The Adventures of Road Trip '08

So I just got back from a road trip with Candice and Spencer (a girl we work with). We left last Wednesday and got back Saturday. We went to Arches, Mesa Verde, Colorado, Four Corners, and Natural Bridges and Goblin Valley here in Utah. It was a blast! We kind of detoured to Arches (it wasn't on the schedule) and only spent about an hour there. Then we moved on to Colorado. I've been to Mesa Verde before with my family but it was a long time ago. I remembered some of it, but I definitely had a better appreciation for it this time around. There are cliff dwellings there from about 800 years ago and it's absolutely amazing. We got there late Wednesday night and set up camp. Then we spent all day Thursday exploring the ruins and taking tours of the dwellings. We camped there another night and Friday we headed down to Four Corners. There's really not much there except the monument and a Navajo market. They were selling jewelry and pottery and all sorts of other souveniers. Then we missed a turn without realizing it and drove two hours into Arizona...oopsie! The names of towns just kept getting more indian sounding, but there were no signs along the road to tell us which road we were on. So there was some backtracking...but we got to Natural Bridges while it was still light. That's the first time in all the times Candice and I have gone camping where we haven't set up the tent in the dark! We hiked around and saw the bridges. Also at Natural Bridges, they have the first and only International Dark Sky Park. They set up a telescope and let you look at all sorts of stellar phenomenon. The Moon was awesome. We could see the craters and seas and every little valley and rise. It was really cool. Then we looked at Mars and Jupiter and the Cluster of Hercules. It was really interesting. Then we went back to camp, out in the middle of no where. They only have thirteen campsites, so naturally they were all taken. They have an overflow camping area, but there's nothing there! You literally drive down a dirt road and pick out a spot that looks like you could set up a tent there. Hard core. Saturday we stopped at Goblin Valley on the way back. They filmed part of Galaxy Quest there, so Candice and I were cracking up while we were down in the valley. We got back at about 5:15 Saturday night. Unfortunately, all of us had to work. We were scheduled at 5:30, but after camping for four days, you can imagine that a shower was ABSOLUTELY necessary, and we were all a little late. Again...oopsie! But the trip was great. It was awesome to spend time with my friends and we saw some amazing things along the way.

Candice took a bunch of pictures (well, massive amounts of pictures) but they aren't on the computer yet, so as soon as they are, I'll post some.