Days 7 and 8: In Which We Set Up Camp and a Crisis is Averted

 Oddly enough, I am writing this at a campsite with WiFi. More on that later along with the crisis that wasn't.

Yesterday I was introduced to the Navajo Taco at a small restaurant in Cortez, CO. Sorry - no photos - it smelled too good! Fresh green chili on Navajo fry bread. Mmm. 

Once fortified, we visited Hovenweep National Monument. Our hosts insisted we drive up there; I'd never heard of it. My ignorance sometimes astounds me. The Monument straddles the CO/UT border and is home to innumerable sites of ancient Pueblean architecture. They built with adobe bricks - no cliff houses - incorporating the existing boulders and cliffs into their structures. We imagined kids running up and down the canyon while their parents made bricks, tended crops, processed corn and other staples, and made pottery. 

The natural landscape isn't too bad, either. 

We finished the evening with delicious homemade food and two remarkable bottles of wine. Good food, good wine, good friends we don't see often enough. Nothing better.

The initial goal of this trip was to see Bryce and Zion National Parks. When I mentioned this on FB, someone suggested (well, insisted) that we should also visit Canyonlands. We looked it up online and decided that sounded good. If this was the old days, we would have looked at a map of Utah and realized that Canyonlands is pretty much right next to Arches National Park. Since we looked up each park separately online and never looked at the regional or state map, we only figured that out a week before we left, by which time it was too late to get timed reservations for entry in Arches in advance. Luckily, they release a certain number of tickets at 6:00 PM the night before. 

Originally we planned to try for a campground at Canyonlands National Park for tonight - they're first come, first served. When we looked at the information more closely and realized how long it would take to get there from Mancos, we reconsidered. I'd like to be the sort of person who can drive two hours to an area I don't know at all and not worry about where I'm going to sleep that night. I am not that sort of person. We ended up with a reservation at a commercial campground on the southern outskirts of Moab, UT, which turns out to be about 30 minutes from Canyonlands, and right at the entrance to Arches. David signed on to the NPS ticketing system at 6:00 PM exactly last night and scored us a ticket for 1:00 PM this afternoon. We left our friends about 7:30 and headed west toward Utah. Since we had time, we stopped at Newspaper Rock. The ancient Pueblo people left petroglyphs here almost a thousand years ago and European colonizers chimed in.

Then we stopped for lunch (BBQ) and drove to Arches. The outdoor store in Moab has a quote in the window: "It's like Mars but with more atmosphere." Yes. This isn't the first time on this trip I've found myself without words to describe the experience. I expect it won't be the last. 

As we drove out of Arches toward the campground, David looked at me and said "Did we pack sheets?" Um, no, we didn't. The nearest Target is an hour away. It was 5:30 PM. Since I am a very privileged white woman, I've never shopped at a Dollar Store. There's one in Moab. Turns out they have sheets. Phew.

David grilled steak for dinner, I made three or fours trips up to the communal kitchen to do the dishes because I kept forgetting things, he managed to rustle up enough quarters to wash the sheets, and now we're waiting for them to come out of the dryer so we can go to bed. Tomorrow: Canyonlands.