RoadTrip: National Parks Day

How was today National Parks Day?! We've already been to so many Great Sand Dunes, Mesa Verde, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Arches, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef.  What made this day so special?  Three National Parks in 1 day.  I know, crazy, but by the end of the day we were going to be exhausted and thrilled by some of the most amazing views this earth has to offer.

I know what you are thinking, I'm not even sure Karl Malone spent this much time in Utah and it's true we have been in Utah for a long time.  But let me tell you, the state has some amazing things going on, including a seemingly endless supply of National Parks.

We started this morning unlike many before, waking up with the sole purpose of watching the sunrise.  I've done the 'stay up all night to watch the sun come up,' usually with a cohort of mine, Brad Jones, which have included Coney Island and the St. Louis Arch, not on the same night sadly, but maybe one day those stories will be told, but I have yet to do the wake up and watch the sunrise.

It was chilly and we didn't feel like changing out of our pajamas to go watch the sun come up so I kept my Guinness pants on as we found our way over to the Sunset Point we had been to the previous evening.  We were not the only ones that had this idea to watch the sunrise from Sunset Point and there were about 8 other people, camera in tow, jockeying for the best spot to watch the sun come up.  We had the camera ready, snapping pictures as the colors turned from gray to light orange and began turning brighter.  Then of course, this is when my camera decides to burn out of batteries. We had more readily available...in the car...10 minutes back down the trail.  We didn't turn our backs on the sunrise though and figured that not every moment needed to be captured on camera.

Sunrise over Bryce Canyon - Last picture before the batteries ran out

Now that the sun was burning brightly in the sky we decided to go back to bed.  It was only a little after 6 and figured a nap wouldn't hurt so we went back to our teepee and snuggled back up in the darkness that the canvas shelter created.  We could have slept all day in the teepee and not known it.  It was like midnight inside it was so dark.  But after a little cat nap we were off to head towards the Grand Canyon.  As we were driving west through Utah we were discussing if we should go to Zion National Park today or tomorrow.  We were going drive by it this morning but then also on our way back out of the Grand Canyon we were going to double back.  Decisions. Decisions.

Big Horn Sheep in Zion

We decided to go to Zion today and I'm not even sure what our reasoning was behind the decision.  Megan had been to Zion only the year before with her family but I had never been to the park and really had no idea what to expect.  Megan wouldn't stop talking about how amazing it was with giant canyon walls and endless cliffs.  Even before we really got into the canyon part we received a treat; there was a pack of big horn sheep resting on top of a rock formation.  The horns were amazing to see as the sheep rested in the shade.  Plus the road itself is quite a sight to see.  At some points the road is essentially a tunnel through the rock face but with openings and windows looking out over the canyon.  The engineering involved is amazing and it is incredibly exciting when you catch a glimpse of the canyon through the tunnel wall.

Scenery on the Drive in to Zion

We arrived down in the bottom of the canyon at the visitors center to find out that you can't drive anywhere and have to take a bus to all the locations inside Zion.  Megan supposedly told me this fact but I knew nothing of it.  We packed a backpack with some snacks, water bottles, and camera and went inside the visitors center to figure out what we wanted to do.  After some deliberation, Megan decided that Angels Landing would be too long and difficult and that we didn't need to hike through the river because it wasn't all that much fun last summer.  We did find a short hike up to a little waterfall and then we thought we could take the tour bus around to the other places and if we wanted to jump off we could and if we weren't feeling it we could see the canyon from the bus.

Zion National Park

Zion National Park

Our first hike was quick and easy, the waterfall was lame and I can't remember more than that.  So we jumped back on the bus and took it towards the end of the canyon.  As we were riding, we got to see some great views of the cliffs and Megan decided that we should at least climb half way up Angels Landing to see Zion canyon from that angle.  So we jumped back off the bus and started the strenuous climb up the canyon wall. After countless switchbacks and what felt like a 7 mile hike, we turned back around a corner and had an incredible sight.  Zion Canyon, stunning and mighty, is quite an amazing place.

Zion National Park

We were hot and tired by the time we made it back down to the canyon floor and we were very glad that the lodge, restaurant, and gift shop was only a quick walk down the trail.  We found the food court to not appeal all that much to our growling stomachs but decided that splitting a salad would tide us over until we found something more.  The salad ended up being fresh, colorful, large and filling.  We devoured the whole thing and felt very healthy afterwards.  A quick stop in the gift shop to pick up some nick-knacks and then we were going to head towards our campsite just outside the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and move on past the state of Utah.

