was construction so we looked up what they were doing and they’re planning and constructing a path that goes down to the lookout along with an observation deck.   

We grabbed some Taco Bell in Page then drove to Monument Valley, AZ / UT.  It was neat but not as great as I had expected it to be. 

Sign in Monument Valley (it hugs the AZ, UT border) that captured the trip!

From there we drove to Four Corners via Mexican Hat, UT, home of Mexican Hat Rock, and were surprised that we had to pay $5 per person for basically nothing.  It’s probably always been this way but it was very commercialized and taken over by the Navajo Tribe.  It was the cheesiest, campiest thing we’ve done on this trip but the kids needed to mark it off their bucket lists.  And Grant and Nick played catch in two states J

Standing in Four states at once.

Next was Shiprock, NM.  We didn’t stop but we did see it from three sides and it was massive – looked more like a castle than a ship but still interesting.  The rock is a much darker brown; very different from all of the red rock we’ve been seeing for the last week.

Shiprock

And finally, from Shiprock to Gallup, a 90 minute drive where the kids went through every cuss word they could think of in every different language they could remember.  It was toilet humor for most of the drive.  We’re staying at another incredible Best Western.  After we checked in we ate at Jerry’s Café, at the recommendation of the lady at the front desk and the restaurant was tiny but good.  We had the best sopaipilla ever.  But after Grant read over my shoulder what I just typed, he requested that I amend this to say that Grant didn’t think it was the best sopaipilla ever. 

Jerry's Cafe

Now it’s 8:30pm.  Nick’s sending work emails, Grant’s playing NBA2K18 on his Nintendo Switch, Ryan’s watching videos on YouTube and I’m blogging and trying not to think about the 14-15 hour trek home tomorrow.  Since tomorrow’s Saturday, I have to exercise for 45 minutes which means I’ll be in the Fitness Center at 6am.  But we all have costumes we’ll be sporting for St. Patty’s Day so hopefully that will make the drive more fun.  I don’t want this trip to end.