Utah We Love Thee: Spring Break Day 1

Utah We Love Thee, happens to be the official state song. And it is true. We love Utah. We should spend less time exploring it and just hang out here in the west side of the Salt Lake Valley amongst the strip malls and split level home neighborhoods in order to make our move more palatable. But we have been exploring it and it is seriously such an amazing place. And it will be hard to leave. Anyway, again I tried to pick just a few pictures. I was going to try and cover spring break in one post, but alas, my inability to narrow it down prohibits it.

For spring break Rob and I wanted to do an "Indian Trip" based on the trips to the four corners region we/I took with my Uncle Tony many years ago. He had an amazing collection of Indian artifacts and a huge knowledge of the area. Todd and Court were game, so Rob planned it all out for us. We stayed in a motel in Monticello. Clara couldn't have been more pleased. I think living in a motel would satisfy her every wish and desire. We started out the day with a quick hike to see the Butler Wash ruins. Very cool. The water in the sandstone potholes was frozen.

Next we drove to Natural Bridges National Monument. And it was COLD! The wind was eating us alive. We were going to hike a big loop but due to washed out trails we ammended our plans. We decided to defy the cold and hike down into the canyon. It was MUCH warmer once we were protected from the wind by the canyon walls. The steep hike down was pretty fun. At Kachina bridge we were told there were some Anasazi ruins so we bush whacked around trying to find them.


It turns out the ruins are just to the left of the bridge, but we went beyond in search of them, which was a fun adventure.
Todd found a different ruin, a granary with corn, and everyone tried to scramble up to see it. It was too steep and a different route was found.
The granary:


Here are the ruins and pictographs that we had searched for initially. Turns out they weren't too hard to find if you just follow the signs. Oh well.
We had plenty of sand in our shoes:
This waterfall is where the canyon we were in begins:
After Natural bridges we drove off the mesa on the Mokee Dugway road, which is gnarly and cool with amazing views clear into Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. We stopped at the Goosenecks where the San Juan river has carved it's way through the desert.

Then it was off to Monument Valley and a delicious dinner at Goulding's to eat Navajo tacos:

Then we went back to the motel and swam. The highlight of Clara's life.