Day Three

Four Corners

Our morning started again at 6am.  I got up early and did a little work before getting ready for the day.  We had breakfast at the hotel and of course the waffle maker timer broke right when I went to use it.  Luckily there was a nice man making a waffle next to me that used his watch to time my food.  It turned out well.  Once we were done eating, we loaded up the car and headed to Four Corners Monument.  This is the point where the state lines of Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico meet.

If you stand in the middle you can been in four states at once.  The monument is on Navajo land, so there were stands set up all around the monument where the Navajo descendants could sell handmade goods.  I bought a small pair of white earrings.  I’ve started collecting unique earrings from places I visit.  After we were done taking pictures and looking at the booths at the monument, we took pictures with the “Welcome to New Mexico” sign and headed to Monument Valley. 

Mexican Hat Rock

On our way to Monument Valley, we drove through the Valley of the Gods.  It was beautiful as well.  The valley had a much redder hue than the sites of yesterday.  When we finally neared Monument Valley, we stopped to take one of the famous Monument Valley pictures.  All along the road to the valley, there are small places set up for the Navajo people to sell jewelry, T-shirt, etc.  A lot of the amazing sites around here are owned by the Navajo. 

Monument Valley

Those sites are much more expensive than the national parks.  While national parks charge by the carload, the Navajo charge by the person.  Once we were paid and in the valley, we took several pictures and drove up to the visitor center.  We opted to not pay for the tour through the valley because it was $40 a person and you didn’t see anything you couldn’t see from the visitor center.  I was definitely glad we didn’t prepay for that excursion. 

Monument Valley

From the visitor center, we took the other famous shot of Monument Valley and toured the gift shop.  Lee and I bought a magnet and we all got back in the car to head to our next destination – Antelope Canyon.  The drive was around 2 and a half hours, but we stopped at a Burger King in Kayenta for lunch.  We made it to Page much sooner than expected, so we went to Glen Canyon Dam while we waited for our tour. 

Glen Canyon Dam/Lake Powell

Lake Powell behind the dam was beautiful.  It was nice to see a body of water after seeing dirt, sand, and rocks for the past two days.  Once it was time, we headed back to our tour company.  We waited for our tour to start, and then we climbed up into the back of the truck.  Apparently they don't have click it or ticket laws because we rode in the back of this modified pick up truck down the paved road and then down the extremely bumpy road to antelope canyon.  Antelope Canyon was beautiful. 

Antelope Canyon

The guide was half Apache and took time to show us where to stand to take the best pictures.  It was really hard to get the beautiful orange colors with a point and shoot camera.  Lee got much  better pictures than I did.  Once we went out of the back of the canyon, we waited for the rest of our group and took a break.  One guide even sang and played traditional Native American music on a flute.  I was taking video of the canyon as the other guide was playing the flute and our guide walked in front of the camera and complained about how tired he was of that flute.  It was great.  After several more pictures, we headed back through and loaded up the truck to leave.  The guide said he took it easy on the way there (even though we were bouncing around like crazy), so I told him not to take it so easy on the way back. 

Our ride to the canyon

He hit a few more bumps and went a little faster and Lee's parents blamed it on me.  I told them, "You're welcome."  It was fun.  Once we were done at the canyon, we checked into our hotel and took a break before heading out to dinner.  We drove around Page for 30 minutes before we decided where to eat.  We finally settled on this Italian place called Stromboli.  We had seen a few advertisements for the place, so we figured it would be a safe bet. 

Entrance to Antelope Canyon

It definitely was.  The calzone was the size of my plate.  It was huge!  I ate as much as I could and I still couldn't see my plate.  The food was great, but the service wasn't. Once we finally got our ticket and paid, we made a quick trip to Walmart and then headed to the hotel.  We've been to so many places I keep forgetting everything we've seen and done.  I can't believe we still have a few more days left!