Today was our last day in AZ. It was also Chris' last day as he was the only one of us with kids and responsibilities back home. Our goal was to push to the Utah border for the ultimate sunset in Monument Valley.
I really did not know how to get back to the trail. I knew where the canyon was and that the road we needed to end up on paralleled it about 10 miles to our East. I kinda just worked my way East over the wasteland until we reached a major dirt road.
85
The video below gives you an idea of how desolate this place was. It also lets you know how slow the guys were moving. That is me coming by the frame in a normal fashion for riding a mechanized machine. Chris and Joe on the other-hand come by as if they were Henry Ford testing out the first Model A Automobile.
We eventually made it out of Navajo country. There was a road sign with a bison (buffalo according to Joe) on it that was filled with bullet holes that I really wanted but it did not come to me until later and I am still pissed about it. From then on whenever I saw a Navajo sign I tried to steal it but all were theft-proof.
We came through Page AZ turning off 89 on our way to Mexican Hat UT. We stopped at Horseshoe Bend. It was a mile walk from the parking lot to the view. Joe decided to stay with bikes. It was hot and my head was frying. I had to improvise
The view was cool. I am sure everyone has seen the image somewhere.
People were standing way to close. I mean real close, taking selfies on slickrock inches from a 1K drop. Rob said these people are gunna fall off and die. Sure enough when I sat down to write this, I searched to see and someone had fell off and died a week before I uploaded this blog…..update on that sentence. I just found that someone fell off the actual day we were there!
Darwin Awards at its finest.
We got to the National Monument overlook.
You may recognize this backdrop from many 60s and 70s spaghetti Westerns.
Here is a stray dog that we adopted.
If we were not on our bikes, Joe would have taken him home with him because he was definitely just living at the park and seemed super chill. And it would have made a great story.
At one point after a few drinks it was determined that the above rock formation looked like a sperm whale breeching the surface. I will never be able to look at again and not see a whale.
A video of our site:
Until Tomorrow,
Darren
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