We pass a milestone…..

800 hikes in less than ten years!

And each hike was unique and beautiful.  As we finished this momentous 800th hike, it started to rain.  That didn’t diminish the joy we felt.  The wind and rain just added a different sort of wild beauty to the mountain forest where we were hiking. 

But best of all—we were together every single step of each of those 800 hikes.

America the Beautiful: our dispersed camping sites through the years

 

We have spent years, in total, camping in our great country.  We started off camping in campgrounds, not knowing any other way.  After a couple of years, we discovered "boondocking," which means camping anywhere in our public lands where we could find a spot.

After we discovered this way of camping, that's all we did for the next several years.  We have memories that are irreplaceable.  Quiet nights, by ourselves, out in the middle of nowhere.  Just the two of us and the coyotes.    Hiking in all directions from our camper. 

We have such wonderful memories.

Here is a Youtube video of our dispersed camping sites:

We meet up with Kathy and Bill to celebrate their 70th birthdays!

 We met up with Kathy and Bill in Mexican Hat, Utah, to celebrate their 70th birthdays, but mostly just to see them.  It was so wonderful.

This area of the country means a lot to us because of how much time we have spent there on our road trips.  It is where some our favorite places to camp and hike over the years have been.

On our way to Mexican Hat we stopped north of Flagstaff and took a nice hike.

And drove by Lake Mary and Mormon Lake (below), which we had never seen before.

 

To get to Mexican Hat we drove through Monument Valley.  We had visited this area in 2015.  Monument Valley was made famous by John Ford, the movie director, and John Wayne.  They made several films together here.

 ...including The Searchers, Dan's all-time favorite film.

And then, 40 years later Monument Valley was once again made famous by Forrest Gump.  In fact, it is even labeled on Google Maps.

 

We all stayed  at the San Juan Inn, which is almost carved into the side of a large rock high above the San Juan River. 

We have never stayed at an Inn before where we had to be careful about where we parked our car.

Early every morning we went on a hike from this motel along the San Juan River.  When we start it is pitch black, so we get to watch the sun coming up.  Really stunningly beautiful.

On our last day we took this hike later in the morning with Kathy and Bill.

A full moon lit us up on our early morning hikes.

 

One day all four of us hiked to the "hat."  This is the rock that Mexican Hat is named after.    We took a group photo:

Dan decided that the hat was precarious, and might fall and hurt someone.  So, he volunteered to push it over:

The next day we went to Valley of the Gods.  It is a lot like Monument Valley, except not quite as large.  But it is also pretty isolated.  We have camped in five places there--in 2015 and 2017.  And have hiked all over the valley.  It was really nice seeing it again. 

  

  

 

 

We showed Kathy and Bill our very favorite campsite in Valley of the Gods.  We stayed at his site for two weeks in 2017, where we celebrated Thanksgiving surrounded by these majestic towering buttes.  Bill took a photo of us that captured the joy we felt as we returned to this campsite where we have so many sweet memories.

We also took a quick trip to Gooseneck State Park.  It's major attraction is a curve in the San Juan River.  It's really something:

 

The next day we traveled up the Moki Dugway to Cedar Mesa.  The Moki Dugway is a road that goes straight up (practically) the side of a mountain.  It is quite unbelievable.

 

On the way up one can see Valley of the Gods in the distance:

 

 And when you get to the top of Cedar Mesa one finds a mesa of Cedars. Imagine that.

 

This area is also Bears Ears National Monument.

Here are the Bears Ears that it is named after.  Note the absence of an apostrophe.  We don't know why it isn't called Bear's Ears. 

A closer shot as we drew near the “Ears”:

The gravel road we traveled on went between the two ears.  We joked that we visited the Bear's Forehead;

One of our main reasons for making this trip today was to show something to Bill and Kathy.  We had spent several nights in this area camping and hiking.  One day, on one of our hikes we came upon a sight that we will never forget.

So, today we went back to this area.  It involved driving on rough 4-wheel-drive roads.  Fortunately, the Toyota 4Runner was more than up to it.

Then we walked:

..until we came to a road that descended into the valley.  It had not been used in many years.  It was amazing to consider how old vehicles, many without hydraulic brakes, had descended this road.   

