After Arches we began our trek down to the Grand Canyon, knowing we'd have to find a place to camp for the night somewhere in between.
The road took us through a town called Monticello, where we stopped to check out the tiny Monticello Utah Temple.
After that we continued on and ended up visiting my dad's Aunt and Uncle's grave site.
Our next little adventure was onto our first Indian Reservation during the trip. We spent the majority of our time driving through them, and that was definitely the beginning of our out-of-this-world experience.
We missed a turn to go see a sight, which ended up being to our advantage. After driving through a few small towns on the Indian Reservation, we were completely alone on the road. I kid you not, I don't think we saw one other vehicle for at least one hour.
We knew we were headed for Monument Valley, with our intention to make it to Gooseneck State Park to camp for the night.
As we rounded one corner we saw the most incredible sight I've ever seen.
Let me set the scene...
We hadn't seen another soul in over an hour.
It was dusk.
There were thunderstorms happening off in the distance.
We were bordering Arizona. Desolate, empty, vast, Arizona.
If you've ever been down there you know what I'm talking about.
Imagine hundreds of miles of nothingness with huge monuments, like these...
everwhere.
So as I was saying, we rounded this corner and could see for hundreds of miles to the left and right.
On the left it was storming, right over the monuments in the distance.
On the right it was sunny and stunning shining through the clouds.
I couldn't even come close to actually capturing this experience, mostly due to the out-of-this-world feeling we had been having as we were driving.
So here's a photo that can give you just a glimpse into what this whole experience was like.
Yeah, doesn't even come close.
You'll just have to take my word on this one.
Anyway, we pressed on for the Goosenecks.
We finally passed a car or two, but as we got off the beaten path and headed for the park, we were back on our own.
When we got to the state park, I kid you not, there was nothing except for a French family who left when we got there, a few campsites on the edge of a cliff with nothing but a fire pit and trash can, and we were overlooking this...
Pretty sweet view, right?
Too bad there was NO way I was going to camp there, all night, with no one, and literally NOTHING for miles.
I'm adventurous, and I love camping, but I literally felt like I was on another planet, and if I had consented to sleeping there that night, I'm convinced I would have been abducted by aliens.
Anyway, my dad was aware that there weren't many campgrounds for quite a ways, but we went on to try and find something.
We ended up in a little town (you can hardly call it a town...) called Mexican Hat.
My dad and I both felt like we were in Mexico or Panama, and not the tourist towns...
It was sketch.
My dad even agreed.
We had no choice but to stay, and there was no where to camp, so we ended up in a motel.
Surprisingly enough, it was pretty nice.
We cooked our dinner in the dutch oven on a little porch we had outside, took showers, watched the new episode of Breaking Bad, and caught some news.
I was out like a light and was sleeping like a baby, until the storm came.
As if we hadn't had a weird enough day already, it was pouring like crazy with wind on top of that, and thunder and lightning off in the distance - over the Goosenecks.
So call me a prima donna for refusing to camp at the Goosenecks, but if we had, I'm pretty sure the tent would be floating down the San Juan headed for the Colorado River.
I'm not sure we'd be alive.
I would have been abducted.
Oh, what an adventure it was.
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