We had reserved this campsite a few weeks earlier as the North Rim doesn't have a lot of places to stay near by and the campground inside the park was already booked up.  We originally thought about staying two days at the Grand Canyon but last minute decided we should spend an extra night in Las Vegas.  Our plan was then to reach our campsite and then the next morning check out the Grand Canyon!

We reached our campsite in Kaibab, Arizona.  I'm not sure if there was a town or anything more than the campground but it was a great place.  Lots of pine trees and our site was down next to a pasture where there were a few horses roaming around.  By the time we set up camp and it was late in the afternoon.  We didn't have anything to do the rest of the day and after playing a few hands of cards and discussing the Grand Canyon we said screw it, let's go see it now.  So we jumped in the car and drove the last 45 minutes to the North Rim, our third national park of the day.

First View of the Grand Canyon

We found our way our towards the edge and bam! the view becomes endless.  At first, I was unimpressed.  This was my first time at the Grand Canyon and had heard all those amazing things, it's breathtaking, you'll never see anything like it, yada yada yada. Well when I first looked out into the canyon I thought, "eh, it doesn't seem as deep as the Black Canyon, and Canyonlands is more visually stunning."  Maybe that was the downside to all the amazing things we had already seen, we were becoming numb to things that are grand.  I stand by what I think about the Black Canyon and Canyonlands and Zion that they are all incredible and maybe because I had lower expectations of those places and wanted the Grand Canyon to be ten times cooler than those other place that I wasn't blown away by the Grand Canyon.  However, as I stood next to this canyon it grew on me, I noticed how dark it was in some valleys and that I was standing 15 miles from the south rim and just how massive this canyon really is.  I will sum it up with this, initially I was underwhelmed and now looking at the pictures I wonder how I could ever have felt like that.

Grand Canyon

I have never been to the south rim, but I have heard that it is tourism at its worst.  The North Rim was nothing like that.  I understand that the south rim is way easier to get to from Phoenix but I would definitely advise the 3 hour drive around the canyon to reach the North Rim because it is a beautiful place.  There is a gorgeous lodge, cabins, a restaurant, bar, and a gift shop.  We decided that we didn't need to drive back again in the morning since it was about an hour to get here from our campsite.  The lodge has a wonderful stone patio overlooking the canyon, so we found the bar, got a couple beers and sat out on the patio as the sun set over the Grand Canyon.  It was very windy and we were glad that we had a car full of clothes because we needed pants and long sleeves to enjoy the views.  As we were sitting on the patio, the views really got me, the sun was making the canyon look purple or blue and they were starting to take my breath away.

Grand Canyon at Dusk

We knew we had an hour drive back to camp and once the sun went down the road was pitch black so we didn't stay long after sun down.  On the drive, we took some great pictures as the wilderness beautiful bathed in moon light.  We reached our camp safely and decided to make some tuna melts for a late dinner before hitting the hay with intentions of driving to Sin City in the morning. 

Driving towards Kaibab

Dead Tree Night

RoadTrip: Inching Across Utah

We woke with the birds on this beautiful morning and left camp as the sun came up over the Utah desert.  We weren't in a rush but we seemed to be moving with a sense of a good night sleep, clean clothes, and a refreshing shower, or better said with a hop in our step.  We wanted to check out Canyonlands National Park which was, as the crow flies just a few miles next to Moab.  However, we were not flying as a crow on this day so we stuck to the paved roads and it took about an hour.

Canyonlands from Dead Horse Point

More Dead Horse Point

 We had read about the lively point looking in to Canyonlands that are a must see from Dead Horse Point.  The sun was still climbing it's way into the sky and we had some spectacular views of Canyonlands and we were the only people out there on this Saturday morning.  If you are every heading in to the northeast portion of Canyonlands, do NOT miss Dead Horse Point.  I said northeast portion of the park because the park is split into sections and you can't drive between them you must drive around them which takes 4 hours or longer, so we read that must of the time people only visit one portion of the park.

