35 Years - part 1

Today, February 12, 2012, is my 35th Wedding Anniversary.  Sometimes it feels like eons ago.....but more often it feels like just yesterday that we were newly married and beginning our family.  Four sons, four daughter-in-laws, two granddaughters and three grandsons make up our amazing family.  I am so grateful for each one. Each has their own unique qualities that brings so much to our family unit.

To celebrate our anniversary, Bob & I decided to do a road trip.  We got up Thursday morning and headed south.  We went through Price and then headed east on I-70 towards Colorado.  Bob read to us from a book that John & Angelica had given us about Utah Ghost Towns.  We got off at Thompson Springs in Eastern Utah and headed towards Sego Canyon.  There we came upon rock walls covered in ancient Indian art.  It was so amazing!  Unfortunately some of it had been badly vandalized....some of it dating back to the 1800's.  But we enjoyed the ancient history we found there.

Bob had me laughing as he was climbing an old corral fence there and telling me to watch out for "Meadow Muffins".  I had no idea what he was talking about until he pointed them out to me.

We then continued up the canyon to an old coal mining ghost town named Sego.  There were very few buildings that were still standing.....well...I should say walls still standing.  The first building is an old general store.  We could see where the floor used to be with the storage area underneath.  There were also some dugout homes, some obviously nicer and bigger than others.  And....there was an old car.  I couldn't find the make or model, but figured it might be from the 40's.  In any case, it is old and does not run anymore.

After eating our lunch (a half soggy, half stale sandwich from the gas station at Thompson Springs) we continued on our little road trip.  We drove south to some rock formations called Fisher Towers.  They were amazing.  It was very cool to hike in that beautiful red rock.  We were thoroughly enjoying ourselves until the trail became VERY muddy and snowy and hard to find.  I only had tennis shoes on which didn't have much tread, so I was slipping all over the place.  It was getting kind of scary and I finally told Bob that I was stopping and he could go further while I waited for him.

We finally did lose the trail.  Bob continued until he couldn't find a way to go any further.

We turned around and headed back.  I was slipping so much that Bob tried to find a way that wasn't so snowy and muddy.  He convinced me to start scrambling up rocks with him.  As we did, we came upon a clearly marked trail.  Where did THAT come from?  How did we miss it?  Was it the one we had been on or was it a different trail?  We turned around and could see our car way across the ravine....and we were not sure exactly how to get back there!  We heard some rock climbers coming down from higher up the trail, so we sat down and enjoyed the view until they passed us on their way down.  We very nonchalantly got up and followed them down.  Little did they know that they had rescued us that day!

When we left Fisher Towers we drove to Moab and then on to Blanding, where we stayed the night.  We went to a little restaurant and ordered a burger and a salad.  It took them a good hour to serve us.  But, it didn't really matter.....it was dark outside so we couldn't really do anything anyway!
In the morning we left Blanding and drove to Bluff.  There we stopped at the old Bluff Fort where we enjoyed walking around the old original buildings.  These were built when the "Hole in the Rock" pioneers settled there near the San Juan River.  You can see Bob with his trusty map book.

He read that there were some Indian ruins nearby.....on the other side of the San Juan River.....so he asked a lady at the local post office how to get there.  She said the bridge had been washed out, but you could still get to the river and see them across the way by going past the mission and taking the dirt road to the river.  Well.....we went past the mission and took a dirt road.....now whether or not it was THE dirt road we will never know.  I drove the car down what appeared to be a road but it eventually turned out to be just dirt that seemed like a road as it wound through the "yard" of some Indians Native Americans.  I kept driving towards the river determined to find the ruins, but we eventually had to stop because the dirt was so soft that Bob was afraid we would get stuck and then perhaps scalped.  I got out and started walking towards the river, but couldn't find a way past all the bushes.  We went back to the car, got it turned around and then happily drove past the locals who had come out to see what the crazy white people were doing.  Bob didn't want me to wave to them, so instead I gave them a huge smile as we drove by.
We took two more dirt roads, but they didn't get us close to the river.  I agreed to stop for the day, but I am determined to go back and give it another try sometime!

After leaving Bluff we headed towards Monument Valley.  On the way there, we drove off the main road for several miles and stopped at a place called Gooseneck State Park.  It was very cool.  The San Juan River winds around three great big bluffs...almost touching in some spots....giving it the name of Gooseneck.  I couldn't get a picture of all of it at once, but hopefully you can get the idea.  While there, we climbed down the rocks to get a little closer.  I was done when Bob decided to do a little goofing off.  I was happy to climb back up.

After leaving Gooseneck, we were happily driving to Monument Valley, when Bob suddenly yelled, "Wait!  I think this is where Forrest Gump stopped running!"  WHAT?!?  How would you even remember something like that?  Bob was positive, and insisted that we turn around and take a picture.  I was willing to do this because we had just passed a little stand that was selling Navajo jewelry.  We went back to look at the jewelry (and bought a couple of pieces from a nice Navajo woman) and then drove to where Bob was sure the spot was.  Unbelievable!!!!!  Just off the side of the road was a small sign that said, "Forrest Gump ended his cross country run at this spot in 1980."  I accused Bob of seeing the sign before yelling out, but he swears he didn't see it!  I took his picture next to it and then of him running up the hill just like Forrest, Forrest Gump.

Well, we could now officially drive into Monument Valley.  We spent some time at the old Goulding Museum and then drove to the old Oljato Trading Post.  We had such fond memories of taking our boys there about 25 years ago when we did our "Indian Vacation".  Unfortunately the old trading post was closed....hopefully just because it is the off season.  We did get out and walk around and Bob drank more of his pink lemonade.

To continue our adventure we decided to take a dirt road to the main road.  We were not sure the road would actually take us to where we wanted to go, but decided the adventure was worth it.  We LOVE getting out on dirt roads that seem to be lightly traveled.  As we were driving, we began to wonder if we would see animal skeletons or even some human skeletons or skulls out in this forsaken land!

We were so happy when we finally found the road!  We then decided to take another "shortcut".  This one took us past the Navajo National Monument which had a walkway leading out to a view of Betatakin, a cliff dwelling.  It was pretty amazing.

We asked the Native American Park Service lady about the "shortcut" to Shonto.  She said it was not an easy road, but could be done.  Now....remember....we are NOT in the Sequoia.....we are in the little Corolla.  There were times we thought we were out of our minds to be doing what we were doing, but we kept saying, "We're on an adventure!", and we would continue on!  We finally made it to Shonto, another old trading post.  This one was definitely being used.  In fact, Bob commented that all those Native Americans had better cars than we did!

When we finally got on the paved road, we hightailed it to St. George since we had expected to be there much earlier.  We hadn't expected our "shortcuts" to take so long!  But they were worth it!