We left the Navajo National Monument in a sleeting snow. Our Georgia born windshield wipers were somewhat frozen so they were not contributing positively to the experience. Darlene did an excellent job navigating the conditions and a few minutes later we were in town purchasing the most expensive 2.5 gallons of water we’ve ever bought. Not really sure what happened there. After stocking up on enough to get us through until the drain hose to our regular tank un-froze, we were on our way.
It was all rather uneventful. A desert tower here. A desert tower there. Oh, look! It’s the Mexican Hat!
And then there was…
THIS!
Do you see where the road goes? We didn’t either.
We confirmed that we were not to go through a tunnel.
And then Nicole spotted a flash, like sun reflecting off of a window.
Is THAT the car that was ahead of us up there? (See yellow rectangle in photo)
Still not convinced… Darlene zooms in on the GPS an says,
”This is what it looks like.”
We look back up at the mountain in front of us and super-impose the above photo over it in our minds. It looked something like this…
A little further up the road we were comforted by…
THIS!
Gee, sure wish we had gotten more gas. Annie’s gonna drink it good on this one.
Oh and the “1 mile” is 1 mile until it starts. The switchback road is 5 miles long.
About a minute later we decide, “We’ve got this!” Onward and upward we went.
Shoot. That’s not too bad.
Oh, wow! Look how pretty.
That little hill of sand will surely keep us from going over. Glad they put it there.
See that grey ‘snake’ on the right hand side of the picture?
That’s the road we came in on! We gained about 2000’ in elevation all total.
We see three. How many do you see?
A different angle.
Up and up we went. Turn after hairpin turn.
The views were breathtaking.
By the way, the road goes up the side of this near tower and almost out to the end point before heading back again to the side we took this photo from.
And when you reach the top you are greeted with…
Hmmm...
Since no endings were allowed we decided to continue on and
a cattle crossing
or two later (we were sure to let him know we got his number!)
we had arrived!
THIS!
Do you see where the road goes? We didn’t either.
We confirmed that we were not to go through a tunnel.
And then Nicole spotted a flash, like sun reflecting off of a window.
Is THAT the car that was ahead of us up there? (See yellow rectangle in photo)
Still not convinced… Darlene zooms in on the GPS an says,
”This is what it looks like.”
We look back up at the mountain in front of us and super-impose the above photo over it in our minds. It looked something like this…
A little further up the road we were comforted by…
THIS!
Gee, sure wish we had gotten more gas. Annie’s gonna drink it good on this one.
Oh and the “1 mile” is 1 mile until it starts. The switchback road is 5 miles long.
About a minute later we decide, “We’ve got this!” Onward and upward we went.
Shoot. That’s not too bad.
Oh, wow! Look how pretty. That little hill of sand will surely keep us from going over. Glad they put it there.
See that grey ‘snake’ on the right hand side of the picture?
That’s the road we came in on! We gained about 2000’ in elevation all total.
We see three. How many do you see?
A different angle.
Up and up we went. Turn after hairpin turn.
The views were breathtaking.
By the way, the road goes up the side of this near tower and almost out to the end point before heading back again to the side we took this photo from.
And when you reach the top you are greeted with…
Hmmm...Since no endings were allowed we decided to continue on and
a cattle crossing
or two later (we were sure to let him know we got his number!)
we had arrived!
More in a bit about our adventures here. Internet is spotty right now.