Over the Mountains

Today was a day of climbing and of change, as we started the day high in the mountains and ended in the Arizona desert. The first 323 miles of today’s journey were memorable for me because we drove over roads that were part of my 1986 bicycle tour of Utah and Colorado. Included in these 323 miles were three mountain passes over 11,000’.


I let both Paul and John drive over one of these huge mountain climbs just so they could say that they have driven over 11,000’! The switchbacks are incredible, there are often no guardrails, and after a 1’ shoulder the road often drops off 500’ or so – not for the faint of heart. The boys did great!

Monarch pass was a mountain climb that I remember well from my bicycling days (10 miles of non-stop climbing), and just for fun here I am in a 1986 photo, and here are the boys today at the same spot.


After reaching Durango the landscape began to change tremendously as we left the 14,000” mountains behind and headed toward the desert. The natural rock “sculptures” in this part of the USA are breathtaking, and for me their beauty is beyond that of any modern art sculptures I have seen.

We ended the day in Kayenta, AZ, on the Navajo Indian Reservation. The boys are in town getting some supper and seeing what this 2-light town has to offer. We are just 20 miles south of monument valley, which has been featured in hundreds of movies and TV commercials. Tomorrow we head to the Grand Canyon, then on to California. All of today’s driving was done on 2-lane roads; I’ll be glad to get back on the interstate (I 40) tomorrow afternoon!