Canyonlands National Park

We entered Canyonlands and the visitors center was just opening up at 8 a.m. and we jumped in to grab a map and fill up our water bottles.  We knew where we were going, Mesa Arch, and didn't need to waste time reading about how canyons were formed.  It was a short hike from the parking area to Mesa Arch and by the looks of the lot, there were only a few people out this morning.  We reached the arch and realized that the few cars in the parking lot were actually all apart of a photography class.  The teacher was giving them tips on how to best photograph the arch with the background and rising sun, I listened in and took some great shots!

Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park

Mesa Arch Using the Photography Class' Tips

Canyonlands National Park

We stopped at a few other lookout points on our way back out of the park but to be honest, Dead Horse Point was the best one so that made us even happier about stopping there on the way in.  After our brief trip to Canyonlands we were headed to another national park that surprisingly isn't in the Pacific Ocean, Capitol Reef National Park.

Southern Utah Scenery

Capitol Reef is named for the white domed rock formations that somewhat resemble the Capitol Building and a reef was once used to describe a high ridge that was difficult if not impossible to pass.  Capitol Reef was one of the places that we knew essentially nothing about before our trip but quickly came to love the scenery.  We stopped at the visitors center and learned about the area, the early settlers, how they farmed the land near the river as almost all other land was non-arable.  The guide told us that the Hickman Natural Bridge hike was a couple of miles but mostly flat.

We enjoyed the hike towards the natural bridge without many expectations.  The natural bridge is just another arch, which we had seen many the past two days but I was able to climb on top of this bridge.  I was enjoying myself trying to make it all the way to the summit, jumping from wall to wall, pulling my way higher until a clap of thunder stopped me in my tracks.  I looked around for a storm cloud but didn't see anything, even still we didn't want to be stuck 3 miles from our car if a freak storm was coming through the desert.  So I jumped down and we picked up some steam hiking back.  The fear of a flash flood kept our feet moving forward and before long we made it all the way back without a cloud in the sky.  We took off our shoes and dipped our feet in the river and discussed how the thunder might actually have been a giant rock breaking off of a wall and crashing to the ground.

Capitol Reef Hickman Natural Brdige

 We wanted to stay in the area for the rest of the day because we were going to try to find this waterfall the next day and luckily we found a camp ground in Torrey, Utah called Thousand Lakes Campground.  We made it to the campsite by early afternoon which was wonderful because the campsite exceeded our expectations.  There was a pool that we laid by, drank beers by, napped by, read our depressing book club book, 5 Bells, by and of course cooled off in.  We did told to not drink out of glass bottles next to the pool but we were glad to pour our Squatters brews into plastic cups to enjoy the relaxation time longer. 

Southern Utah Scenery

For dinner, a trailer pulled up and was hand-making brick oven pizzas, so we ordered one and devoured it because it was so fresh and delicious.  After our pizza, we ordered some homemade muffins from the convenience store that they were baking in the morning for breakfast.  After watching the beautiful sunset from the Western edge of our campground, we climbed in to our tent to watch Incredibles on the computer and fell asleep.     

Sunset Over Torrey, Utah

RoadTrip: Four States at One Time

We followed up the long day driving from Colorado Springs to Santa Fe with another long day. We had planned in stopping at Bandelier National Monument before trying to find a small natural hot spring in the area that was recommended by my former coworker.

We started the day off with some breakfast at the hotel, including some bread that we saved in a ziplock bag to use for sandwiches later. Some call that cheap or stealing. We called it trying to be resourceful.

We got to Bandelier quickly and painlessly and this made our idea of getting all the way to Mesa Verde seem like it would be a breeze. Neither of us had any real idea what Bandelier was. Even as we pulled in to the parking lot, we were still confused as to why it was called a national monument and not a national park.

Porous Rock at Bandelier

We had made our way, by car, down in to a river bottom. There were trees and greenery along the stream and white or cream colored rock cliffs. The rocks were incredibly porous and chalky, looking almost like Swiss cheese. After wandering around the visitors center we figured out that an ancient tribe of Native Americans linked to present day Navajos used to live in the area. They dug holes in the rocks to use as shelters. Pretty weak National Monument if you ask me, but I understood seeing how some of it was man made that it can be classified as a monument.

Exiting a Shelter at Bandelier National Monument

We linked on to the back of a tour for a bit before realizing that each time we came to a dwelling all 30 people in the tour would walk in and then walk out, slowly of course. So we jumped in front and started the self guided tour: reading the signs.


