Skyline Drive, Virginia

We took a drive down to Skyline Drive, Virginia last weekend. We've been itching to get out on the road somewhere since winter and we finally got out chance. No pictures of us facing the camera b/c it was really windy and our hijaabs looked a hot mess. Loved the brisky, chilly weather. Can't wait until it warms up for our next adventure. :)

Bryce Canyon & Rte 12

Day 5: We started the day with a hike to Mossy Cave which was a few miles from where we were staying in Tropic, UT. The .4 mile walk led us to a waterfall and a mossy cave. From there, we drove to Bryce Canyon and took the Queen and Navajo Trails through the hudoos for about two hours. Thereafter, we took a drive down the scenic "All-American Road" Route 12 with its every changing scenery along a narrow and curving one lane road that twists and turns through and around the mountains. It was both one of the funnest and scariest drives we've ever taken. At one point, the road cut through the top of a mountain so we could see the drop on either side (with no guard rails!), going fifteen miles per hour. Once we hit the end of Route 12, we did not have time to check out the nearby park because we wanted to get back before dark. We returned, had dinner, and then went to Bryce to catch the sunset. We head to Flagstaff tomorrow for our return flight the following day.

Bryce Canyon

Day 4: We bid farewell to Grand Canyon and headed for Bryce Canyon in Utah. We headed out at 7:30ish a.m. and arrived in the afternoon. It was a gorgeous drive and we took several stops to take pictures on the road, which is why it took so long. En route, we stopped at a cave run by a family who had bought the surrounding ten acres. The first generation originally used one half of the cave as a tavern and the other half as a dance hall. Today, it includes a museum of collected ancient Hopi pottery on the land as well as florescent minerals.

Once we arrived at Bryce Canyon, we took a walk along the Rim Trail for about three hours. The brochure stated that the last shuttle would be able to return us to our car at 7:40 p.m. We finished our hike a little after 7 p.m. and took a shuttle at the opposite end of the trail from where we started. Only problem: the shuttles would no longer be returning to the Rim but were only exiting the park! Fariha considered walking the four miles to our car but we ended up at the visitation center where they realized they had made a typo and arranged for a shuttle to drive us to our car. We were very lucky that a driver volunteered to go out of his way to drop us off.

Our hotel is a ten minute drive from Bryce and winds through the canyons along the historic Route 12. It's on the "main street" of Tropic, which has maybe fifteen buildings on either side of the street. Tropic sits at the footsteps of the surrounding canyons and the view is pretty fabulous.

Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park

Day 3: Today, we took a three hour drive from Grand Canyon to Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, which straddles the AZ-Utah border. Along the way, we stopped at a few more points along the Desert View Drive (from yesterday), including the famous Watchtower constructed to imitate the Anasazi watchtowers from hundreds of years ago. We also went to a Navajo jewelry and pottery stand to buy handcrafted jewelry. All the women setting up shop lived at the nearby Cameron town. One of the women mentioned that the women with young children primarily lived in Cameron because that's where the school buses stopped, however there were a number of elderly Navajo who opted to live in the hillside which was pretty isolated. Much of our drive was single-lane highways with nothing for miles. The Navajo and Hopi towns we passed were pretty barren with minimal development.

As we drove along one such highway, we saw signs for dinosaur tracks and decided to check it out. A Navajo man approached us and took us on a "tour" of the tracks, which looked like mud tracks of a three footed bird with claws of varying sizes. There were other tourists milling about, also being taken on these "tours." He took us to a fossil, circled by rocks, and stated that these were the remains of a dinosaur. We eyed the skeleton. "Which dinosaur?" Fasiha asked, somewhat skeptically. "Duckbill," the guide responded. "They are like a small T-rex." Not two seconds later, another guide led his group to the same set of fossils. "Raptor," he announced. Our guide strolled another few feet forward and pointed to what looked like a pile of rocks. "This," he proclaimed with a flourish,"are dinosaur droppings!" "Reealllyyyy!" Fariha exclaimed and somehow Fariha and Fasiha managed not burst into laughter. The guide complained of how thieves dug up several footprints and sold them to museums. It is not entirely clear to us what part of all of this what fact and fiction. The guided ended by saying he never asked Americans for a fee but donations were encouraged. We were willing participants in this hoodwinking venture.

Finally, we reached our destination - Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. We got to take an amazing drive around the famous Mittens along an unpaved path. The road was very bumpy but it was a great drive. On our way back, we stopped to have Navajo fried bread and tacos. We caught a bit of the sunset at Grand Canyon on our return.

Next stop: Bryce Canyon.