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Day 11: 4 Corners, Arches National Park, ?? Utah
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We left haveyouheardofourtown, New Mexico around noon. Our first stop, on our way to Arches National Park, and eventually Richfield Utah, was at the Four Corners. We has to pay 3$ each to get in (over-priced). We took some pictures and then decided to get some Navajo Burgers and Tacos from the trailer near the bathroom, because we had no idea how long it would be until we would find food. Yup, exactly....gross. It was like 4 bites of food, for 7$ none-the-less, but at least we could survive until our next meal (which ended up being a Denny's in Salina at like 10PM, because we refused to eat Burger King, and I swear to you all there was nothing else for 100's of miles any direction).
We almost ran out of fuel on a 100 mile stretch of open road , without service areas. We ran on empty (with the fuel light on) for almost 60 miles, literally driving 50 miles an hour and coasting down hills. Thankfully, we came upon a single-pump gas station before the estimated 70 mile rest stop that the GPS informed us was the nearest. 86 Octane for $4.07, fantastic. I bought 3 gallons and had Evan speed away as quickly as possible..a toothless woman in pick-up truck was chatting us up a little too much. As we got closer to Arches we noticed large plumes of smoke rising in the distance.
As we got closer, we clearly viewed what appeared to be an extremely large fire burning out of control in the hills. We couldn't find any real information about what was going on, except for the fact that it was indeed a wild fire. (We had some better views once we were in the National Park). We arrived at Arches, located on the middle Eastern side of Utah, at about 4:30PM. We gathered some maps and took off across the park. The various arches, rock formations, and sights are scattered across a rather large area. So you drive around, park, and either view from a distance, or hike trails to get up close. Underneath the area is large amount of salt which over the years has led to the development of the unique formations. We did a combination of hiking and viewpoint photo-shoots. The hikes were anywhere from 2 miles to .5 miles round-trip. All that walking and climbing will certainly effect our weight gaining plan, plus we had barely eaten up to that point. But the views were worth it. The park was an incredible sight; nothing like I have ever seen before.
We spent about 3-4 hours traveling around (one should really spend at least a day, and even camp out to get the whole experience), and then had to hit the road to our sleep spot. It was another 190 miles to ohmygodanothernonamesmalltown, located somewhere in the middle of Utah. This drive consisted of 80 miles up a back road, then 110 miles SW through hills and mountains, taking us as high as 7,500 feet. The speed limit is 75 through the lifeless 110 stretch (again, with no stops for the entire length), but because there were long stretches of steep down-hills, we were able to break our speed record, 111MPH. Don't worry, it was a long, straight highway with 2 lanes each way and no one else on it for miles; but we did turn the headlights off so no one could see us.
This is our last night on the road. Tomorrow we have a couple more sight-seeing spots to visit and then on to Vegas. We will spend 2 days and nights sitting by the pool relaxing and then hit the road for the home stretch into Southern California. But don't worry, we will continue to publish our adventures all the way thru Vegas, Southern California, and the recent addition of Northern California (which begins on Sept 2). Milage as of this evening: 4,400 Grease Spots on Evan's shorts from Navajo FryBread: 9 Grease Spots on Evan's shorts from Navajo FryBread after purchasing a Tide-2-Go pen: 2.5 More thumbnails ...
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