Navajo Never Never Land

Day Fifteen: Cortez UT to Tusayan AZ

We cooked breakfast in the hotel room this morning: strong coffee and chicken mole tacos. I don't want to leave this land of ever present chile. It is a treat to be asked at every meal “red or green?” and to have fresh salsa that packs some heat without having to beg. I don't think we'll be able to eat at the puny cheap mexican joints back east again.

Within about 20 miles of Cortez we enter the Navajo Nation. It is a border patrol, do doubt, with a station guard and everything. The land that this nation possesses is indescribable, which is a major problem because I chose not to take many pictures today. I just needed a day of seeing things through my eyes rather than the camera lens.

The color of the sands shift from light yellow to, forgive me, cheet-o orange to electric red. The rock formations are the stuff of sci-fi covers. There are herds of wild horses roaming through the plains, many with babies. The horses are some of the most beautiful I've ever seen, dramatic black and white paints, Barbie horses with dark brown bodies and light blonde mane and tail. They all look free and healthy, swinging their long tails across their backs and shaking their manes in the hot breeze. I read in a local paper that there will be a wild horse “gather” in mid September as their numbers are apparently taxing the land on which they roam.

My biggest stress on the morning ride is: what do I pretend in this unimaginable setting? I am a dignitary from a far off land who has been summoned to one of these sand-planet castles that I can see in the distance. No, I'm a princess from a far off land who is being escorted by a swarthy desert wasp pilot in order to attend a ball at the castle. Or better yet, we are Bedouin robbers who plan to raid the castle tonight. I know it's ridiculous, but I can't help it. The rock formations jutting from the ground look just exactly like castles. You gotta see it. The Painted Desert is aptly named.

After a long break in Tuba City (oh, there's a skate park in Tuba City that looks good, in case you're traveling through and need a fix), we head south to the Grand Canyon (drum roll, I guess). A fun fact about the desert in the summer: it is “monsoon season”. This means that at around 2 or 3 pm everyday a thunderstorm rolls in. Now, being from the south (born and raised, yes ma'am), you'd think I'd be used to this. These aren't your average thunderstorms though. They could better be described as “storm cells”. You can see them from 50 miles away, they are tall and blackish purple, like the “nothing” in the Never Ending Story. You can see opaque gray curtains of rain falling from the sky. It's intimidating, and today we drove right in to one. From probably 40 miles away the particular storm we headed toward is putting off some serious wind. I had to hunch down behind the Pirate as he held R. Girl steady so we weren't blown across the road. As we got closer, the temperature dropped 30 degrees in 5 minutes, because we are not only driving toward it, but up into it by 1000 feet in elevation. We're shivering, but dry. By some miracle we just escaped the rain aspect of this storm, the pavement is soaked and it looks like it must've been a doozy.

Be warned, 64 W is nothing more than a posh overpriced toll road. With no other way out than to re-trace the 23 miles in, they have you fork over $25 to continue on down the road at the entrance of the Grand Canyon park. When I asked the pointy nosed park ranger, “what does this $25 get us?” she replied, “it gets you in.” Well OK then. Once we were in, we enjoyed the post-storm light of the majestic canyon. The rest of the drive through the park got us excited for what northern California might be like. We pass huge Ponderosa pines and Douglas firs; the forest is all drippy wet and fragrant. At one point we approach a flock of tourists. They have such a charged energy that I think a car's gone off the road, but no, they had managed to find a huge male Elk complete with the regal rack of antlers that you'd expect, and they were swarming him to take pictures. I should have taken a picture of the tourists, they were getting so close to the Elk I figured there would be a Darwin award in there somewhere.

We have found an idyllic campsite for tonight. Just 8 miles south of the park, Ten-X campground is cheap and lovely. Each site has a picnic table and enormous Ponderosa pines. Tonight, for the first time in our entire 2 weeks on the road, we get to sleep in the tent, cook with our full kitchen kit, and lay in the hammock. Toting all of this across the country feels totally worth it now as we snuggle up in the hammock under the stars and watch the crescent moon over the silhouettes of the pines.