Before leaving Utah, we traveled north to Natural Bridges National Monument. We did a nice hike down to Sipapu Bridge and the Horse Collar Ruins.

Sipapu bridge is the second largest natural bridge in the US, and the sixth largest worldwide.

We then turned back south and headed down the Moki Dugway, which compared to the Shafer trail, was a super highway. The road was wide, graded and had a berm or guardrail on much of the cliff side. The road was easy passage for even two-wheeled sedans. Although we did see one Audi turn around at the bottom when the pavement turned to dirt.

Continuing south we hit the spot just north of Monument Valley that was the background of the movie scene in Forest Gump – “I’m pretty tired, I think I’ll go home now.”

We dropped back into Arizona and camped at Navajo National Monument. Usually it’s an empty park with great spots, but our favorite spots were taken so we tried a new one this time. The Ranger told us that someone had put the campground on the free camping app so the number of folks staying there has gone up significantly.

We signed up for the hike down to Betatakin, or Ledge House, an ancestral Puebloan cliff dwelling. The guide we had was Navajo and gave a great talk on the land, the plants and the people of the area.

We left there and drove across the Navajo Nation and through the Hopi reservation. We enjoyed an awesome lunch of lamb, white hominy and green chili soup with tostadas on blue corn fry bread. We then stopped for the night at Cottonwood CG just outside Canyon De Chelly National Monument.
The next morning, we drove the southern rim of the canyon out to Spider Rock. The views along the way into the canyon were beautiful.

We also did the hike down to White House ruins, the only place within the canyon you can go without a Navajo guide.

We then drove to our place on the Rim to end our fifth summer trek.

To recap this trip, we covered roughly 8,000 miles in 65 days.

We camped in 8 states (Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Washington, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado).

We visited 14 National Parks and Monuments along this trek – Sunset Crater National Monument (AZ), Grand Canyon National Park (AZ), Cedar Breaks National Monument (UT), Great Basin National Park (NV), Haggerman Fossil Beds National Monument (ID), Mt Rainier National Park (WA), Olympic National Park (WA), North Cascades National Park (WA), Yellowstone National Park (WY), Rocky Mountain National Park (CO), Canyonlands National Park (UT), Natural Bridges National Monument (UT), Navajo National Monument (AZ) and Canyon De Chelly National Monument (AZ).

We hit several very good breweries along the way, and I now have a greater appreciation for a well-made Rueben.

Our biggest culinary surprise on this trip, other than using the Volcano grill heat top after it sat in my cook box for a year, was the mouth-watering, freshly made everything served at the Front Porch Grill House in Eureka, MT. It’s way out of the way from everything, but I think we’ll figure a route that takes us back there again in the future.

People always ask, “where is the best place you have been?”. The answer is that they are all awesome. Any place that brings a smile to your face due to its natural beauty, makes your mind examine the wonder of the natural forces and ancient people that shaped the area, or just simply stirs a desire in your heart to see around the next bend is that “best” place.

Not sure what will be our next adventure, but stay tuned…..we’re not done Roaming yet.