We got on the road about 8:30 in high spirits.

We first stopped at Rabbit Valley for a quick dinosaur hit (Sam is suddenly very interested in dinosaurs).  After Rabbit Valley we stopped in the ghost town Cisco.  I was really impressed with a piece of art we saw

And then we visited the new store there called Buzzard’s Belly.  It was not a useful store, but it was a cute store and the owner was so friendly.  She seemed to really care about what she was doing and loved to talk to us about the history of Cisco.  I bought a yeti cup with their logo because I was so charmed 🙂

We pressed on to the dinosaur tracks near Moab.  This was our first real adventure!  I blindly followed google’s directions instead of the posted signage which led us on to a two-track “road”.  It was mostly just bumpy, but there were a few arroyo crossings that were a little more than I would have liked to move my car through.  It was fun, if I ignored the “this is a bad idea” feeling, but they boys were horrified.  My dad was having a blast though!  

We finally made it to the parking lot and trekked up to the prints.  They were pretty cool and Sam was happy to send a picture to his dinosaur pal back home.  

After driving back on the actual road, we continued on to Moab where we had lunch on a shady bench.  We had a very good hamburger and the boys got some ice cream.  Moabites seemed to be giving us serious “what the heck is wrong with you” looks for wearing masks.

Continuing down the road a bit, we arrived in Monticello.  I actually lived in Monticello for a week in 1985, but I didn’t remember it at all 🙂  We visited the tiny temple and got drinks at the Maverick.  

The next time was Blanding, where I was wanting to visit a tribal museum, but the boys saw an ad for a dino museum that I hadn’t seen on the map.  It was really cool!  It seemed a little small and lame at first, but it kind of just kept going.  They had some incredible displays, including a giant feathered dinosaur!  I also enjoyed that they had movie posters all over the museum from old monster movies.  It seemed like a real labor of love and we all had a blast.

The next stop was a petroglyph panel just outside of Bluff.  It was 103 degrees and Sam was OFFENDED by how hot it was.  It was a cool petroglyph though.  The boys were running out of steam for rocks and stuff, but we continued through Monument Valley anyway.  I was amazed by how red everything was and loved the scenery but they boys seemed to hate it!

When we finally arrived back in civilization, we got some gas in Kayenta, which is in the Navajo Nation.  We were shocked and pleased by their very serious mask laws.  After Moab, it felt like we were back amongst our people 🙂  

The final leg of this day was to Tuba City further in to the Navajo nation.  It was a fairly boring road, but we listened to music and chatted.

When we arrived at our hotel, we checked in without issue.  Jack kept talking about how amazing the hotel is, and it is nice, but it is pretty “normal”.  I think after so much remote rural stuff, it felt like a “real city hotel” on the inside, which was nice for them.  We got dinner at the hotel restaurant.  I got a navajo taco and they got a pizza.  The restaurant forgot to cut the pizza so my dad let us use his knife to get it cut up.  I thought the navajo taco was pretty bland, but I’m super glad I got to try one.

We see a lot of smoke from the fire near Flagstaff.  I’m worried that the views at the Grand Canyon will be disappointing, but I expect to have fun anyway.