Kim Conger and I have been talking for at least five years now about how we want to road trip down to the Grand Canyon, and Four Corners, both of which are on opposite ends of the state. Carrie and I have also been trying to go to all the temple in Utah. Monticello was the last on our list, so we decided to combine the dreams and make a huge road trip out of our ward's annual Moab summer trip. I have done the trip in the past, and honestly it was fun, but this year the plan was EXACTLY the same, so I didn't feel like I really would be missing much. Especially the rafting trip down the Green River...HORRIBLE! There are NO rapids, and without good team work...NOT GOOD! Plus last time I had SUPER bad cramps, and was freezing. Just all around not super amazing. Anyway so this year we set out on our own journey, converging with the ward for one night which was plenty!
The goal was to make it to Monticello in time for the 8:00 session, due to Chelsea's test which took way longer then we planned for, road construction, and missing our exit and traveling at least 20 min in the wrong direction, we didn't make it to Monticello until about 8:30 unfortunately missing the session! :(
The temple is of course beautiful! The people were amazing! We ended up only being able to do baptisms, which Chelsea and I did (Laurel and Carrie didn't want to get wet). We were baptized by a kid who had just gone through the temple that night and was preparing to serve a mission in NYC! It was a cool experience because it was his very first time baptizing anyone. I just love the temple, and can now say (after going to the Brigham City Temple the week after) That I've done ordinances in all the Utah Temples currently built. The Provo City Center, Payson, and Ogden temples are currently under construction so that is exciting! Temples are dotting the earth! Especially Utah! After the temple we headed on to Cortez, CO to stay in a hotel the night before journeying to 4 corners the next morning. Honestly it was great to stay in a hotel! While checking into the hotel we discovered that we were in the town where there was an ancient civilization called Mesa Verde. We immediately started screaming and jumping up and down with excitement! LITERALLY! The lady checking us in at the front desk probably thought we were crazy! What a lucky trip though, adding one more adventure to our docket! More about Mesa Verde in a minute...
Four Corners was AWESOME! Obviously it was nothing spectacular, just a monument where the four states meet, but there were little shops set up around the area so that was kind of cool! Laurel bought a legit sling shot with a wolf on it. It was awesome to be in four states at once! We were talking to a native and he said technically we are in six places at once! Four states, and two Indian reservations. I have officially been to six places at once! WOOHOO!!! We took some pretty adorable pictures there! All we really wanted! haha
Here it is! Mesa Verde! We drove literally up a mountain, and at the top is the national park. These are the ruins of an ancient civilization! We got to actually go down and touch them, and walk in them, and climb down into a little hole. It was a really cool thing to see! So much fun! We seriously had major adventures on this road trip! As we were going up and down the terrain to see the ruins we were thinking about the movie The Croods and I wondered if they ever wondered out, or down the mountain. Did they just live their lives in that little cave protected by the cliff? Crazy to think that we traveled to see this civilization where they quite possibly spent their entire lives.
We happened upon this little gem which was literally a gift shop in the rock when Chelsea had to pee right when we got into Moab. It turned out to be pretty awesome! We were not disappointed!
The famous arch! Honestly the only thing I wanted to do in Moab was hike to Delicate Arch. We were planning on doing a 4:30 AM hike with Mike Stone and some others, but when the time came we were entirely too tired. I had SUPER bad cramps and did not sleep a wink, plus we were exhausted from the busy day before, so I settled for Carrie and Laurel's picture from their hike the day before. Now I can just pretend I was there too. haha
Seriously life is really about who you know! My client Shirley was so cute and the last time I did her hair she told me to come jeeping next time I was in Moab, and I took her up on it, and it was fabulous!!! Her husband and some other guys who literally do extreme jeeping in Moab for a job took us out. I am so glad we took pictures, because this was not the kind of jeeping I anticipated! It was HARD CORE!!! These jeeps are made to handle crazy stuff!!! We were literally on two wheels some of the time! It was awesome! I rode with a big guy with a big beard named Travis. He was awesome and funny, and he was the mechanic, so when the jeep Carrie and Chelsea were riding on broke down he had to go fix it. They told us it's not a jeeping day until something breaks. We literally had the whole experience including me having to squat and pee in the middle of the trail! Quite the experience!
For our final adventure before journeying home our amazing bishop inisited that we see Dead Horse Point which was a cool little State park with a great view. Some call it the smaller Grand Canyon. Apparently some horse robbers stole horses, and kept them up there, and they died because of heat and dehydration. Sad story, but amazing view! We seriously have the best bishop ever he gave us money to get into the park so that we wouldn't miss this amazing view! We had one amazing trip! Keep in mind we left at like 3PM on Thursday, and got home at 8PM on Saturday, so for all that we did it was a super short trip! I loved every minute of it though! We were all great travel companions!