We found out later that it was "Old 95."  The "new" 95 was completed in 1976, but we cannot find out how long before 1976 this part of the road was decommissioned.  

It is truly a sight to behold:

After we drove out, we found "new" 95.  After driving several miles we found where this old 95 road had met up with it.  You can see the road in the middle of the next photo, working its way down into the valley:

Every afternoon we would sit on the deck at the Inn until it got too hot, at which point we would move indoors:

And then the big event!  Kathy and Bill's birthday celebrations.  Kathy's was this week, and so we combined it with Bill's whose birthday it is in a few months (but we were afraid we wouldn't be with him to celebrate).  It's funny that the candles all melted together in the car, so that they looked like the buttes that we had seen in Monument Valley and Valley of the Gods.  How appropriate.

It was so wonderful to spend this time with two people who we love and have meant so much to us for such a long time. 

Hey Dan! Will you bring this 150 lb log that is sitting near an extremely rocky mountain road home for me?

 I'll love you even more if you will do that.

Well, dear reader, what else can I say to that except............except.......sure!  That is called an "offer I can't refuse." 

Let's back up.

We took (yet another) hike this morning up on the rim.  Vicky, as usual, found a good spot for us to start from.  

The first road we took was a dead end.  And few people have been on it.  At times it was even difficult to make out.  But that was the fun of it!

When we got to the end of it (why was it even created, you may ask?  Our answer:  Beats us!) we turned around walked back to the Rat and headed down another road.

This one was really rocky, as the photo above shows.  One of the discoveries we have made  is old mining roads and old forest service roads.  They are much like established hiking trails except for one key difference--THERE ARE NO OTHER PEOPLE TO BOTHER US!!!

While I was tenderly walking down this road, trying to be careful of my wimpy, surgically repaired (three operations) foot, Vicky was springing along both sides of it looking for......ready for this?.......a log.

Fortunately for her we were in a forest and there were millions of them.  But not just any old log would do.  She wanted one for us to put on the front porch as a foot stool.  I completely was on board with this idea.  That is, until I saw the log she had picked out.

But, with my usual good nature(?), I helped roll it down the hill so we could drive back and pick it up. 

The road was a bear.  Rocky, pitted, tight.  In other words, it is why we bought a Toyota 4Runner.  It performed magnificently.  

Then our problem was how in the world to get it into the Toyota.  It had to weigh at least 150 pounds.

Fortunately we had a plastic lid with us (always carry a plastic lid when you go hiking).  We leaned the log against the lid on the back lip of the Toyota and then could slide it in on the lid.  Brilliant!  Wish I had thought of it.  Was Vicky's idea.

Then we had to, ever so carefully, drive back on this "road."

We're done!

uh, no we aren't. 

We still had to get it onto the porch.  

This part actually went much easier than we thought it would, even though we had to take it up the back stairs.

The reason it was easier than we had anticipated?  Whoever invented the hand truck deserves a place in some type of hall of fame.  (and, by the way, who did invent the hand truck?).

We put planks on the back stairs and up it went on the hand truck.  Easy peasy.

It now resides on our front porch, where we spend our afternoons.  It's large enough to serve as a totally cool footstool.

 

Bet you wish you had one!  If you do want one, DON'T CALL ME!   I only haul 150 lb logs for Vicky.

Perfect for a log cabin, huh?

Now, you may be thinking that this is a really nice thing for a husband to do for his wife.  And while I agree, I do need to add, in the spirit of honesty, that THIS IS NOT THE ONLY HEAVY THING I CARRIED FOR HER TODAY.

Before she found the log, she found what she said was the "perfect" rock to set under her teapot.  So, I also carried this huge rock for about a quarter mile.  Here I am doing my duty as a burro.

and here is where it now resides:

"Hiking" is sooo much fun!  

(Actually I really do like Vicky’s creative decorating.)

On a hike the very next week….

Vicky found some logs (she called them end tables) that she insisted would go perfectly with our log foot stool.  So we hauled these massive “tables” into the back of the 4runner and up onto our back porch.

I have to admit that they look awfully good and they are totally functional.