Paul & Kristi's Big Adventure - Summer of 2013: Day Nineteen

August 5, 2014

Left New Mexico this morning and headed into Arizona. It was still dark out, so these pictures are little blurry. But we really did enter Arizona. I am so excited about today.

Dinosaurs and American Indians.

The GPS says we are in the Apache County in AZ

It's a dinosaur on the side of the road. Could they be back?

Let the awesome pictures begin, I promise they will get better as the sun comes up.

Now we are in the Navajo County of AZ

Here is a better sign for Arizona.

A make believe Indian settlement.

We are up a bit.

Just start to enjoy the pictures.

Lots of Indian names for cities.

Look at that horizon. Hey Mr. Sun is coming up!

We can see Humphreys Peak off in the distance.

We learned from a Navajo that this is their sacred mountain.

We stopped at a rest stop to get a better look at the rocks.

We had some fun too!

It was falling so I had to hold it up.

Look at that, one finger!

This is the best traveling companion.

Hark, look over there!

I just had to climb up the rocks.

And then Paul kept snapping pictures.

On the Road again...

Our Dinosaur tracks are in Tuba City. It is on the Navajo reservation.

House on the Hill

We are getting close!

A lone house on the prairie.

Oh this is so beautiful!

This is all on the side of the road that we are traveling on. It is just amazing.

Thank you God for allowing me to see these wonders and be with Paul.

All of these homes are on the reservation.

Oh my gosh, we are almost there!!!

This place is on the land of the Navajo Nation. It is not advertised. You just have to stumble on it. I found other blogs where other visitors and posted about it. The Native Americans here take donations and walk you through the paths of dinosaurs.

This picture is a dried up riverbed.

You can see the ripple marks from the water

and some faint tracks.

The Navajo man who showed us around was named Albert. His family has always been here as long as he can remember. His great grandparents knew of the tracks long before the public did.

He walked along and filled in the tracks with water so that we could see them better.

The whole time he is describing the creatures. This area was a river bed which made the ground soft.

Then a Meteor struck the surrounding ares (50 miles away) and a volcano erupted. The land was immediately covered with dust and it was able to preserve the tracks.

As the rain eroded away the top soil the tracks began to appear. Many years ago the scientists began to come and study the land. They have removed dinosaur bones as well. Because this land is protected by the Navajo, they are not allowed to removed anything else.

Albert gained all of his knowledge as a child growing up. He would follow the scientists and their students around and listened to them. He is very knowledgeable. I was so impressed with him.

This is a painting of one of the dinosaurs that left these prints.

Here is Albert filling in the tracks.

He actually lives off in the canyon where there are trees. His family grows

vegetables. These Native Americans do not leave the reservation for the most part.

Their homes are either provided by the Navajo nation or they build them. If you look at the shack

above, this is how some of them live. The Navajo woman we talked to said she didn't have a house. They have applied for housing but the list is very long. They love their heritage and their land, but the Navajo people are very poor. Albert told us that the number one killer here is Alcoholism.

This dinosaur was just sitting still.

Veloster rarptor running foot prints,

look at the next picture it shows the dinosaur slipping when he stopped.

T-Rex Print outlined in water.

Albert, our guide

Another T-Rex print

Dinosaur bones

Dinosaur poop

Little guys

Then we could walk around on our own.

This is looking back at the Navajo men. Jobs are hard to find on the reservation unless you have a degree in something. They just hang out all day here waiting for goofy tourists like us to come by.

This is me and Albert. He was such a great guy.

The Navajo women will make jewelry and sell it here.

Off in the distance where the trees are is where Albert's family lives.

On the road again. I could have stayed all day.

Now comes the ump-teen pictures.

Navajo Homes

I got one of these seed pods. We stopped on the road to get a better look at the landscape.

I also picked up some rocks.

This bridge is over part of the Colorado River which leads to the Grand Canyon.

We started to drive by this bridge (Navajo Bridge) which connects the Navajo Nation to Arizona land. We stopped, parked and walked back to experience it.

Here we are on the walking bridge.

I am getting red in the face "real" fast. I actually got overheated.

There are more pictures later.

Now for the amazing views from the bridge.

We are standing over the Colorado River. We will see rafters floating by.

To think that they have to actually have a sign that says

"No Jumping from the Bridge"

So beautiful!

See the rafters?

We had to take cover in Resurrection Restaurant as I was about to keel over.

Seriously, almost passed out. Not used to this elevation and heat.

My face is still red, but not like it was. A lemonade and an ice cream really helped.

Back on the road for beautiful rock formations.

Now this was too cool! Look at the house under the rock.

Here is Aunt Holly with her two favorite people -- and mine.

We were supposed to go up I 89, but there was a sink hole so we had to go up I 89A, which was through a National Forest and a very windy, up and down road.

Also very narrow, we were biting our nails the whole way.

Oh stop and look, there is some more beauty.

The Forestry Department actually has managed burns in the forest to promote a sound ecology.

Hey this place is for sale. Any takers?

Paul said we could move all of our kids up here on a big piece of property.

Welcome to Utah!

We are finally here.

There is a famous lodge. We are in Kanab, UT

Most of our early Westerns Films were filmed here and this lodge served

as living quarters for many famous stars. We are going to stay in town and do some sight

seeing tomorrow. This place was called "Little Hollywood" because so many films were made here. They didn't have to fly in cows, horses or crews. They just used the locals.

Moqui Cave. Another Famous Hangout of the stars.

It was originally a bar and dance hall. No AC required here. It is now a museum.

I just love these kind of places.

The founder put the dinosaur prints that he found here. He removed them and brought them here. They are just like the ones we saw on the Navajo reservation.