Our next adventure was to find the Spence Hot Springs, which according to our map was only a few miles down the road.  It wasn't in the direction of the highway but it was generally the way we wanted to go which was North and West towards Mesa Verde.  After only 1 U-turn we found the parking area for the hot springs which was little more than a pull off from the road with a sign that said "Nudity is NOT Allowed."  I was hoping all the college girls would not have seen that sign. 

Spence Hot Springs

We knew it was a little bit into the woods so we changed into our swimsuits and started walking down the trail.  After about a 7 minutes walk we started to hear some voices and up one last hill were two pools of water each about the size of a large hot tub.  There were 4 people in one and 5 in the other; I don't like getting into a hot tub immediately after some one let alone when there are people in them, so right away I wasn't feeling it.  But we took off our shoes and got our towels out of the backpack and dipped a toe in.  The water was slightly warmer than the air which was close to 80 degrees plus all the rocks in the pools were slimy and/or covered in algae.  I figured I could get used to both of those factors but then I looked around at the people in the hot springs, and every single person there made me feel uncomfortable.  They were having a bit too much fun or too relaxed or too washing their hair, yep a girl was washing her hair.  It was all around awkward so I told Megan that I wasn't feeling the hot springs so we jumped out, grabbed our stuff and left.  I wouldn't even let Megan dry off and put clothes on.  Nope she was walking away from this place shoes and bathing suit, no time to put on shorts or a shirt.


We stopped a minute or so down the trail, a safe enough distance to start talking about the weirdos in the hot springs, to thoroughly dry off and put our clothes on.  Luckily, we made it back to the car alive.  We thought the hot springs would have been much more fun with a larger group so you could dominate the pool and also if the weather was chilly to make the contrast between air and water refreshing instead of a lukewarm bath tub feel.

We hit the road driving towards Northwest New Mexico, home of ... well nothing.  But we had plans to swoop by the most arbitrary monument in the United States and maybe the world! Four Corners!  Where Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona all meet and you can stand in one spot and be in 4 different states.  Don't get too excited, we had a long drive ahead of us.

We were using the maps on our phones to take us towards the four corners because really there aren't any highways in this part of the US.  Our phones kept telling us to take NM State Hwy 126 which meets up with 550 and that will take us to Farmington, Shiprock (which I heard was a really cool "end of the Earth" type place), and the Four Corners.  You know there is going to be a lot of exciting stuff to see when places are described as Post Apocalyptic.

We started down Hwy 126 and it was a normal one lane road with the big double yellow line in between lanes.  Then the double line turned into the single dash, ok we can legally pass now except the road also got significantly more narrow.  A few more miles and we came to some construction, there was no sign for it or road closure and as we pulled up to it a guy waved us to drive on through.  So we skirted passed the construction equipment on the dirt and gravel road.  It wasn't more than a few hundred yards and we were past the construction but the road never came back. It was just dirt.  The lack of road continued for 15 miles and this wasn't a straight, flat 15 mile drive; we were going up and down hills, hairpin turns, swooping S curves all on what essentially was a sand road.  Multiple times on turns, the wheels dug in the sand and my heart sank with the car until we jolted out of the ruts and lunged forward again.

We finally made it back to real roads and celebrated that we didn't get stuck in back woods New Mexico for the next 10 days.  Looking back, had we known we weren't going to get stuck the scenery probably was pretty impressive.  They should think about building a road through it.

We started back down the other side of Hwy 126 and not more than 5 miles after our sand road we came across a serious traffic jam, well we dubbed it a New Mexico Traffic Jam.  

New Mexico Traffic Jam

 After the cattle drive down the middle of the road, we didn't see much for the next couple hours.  Not the "we didn't see much other than the normal McDonalds, Taco Bell, Wendy's, and gas stations."  We didn't see much of anything, trees, water, animals, cars, just not a whole lot out there.  When we did see something it was awesome!  Shiprock which is aptly named because it is a giant rock formation that could easily be confused with a ship had we been closer than 700 miles to nearest ocean.

