I managed to sleep in a bit even though sleeping in the car. I think I started to get used to it AND I did a vital purchase that made the car nights a bit better: camping mattress. It's funny how much a piece of foamy plastic can help to your sleeping!
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| newspaper rock |
On my way back to the highway I found the meeting point where I was supposed to meet with the climbers the previous night. And no wonder I didn't find it in the dark. It was right by the road but there was no signs to it. nonetheless the drive itself was again beautiful by the indian Creek in the canyon lands of Utah. I did manage to see the "newspaper rock" where you can find carvings from 1000's of years back. I decided to head straight ahead to the Grand Canyon Natural park and try to catch the sunset in there. To get there I ended up driving over my last bigger mountain before the desert plains. But lots and lots of straight road was ahead of me on the way to Arizona.
My first interesting stop was in the city of Bluff. If you're ever seen the Disney's Cars animation. that's what this little town reminded me off. There was a little museum for the original pioneers who charted the area and formed the first town in the area. You could see some of the original houses and caravans that were used to get there. I ended up watching a short documentary about the pioneers in the tourist shop. Quite a terrain to travel with horses and caravans!
The second stop I got lucky with. I kinda hoped that I would've had an extra day that I could've stayed behind for this one! In the Tuba City I was wondering why there was so many people, cars and even helicopters in the small town. So I stopped to see what was going on. What was happening was the annual over weekend event where the Navajo & Hopi indians had a fair and market and lots of program including traditional dancing, food and music. Even though I didn't have that much time to get to the Grand Canyon for the sunset I decided that this one was worth to spend some time in. I walked around the markets and saw lots of original handicrafts from the Navajo's & Hopi's. But what really caught my eye was the traditional dance performances in the middle of the market. I managed to see few of them and the dancers were of course in the traditional costumes. I felt like watching Native American Folkloric dancing (which of course it pretty much was, just very different to the Nordic versions of it).
On my way back I wanted to try some of the delicacies they were selling. I forgot the name of this one but it was a fry bread with lots of Lamb meat, few other types of meat served with steamed pepper and corn. A nice combo. As I was eating it I got companied by the Jazzies family who belonged to the Navajo. They were kind enough to explain me about the festival and some of the traditions they were having there. So nice to hear about the culture from the real people living it! for one I didn't know that the Navajo's speak as their language...Navajo. Along English most of them of course, but from the elderly Navajo's there were many who never learned english that well.
I left the festival just in time to reach the sunset in the Grand Canyon. Funny enough I was thinking for the whole day that I wonder what will happen now or who will I meet since the Climbing didn't work out. Well first of all the sunset over the first sights of the Grand Canyon was spectacular, but that's all I managed to see.. I arrived just in time where the sun set behind the horizon about 15 minutes after I arrived. The Grand Canyon first of all. Never seen anything like it. Just the magnitude and majesties of it is absolutely breathtaking. I knew that the following day I'd do a hike down to the canyon so I wasn't too worried staying that much behind for the canyon. On my way out I found a great spot for a picture and asked the nearest person to take it. It turned out that she was doing something similar as me, Driving around with a rental car, though a shorter version of it. So we got into talking and she recommended me to this Motel near by.
I ended up spending the evening talking with her in the restaurant of the Motel and it turned out that she had an interesting story to tell. She was originally from Czech Republic but had lived in Chicago for quite awhile. What he did nowadays was massaging and healing with crystals. And as I'm always interested in different ways of living and seeing the world I was extremely interested with her story and life views. She explained to me of past lives, energies and meanings that she felt are worth while telling.
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| Moab - Grand Canyon |
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