The Desert Oasis: Lake Powell

We woke up. Yes, we survived our night of terrors. Wolf's baseball sized bug bite wasn't poisonous and no unwelcome visitors crawled into the tent at night. Our revised tent from Charlotte (unfortunately not mentioned in the post but thank you to Peter's mom) saved us. 

For the next stretch, we had one goal in mind: get to a swimming hole. The heat and unrelenting desert needed an oasis. Being atlas experts by this point, we pulled out the map, spotted Lake Powell, and drove southwest into Arizona toward Monument Valley. We had no idea what we were in for. 

The scenery hasn't changed but it is still spectacular.

We will share a secret with you. We were planning on driving through Bluff to stay in Mexican Hat, Utah. We were pumped to stay in the town of 77 people, but we learned in Bluff that the town had no campgrounds. So we stayed in Bluff, but drove through Mexican Hat on this day. It is properly named Mexican Hat because of this sombrero in the distance. We feel like they might have to change the name in five years if they don't invest in any duct tape.

Decided not to set up camp at 11am next to this brown body of water. We drive on to Lake Powell.

Which Oscar winner ran on this road (See answer below the song)? Approaching Monument Valley.

Truly monumental.

We continued to encounter amazing geological formations past Monument Valley. Next stop: Lake Powell in Page, AZ.

Finally, we arrive at Lake Powell. With the 90+ degree weather beaming down, and no real destination but this, we looked for access.

With the football in hand, we climbed down the rock toward the fresh water lake. 

We made it. We hopped in and played some water footbeers. The landscape was incredibly slanted. Besides the natural difficulty of catching a slippery football with one hand, we couldn't keep our feet planted in the sloped, muddy lake floor. 

Everything was great until we smelled the rancid dead fish and witnessed inappropriate public actions by a few Native American couples.

With inclement weather racing in, we decided to get out of there. We passed a Native American local who ensured us that it would not rain. We had seen enough of this weather to know he was mistaken. 

It never rained.

After a couple burritos at a Mexican restaurant in Page and phone calls to our girlfriends, we drove to the northern side of the lake across the Utah border. 

We passed the dam as we headed toward Utah.

And the scenic gorge.

Blue.

Both of us wanted some picture love with Lone Rock.

We met a couple guys who were making a cross country trip of their own. They started in Philadelphia and their final destination was...drumroll...Portland. Greg (right) was moving to Portland, following his muse while Victor (left) went along for the ride. It was Greg's birthday at 12 so we offered them celebratory shots of Evan Williams.

Victor informed us that he made it back to Philadelphia and Greg is doing well living in Portland. 

Simon and Garfunkel - "I Am A Rock"

Answer: Tom Hanks from Forest Gump

What Did The Mormons Do About The Scorpions?

For those who have followed our travels in places all over the country, please don't worry; we made it alive out of the Four Corners. We arrived in Portland a few weeks ago and are trying to keep up with our blog amidst all of our responsibilities. That said, we continued into the heart of the Navajo Reservation and found a place to camp in the Mormon settlement of Bluff, Utah.

Population: 320.

The Navajo Twin Rocks looked over the small town. We entered this pictured restaurant and passed a surprising amount of people. They were mostly tourists from Europe and we were curious as to why they were here. 

More views of the beautiful Native American monument.

We drove past this place and discovered the reason for the tourism: Fort Bluff.

The fort was a large Mormon settlement where missionaries John Taylor, Silas S. Smith and Jens Nielsen led a group of 230 Mormons into southeastern Utah to farm and spread the Mormon faith amongst Native Americans.

Our first buggy sighting since we went Amish back in Iowa. Take note of all the restored cabins that made up this village.

Wolf's turn for a photo op with a buggy.

Some people would tell you that Bluff was founded in 1880 by this man and Silas S. Smith, but it was established in 650 A.D. by Navajo tribes.

Simulating the giddiness of a Joseph Smith disciple in one of the cabins.

After our fun within the Mormon fort, we drove a few miles to Sand Island Campground, a place the locals at the Twin Rocks Restaurant told us about. 

Our desert campsite.

As the sun fell beyond the desert floor, we skipped the rocks we collected back at Glacier National Park. We realized the trip was winding down and we didn't have many more opportunities skip the flat, smooth and rounded stones. A bad throw would take seven skips.

Our night of terrors just about to start as the sun sets and the winds howl in the high desert.

So far so good. We cooked chili over a fire and poured ourselves whiskey cokes. Wolf felt a bug bite, but we continued our meals, obliviously leaving our feet on the desert floor.

Mildly disturbing photo of chili ingestion. 

Then it happened. Wolf reached for a beer, but recoiled when he saw this scorpion guarding the 18-pack of Busch Classic. Then we started seeing these large and aggressive spiders (there was debate whether they were spiders or scorpions) with huge antlers running all over the place. They were everywhere. Our late night picnic turned into a 1950's horror film. Peter started hopping around the campsite yelling and Wolf calmly climbed on top of the picnic table to seek shelter. From his spot on top of the picnic bench Wolf said with sincerity, "Let's not act like complete pansies." We crammed the food and used pots into the front seat of Black Sally and sprinted to our tent with tails between our legs.

We woke up the next morning alive and well minus the balloon-sized bug bite on Wolf's leg, who insisted it wasn't itchy or painful. The campsite was host to petroglyphs that were 300 to 3000 years old. We needed to check them out.

Refreshing to see graffiti that doesn't say things like, "Gary was here 2005."

We saw so many cool lizards on the trip, but this one with the long, blue tail may take the cake. Seen outside Comb Ridge Coffee Shop in Bluff where we posted "Scorpions Are Easier To Find Than Wifi."

Clear Light - "Night Sounds Loud"