Shiprock

Another of Shiprock

We stopped on the side of the road to take a few pictures but there was a fence around the entire Shiprock and at this point we were easily deterred by a measly fence so we continued towards the four corners.  We were only a few miles away now and got there by late afternoon.  The Four Corners was amaz...nope I can't do it.  It was lame and depressing.  I wouldn't have missed it because when you are within like 120 miles of it there isn't a whole lot else to see and we needed to break up the day with some stops but it wasn't very cool.  Some Native American groups have built some buildings surrounding the marker and they sell artifacts and nick-knacks from the stalls.

Most Arbitrary "Monument" in the US

We stood on the marker and got some pictures while being in 4 states at once and left to make it to Cortez, Colorado and Mesa Verde National Park, where we had just found a campsite.  It Cortez we choose Burger Boy Drive-In for dinner which we thought would be fast to feed our growling stomachs.  It was fast and delicious and after snarfing down the burgers and fries we were feeling upbeat and decided to try out Main Street Brewery just down the block.

Scenery Near Four Corners

We sampled a few beers and started asking each other the Trivial Pursuit questions they had sitting out on the bar.  Megan remembers this as when she dominated Trivial Pursuit and on one card got all the answers right.  Nothing could top that for her so we drove the last few miles to Mesa Verde just after dusk and we were treated to some amazing views of the Green Table as we made our way to our camp.  Luckily we were skilled at setting up camp because completing this task in the dark was not easy but we were able to do it rather quickly.

Moon, Shooting Star, Mesa Verde

RoadTrip: New Places, New States, New Mexico

I was lucky enough as a child to do a lot of driving vacations to far away lands so I have been to many of the 50 states (I still need to do some East Coast and New England states).  But today I was going to check off New Mexico because we were driving south from Colorado Springs.  Well actually we decided to drive west and then south because the drive straight south seemed boring to just be on Interest 25 the entire time.

Sawatch Mountains

We left Colorado Springs pretty early and started our drive west on Colorado 24.  This was a surprisingly pretty drive with lots of scenery as we approached the Sawatch Mountain range and South Park Basin.   We finally turned south and we were on the road to the Great Sand Dunes National Park.  I came across a picture of the Great Sand Dunes when I had done some preliminary research and was amazed by the look of this place.  Huge sand dunes surrounded by towering mountains.  We weren’t going to miss this place and we were planning on playing around in the sand for a bit when we arrived.

First Views of the Great Sand Dunes

 

Before we could make it to the Great Sand Dunes, Megan’s Road Side America app wanted us to check out the alligator park, advertised as Colorado’s only Gator Park.  We pulled off to check it out and when we saw the entrance fee $15 per person we quickly jumped back in the car, I wouldn’t even let Megan go to the bathroom.  We made it to the Great Sand Dunes a few minutes later and stood in awe of these massive sand dunes.  This was also the first National Park on our trip and we purchased our year long pass for all national parks, preserves, and forests.  The pass cost us $80 but with each entrance fee between $5 and $25 for the big ones like Grand Canyon we quickly got our money's worth.

We changed shoes into our keens thinking that we could hike around better, we were wrong.  The scorching hot sand filled up our keens quickly and made it difficult to walk.  Plus walking up a sand hill is difficult enough without burning your feet.  Unfortunately for Megan, I was not going to be deterred.  I wanted to climb to the top so we trudged through the sand two steps up, slide 1.5 steps back.  But we made it to a point that I was happy to call the summit.  After taking 45 minutes or so to reach the peak I believe it took us all of about 7 minutes to make it back down.  We would run and jump and fly off the edge.  We would run straight down and it felt like we were little kids and our legs couldn't turn over fast enough.  Some other visitors at the park had thought to bring sleds and were even sledding down the hills.

The little black dots are people.

We finally reached the creek that runs along the base of the dunes and quickly dunked our feet to cool them off.  The creek felt amazing and had a really cool feature that it doesn't have set banks because it is all sand the creek continually is changing its course.  We got back to the parking lot and found some cold water fountains to refill our water bottles which we drained while hiking and we were also able to get a quick wash to clean off our feet, which would have bothered me for the rest of the day had we not been able to do that.

Lunch Spot at Zapata Falls with Great Sand Dunes National Park in the Background

We had seen a sign for Zapata Falls just a few miles down the road and we were thinking head there to eat lunch away from some of the crowd at Great Sand Dunes National Park.  We turned off the state road at the Zapata Falls sign and realized that although it was only 7 miles from the national park, 6 of it was on a gravel road.  But we were committed and hungry so we drove on.  Not only was it gravel but it was steep, bumpy, and included many sharps turns, but we made it to the parking area and we were pleasantly surprised with the views we had looking back over the Great Sand Dunes.

