SW National Parks: Part 6 - Natural Bridges, Monument Valley, Navajo National Monument, Four Corners

Day 13: It was our last day of the Southwest until we had our long drive home. We started the day by driving to Natural Bridges National Monument, UT early because we had a lot to pack into the day. It was here that we spotted the most elusive of animals. It is the  Southwest, so you may be thinking the jackalope--but no. We are talking about the common jackrabbit. I had not seen one since I was a girl, camping at Hole-in-the-Wall in the Mojave desert. In all our time, we had seen mostly lizards but not one jackrabbit. We were making a turn when one made its way across the road to rest in the shade of a bush on the other side. It was long-legged, lean, buff-colored, with long, black-tipped, brown ears. It was everything a jackrabbit should be. Leave it to the last day but I was able to cross this one off my bucket list.

We stopped and took short hikes out to the different bridges but my favorite was the ruins. A short hike to the viewpoint revealed a kiva with roof intact. We were happy we had brought binoculars. Neal and Sophie stopped short of the viewpoint to sit so Rhys and I got to tell them all about it. I wondered if the roof was a restoration but it turns out it was the original roof. The ruins were so well preserved was so well preserved and later I found out that it was discovered in the 1880s and an archeological expedition documented the sight in 1907, thus it was made a national monument  the next year but the the ruins were soon forgotten until 1936 when a custodian to the park climbed up there from the canyon floor below to take his lunch in the sun. He had passed by the ruins above him for many years.

We jumped in the car and prayed we hit the gas station in Mexican Hat because we forgot to fill up that morning in our excitement. Mexican hat is actually named for a rock formation that mimics a balancing up-side-down sombrero. We traveled along until...um...highway 261 became a dirt road. And not any dirt road! The scribble on Google maps indicated a series of switchbacks down the face of a canyon wall called Moki Dugway. If you are unaware, a dugway is defined as a way dug along a precipitous place otherwise impassable by using for the fill on the downhill side material excavated immediately above it. Remember our brake issues. I was sweating and Neal was all lit up like a kid in a candy store. Surprisingly, to me anyway, we did tumble to our death. I actually closed my eyes at parts so my anxiety did not spoil Neal's big moment. That's what love is.

We did make it to the gas station and filled up to continue onto Monument Valley in Navajo Nation.  It was fun to see the iconic view of the highway among the buttes. Got our Forrest Gump snapshot of where he ran in the movie with the same name. We paid our money and took the dirt road tour among more formations which was garbage--the road, not the formations. We were glad to say we had done it but didn't plan to return. Maybe we would have been more inspired if it were one of our first days out on the trip. 

We continued on to Navajo National Monument in Navajo Nation where we took a short downward hike to the Betatakin ruins viewpoint. There were more ruins in one place at this place than what we saw in the morning. We took our time coming back up and enjoyed the flora along the trail. Though the Monument had two other ruins, we moved on because of our packed day.

Back in the van, we headed to Four Corners on Navajo Nation. Neal and I had already visited there when we were young but we wanted to have the kids do it too. We got our photos in different states, Sophie bought some jewelry, and Rhys took a lap around the square to say he'd run through four states that day! We ended our day in Farmington, NM and drove long hours to get home the next day. Awesome trip and awesome memories!