Arches and Monument Valley

From Colorado, we took the long way home.  The first stop was Arches where we stopped at some places we didn't have time to properly explore on the last visit.

We had planned to camp at Fisher Towers but arrived earlier than expected so decided to look for a spot closer to Moab.  The new rule I learned on this trip is to always have reservations or grab the first available site you see when trying to camp at Arches on a Friday night.  It's a hopping place.  We almost ended up without a place to camp.

The next morning we hiked all the way to the Delicate Arch this time instead of admiring it from afar.  We couldn't believe how many people got this close and didn't walk the rest of the way to the arch.

Really, the arch is not sideways but I can't get the picture to turn. . . You'll just have to turn your head.

The next stop was Musselmann Arch.  We got here via the Shafer Trail Road which had some really incredible views and a whole bunch of rental Jeeps.

The desert flowers were in full bloom.  They were beautiful!

 The next stop was Canyonlands National Park.  It was easy to see why they call this area "Islands in the Sky."

We stopped for a cache at a cemetery in Monticello where this squirrel posed for us.

Then at Hovenweep National Monument, this really cool colored lizard posed for us.

(Sadly, I didn't get a picture of (or an explanation from) the chicken that crossed the road in front of us.)

The Pueblo Indian ruins at Hovenweep were very cool and surprisingly well preserved.

We were driving along and suddenly, huge rock formations started appearing.  They were quite amazing.  Turned out we were driving throuth the Valley of the Gods. This formation is called Seven Sailors (I think . . . Or maybe that's just the name of the cache there.  It's hard to say.).

This is a little piece of Gooseneck State Park.  It's an "entrenched meander."  I couldn't get the whole scene in the picture but there are several other turns just like this.  It looks like a big snake.

I've heard of the town called Mexican Hat but didn't know where it got its name until we drove by this rock.  See the upside down sombrero?

We spent the night in Monument Valley right at the base of a huge rock formation. 

 There was very little grass anywhere but we did find cows grazing in the football field at the high school.

There was lots of wind on the Moki Dugway Road . . . right up until Chris got her kite out.  At that point it immediately fizzled out.

There were a few more stops along the way, most of them at various geocaches.  We finally rolled into town at 4 am, exhausted, but happy to have seen so many incredible sights!  Utah rocks!