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The drive from Santa Fe to Moab, Utah took us through Southwestern Colorado. The terrain along this route was awe-inspiring. We took pictures from the moving car instead of stopping every half mile or so to capture the beauty of the landscape. We wanted to get to Red Cliffs Lodge just outside of Arches National Park in time for dinner and sunset. We knew immediately that we’d come back to this beautiful spot. We weren’t able to take the evening river tour because it was booked. That’s the tough part about coming to a place for the first time ~ you don’t know which activities to book ahead.

Mike has continued to whine that I haven’t adequately described the terror that he (I emphasize “HE”) felt during our minor 2-hour getting-lost detour that we took in Monument Valley. Okay, so here’s what happened: I didn’t print out the detailed directions to get to The View Cabins, which are just inside tribal lands. I did however have the address, and I plugged it into Mapquest, and emailed it to Mike and myself so that we’d be able to access the directions if GPS didn’t have the specific address. I followed what I thought were the directions. Here I need to pause to admit that I am hopelessly directionally challenged. I get lost in parking lots. I used to get lost going to my grandmother’s house, where I’d gone for over 40 years. Anyway, I was pretty determined that we’d find these cabins on these dirt roads. Mind you, we only saw ONE other vehicle, a dusty pick-up truck that barreled past us going in the opposite direction. Mike made several attempts to convince me to go back to the paved road, and after an hour ~ yes, a full hour ~ I relented. I was thinking that being out on these dirt roads after dark probably wouldn’t be such a great thing.

Mike’s thought process was about those stories of people being abducted and left in the desert to die. He was terrified. And he became very, very quiet. As I started to get a little concerned I also became very quiet. Did I mention that neither one of us had cell service (I have Verizon, Mike has AT&T ~ sorry, Mike’s former colleagues, it’s about the network, nothing personal).

Well, we made it back to the paved road, called the hotel for the actual directions, and made it there with no further problem. It’s a shame that we had that not-so-great experience, because now Mike never wants to go back to Monument Valley. He said that I could go while he stays back in Sedona. Like that’s ever going to happen.

Since we’re only in Arches National Park for one day I’ll post all of our pictures in tomorrow’s entry. Meanwhile, these are the shots that we took from the car en route.