Marble Canyon, AZ to Dolores, CO
Since sleep was not in the cards, we brought the dogs over to swim one more time, then packed up to leave. It was back to 91 degrees by 8am when we got over to the coin operated showers. Damn. Who wants to live here? The wild horses were out again this morning so we watched them. It is beautiful here that’s for sure.
We tried to get a campsite at a place Kevin and Chris had suggested in Ridgway but we missed it while waiting on hold. No big deal, we weren’t sure how far we would get today and needed to find a campsite with a shower for tonight. I’m tired of being sweaty!
Our first stop of the day was in Page, AZ at the famous horseshoe bend. It took us 50 minutes to get here but it was less than 5 miles by the crow flies. It was a short walk but felt forever in the heat. The dogs haven’t really recovered yet from the night before and this was hard on them. Jason had an 11:00am reservation at Antelope Canyon X but since we were so close to Utah our phones kept jumping from one time zone to another and we were getting confused. We didn’t stay long at Horseshoe Bend but glad we stopped. The photos don’t do it justice.
The Navajo guidelines are stricter. Masks required even outdoors. No questions asked on their land. We arrived 15 minutes later to Antelope Canyon X. You may have heard of the Antelope Canyons. The pictures there are unreal as the water over time has eroded away the sides of this canyon with big swirls. The two bigger Antelope Canyons are booked months out. This new smaller version only opened this month so Jason was able to grab tickets. I pushed him to do this so I’m glad he took the opportunity. I looked for a campground and booked Dolores River Campground by recommendation of our friends. Jason came back 90 minutes later full of stories and amazing pictures.
It felt almost like a cathedral inside. You needed to be hushed and in the moment. He had a great convo with the Navajo guide parts of which were very eye opening to him. Another person overheard him say he worked in schools and they told him that we were all angels for what we did this past year.
It was about 12:30pm when we headed north into Utah. I know I know. I said we weren’t going..but it ended up being just barely out of the way that I wanted to make a stop and see Monument Valley and the Valley of the Gods.
The drive in was okay. We were navigating around storms to our west and south but we were heading Northeast so we were alright.
Monument Valley was impressive. These structures truly came out of no where. But we were there for… a specific purpose.
Remember in the movie Forrest Gump, when after years of running Forrest just stops… well here we are! Mile 13 road marker and when you look behind you can see it. Amazing! Other people were in the road too so we took our time and got our picture. Felt cool to go somewhere that was always so impressive in a movie and it turns out to be even better in person.
Okay so back into the car and on the road again, we took our friend Chris’s advice and didn’t do Valley of the Gods because rain was imminent. It was surprising we weren’t soaked yet. The skies were telling us to keep going so we listened.
More lightning strikes than I’ve ever seen in my life all together happened over the next hour. The thing is because you can see forever out here the storms weren’t right on top of us like back East. We felt good and safe and honestly weren’t getting much water so we kept going.
This next part of the story isn’t for the faint of heart. Mom, you should just skip forward…
The colors were changing in front of us. It wasn’t just grey another. There was an odd orange aura. It looked like a rain storm. That’s what it had to be. Maybe fog? Who knows.
When we were in it we knew. This wasn’t rain. This was a dust storm. All we could see was orange sand blowing to one side. It wasn’t much of a wind- the camper usually can’t handle much but we weren’t swaying at all. Some cars were passing us and they seemed okay. We used their lights to guide us. Jason kept going slowly and masterfully got us through it. Holy shit man!
We immediately texted Kev and Chris and sent them a video for confirmation that it was a dust storm. Kev sent us an article with advice on what to do it we encountered it again. While the lights had helped us, apparently that can be trouble in dust storms because people will veer off the road toward the car lights if they are trying to use them the way we did.
Equipped with new knowledge, thankfully we didn’t need to use it again. An hour or so later we arrived, totally intact, to Dolores River Campground. Parked right across from us was an Rpod 💜. Another sign that things were right.
The neighbor to our left struck up a conversation with Jason about his new hobby- mushroom foraging. They talked for awhile and I finished setting up and made dinner. Jason definitely has more energy and social skills to talk to people and I was still calming down from the dust storm high. I knew he wouldn’t mind if I stayed holed away. There was still a storm outside so Patch was glad I stayed with her though she stared out the window at Jason the whole time.
I made some tacos with mushrooms, onion, and peppers and added an enchilada sauce packet I had found. I cooked the soyrico in a separate pan to get some crisp on it. Little side salad and dinner was served.
We made some tentative plans for campsites for our next stop- Telluride!
Vegan On the Rhode 