a partial photo recap

Tuesday

We left for the airport very early in the morning. We flew to Dallas and then to Phoenix. It was clear the whole way and I spent a great deal of time looking out the window at the changing landscape down below. We arrived in 100 degree temperatures in Phoenix. Found our rental car (a Toyota Highlander, which I loved!), and set out to find a grocery store (which we found in Scottsdale). We had to buy a cooler to keep our groceries in, since it would've cost us an extra $25 to check ours at the airport, and a cooler only cost $20 (and we had to leave it at the end of the trip with a sign that said "free" because it would've cost us another $25 to bring it home!)! We stocked up on supplies for the week and then left for Holbrook, AZ, about 2 1/2 hours away.

Once in Holbrook we found our hotel, ate dinner, and went to bed really early (it was three hours earlier out there, so our normal 10:00 bedtime at home was only 7:00 out there, but we were exhausted, so we didn't care).

Wednesday

After a very bad night of sleep, we were up around 4:00 AM (7:00 at home!) and ready to go! Of course, nothing was open, so we had to hang around for awhile first. The Petrified Forest National Park, our first destination, opened at 7:00. We got there about a half hour early, so we waited in a parking lot outside the gates. In the parking lot was this really cheesy dinosaur. Since we had nothing better to do we took our picture with the dinosaur, thinking Rachel would enjoy it (she did!).

We went in at 7:00 when they opened.I had been there when I was a kid. I didn't remember liking it very much then, and I didn't like it a whole lot better this time. We saw a lot of this.

Petrified Wood. Not very exciting to me, but my husband, the geologist, thought it was interesting, so that's why we went.

We did see a pronghorn at the top of a hill not too far away.

After driving through most of the park we entered the section called The Painted Desert. It was much more interesting. The colors were beautiful.

Next we drove a couple of hours across the Navajo Indian Reservation to Chinle, AZ. It was much like the previous night--we found our hotel, found some dinner, and went to bed early. They did have a pool and hot tub there, so we enjoyed that after dinner for a bit.

Thursday

We woke up to rain. This turned out to be the theme of our trip....rain in the desert. We tried to think of it as welcomed relief for the people who live there, but it didn't do much for our sight seeing. It was usually only a light rain, though, so it didn't keep us from doing too much.

We were in Chinle to see Canyon de Chelly.

We had the place to ourselves because it was so early in the morning and because of the rain. It was quiet, peaceful, and simply breathtaking, even in the rain. I loved it.

There are lots of Indian ruins in the cliffs, which were interesting to see.

After seeing the canyon we left to drive across more of the reservation to go to Monument Valley, where lots of western movies were filmed back in the day. It was super windy, which made it really dusty and hazy, but at least it wasn't raining! See all of the dust? And if you look at my hair blowing sideways you can see how windy it was.

We drove down into the valley (which is a dirt road, and the reason we rented an SUV instead of a mid sized car for this trip) and drove around all of the monuments. The weather cleared and we got some good pictures after all.

Next we drove to Kayenta, AZ, where we were staying for the night. It was a rough night, though--there was a storm, and the power at the hotel went out. Our a/c stopped, and I could hear every little sound going on around me, and couldn't sleep. I read with my book light while my husband slept. The power finally came back on after an hour and a half and I was finally able to get to sleep.

Friday

We left early for Page, AZ. We were supposed to have a tour of Antelope Canyon that morning (I already posted about this here). Since that didn't happen we toured the Glen Canyon Dam.

Not very exciting for me, but my husband thought it was interesting. The surroundings were pretty, though.

And since I can't seem to get this recap finished, I'll just end this here and post it, and then finish up the trip in another post soon.