On Sunday, the wind was blown away and we continued to ride on Jaak and Mieke. We took route 24 (the scenic byway) and drove via the bicentennial road 95 through the Glen Canyon Recreation area. The view from Hite overlook was astonishing. The entire road lead us along red rocks, canyons and desert. We also visited the less known ‘Natural Bridges National Monument’. The park contains 3 naturally formed bridges of which the Ouachomo bridge is the oldest one. We did some dispersed camping at a brilliant spot and enjoyed the silence, a campfire and a great nightsky. The night was pretty chilly but well awake we drove towards Muley point. The dirt road ended up in an overlook on the John’s canyon and the San Juan River. We took the famous Moki Dugway, it’s an 11% descending dirt road with twisty corners and it took us to the dirt road of the Valley of the Gods. It is said that the valley is a miniature of the Monument Valley. For us it was even better!!! Fantastic shaped red rocks in the desert, amazing road. We ended the day in Blanding on a very good RV campsite with some tent spots in the green grass. On Tuesday we visited the Hoovenwheep national monument where we met with Barbara and Paul, an Alaskan couple who were so friendly to point out the best Alaskan spots on our map. We are really looking forward to drive up North in the upcoming months 😊. After the visit we drove via Aneth to the Four Corners, a real tourist trap. It’s the place where 4 states come together: New Mexico, Arizona, Utah & Colorado. Luckily we went to the Goosenecks State Park, which was worth the visit. We had a fantastic view over the San Juan River and decided to stay at the campsite and took some apero on the rim of the canyon. The light of the sunset made the rocks glow red instead of dark green and the nightsky was brilliant. Unfortunately we did not succeed to find new constellations. We still need to learn harder…
On Wednesday we finally headed direction Flagstaff via Monument Valley with the plan to stay on the Woody mountain campsite. Arriving at the campspot we were welcomed by some overlanders, Greg, Greg, David, Melanie and Nigel who invited us immediately for a drink and the start-up party of the overland meeting in Flagstaff. But first we went to the REI to finally exchange a sleeping pad with 14 leaks for a new one! The service was perfect, without any questions they took back the pad and we could choose a new one independent the brand or model. Downtown we finally were able to meet with Thor, our Norwegian colleague we met last year during the GS meeting in Norway. We also had the pleasure to meet with Dan, a friend of Thor, who’s world traveler and also a volunteer at the Overland Expo. After a couple of beers and great evening we went to bed, looking forward to the Expo.