Zapata Falls - Most Would Have Turned Back Here

We enjoyed some food from the cooler, especially the port wine cheese and crackers.  We walked the short walk up to the falls and were slightly disappointed with the lack of a waterfall near the trail.  There was a large creek and a lot of rocks but definitely not a fall.  We noticed that just up stream a bit the creek turned and disappeared into some rock cliffs.  We thought that maybe it was worth it to jump from rock to rock up stream to get a better look.  Megan had smartly put her hiking boots back on but I was lazy and since the hike was barely going to be a mile I was wearing my slip on shoes with essentially zero grip.  These shoes were not going to help me at all so I took them off and decided to brave the frigid water barefooted as Megan stayed dry hoping from rock to rock.

We reached the rock cliffs and realized from the noise that there was a water fall you just couldn't see it from the trail.  Even as my feet were starting to reach frost bite levels, we went a bit further into the thin dark crevice and finally spotted the waterfall.  What an incredible sight we got to see, Zapata Falls was still partially frozen, which would explain the icy water but it wouldn't help explain why I choose to walk through the icy water with no shoes.  Cold feet be damned, Zapata Falls was awesome and we felt like we saw something that many others wouldn't have climbed all the way to and with the timing of the year something that was very unique.

Zapata Falls - Partially Frozen

The Approach to Zapata Falls - Thin, Dark, Icy Cold Water

After making it back to dry land and dry shoes, we skipped back to the car excited with our little adventure and ready to take on the next one, New Mexico!  We were in the southern part of Colorado so it wasn't long before we came up to the "Welcome to New Mexico"sign which we both were happy to jump out of the car and get a few pictures.  We also decided that we should have been taking pictures of states signs the entire time so we started the new tradition of trying to get "Welcome to ..." signs as we drove by.  

Trying to Capture "Welcome to...."

Quick side story: Megan tends to drive faster than I do. I may not have learned to slow down after the first three speeding tickets but the fourth one seemed to get through to me.  As you can imagine trying to get a picture of the "Welcome to Utah" sign is quite difficult while traveling the speed of sound but I was able to figure it out with some practice on unimportant signs like "Speed Limit 70."  However, when I would be driving and Megan trying to take the picture I would have to slow down to snail like speeds and we would still end up with pictures like the one on the right.  This made for a great laugh each time she would look at the picture after taking it and curse that I was driving too fast.

Back to New Mexico, we were headed towards Santa Fe for the night and had no plans until I remembered that I had emailed a former coworker who had spent a few years living in Santa Fe  about what to do in the area.  He had mentioned the town of Taos and since it was was only a few miles out of the way we decided to detour over to check it out.  We also quickly brought up a hotel on Expedia in Santa Fe that included breakfast for only $56.  

The drive to Taos was beautiful and it wasn't until we arrived at the Rio Grande Gorge that I remembered my colleague said Taos had a beautiful gorge.  We were hungry and tried after a long day so we didn't stop in town except to see the gorge before continuing on towards Santa Fe.

Rio Grande Gorge - Taos, NM

Rio Grande Gorge - Taos, NM

We made it to our hotel and refilled the cooler with some hotel ice another reason this hotel was a super good deal.  We showered and put on some nice clothes because we were going to head to The Shed for dinner which received great reviews and was recommended as one of the top New Mexican restaurants in town.  As we pulled into the quaint downtown area we realized that a bunch of the streets were closed for some reason.  After finding a parking spot a few blocks from The Shed, which doesn’t sound far but downtown Santa Fe isn’t more than a few blocks square, so it felt longer having to walk from one side to the other.  As we walked through the center of town we found out the reason for the road closings, the Gumball 3000 road race was stopping in town that evening.

Neither of us had any idea what the Gumball 3000 Race was all about, and after asking a shop owner who also had no clue we resorted to our phones.   The webpage said it was a race from New York to Los Angeles and the route changes every year.  The drivers sleep at night like they would be doing in Santa Fe this evening.  We deduced that each car has multiple drivers to switch between incase of fatigue or speeding tickets.  There were only a few cars in town so we kept walking to the restaurant.

Seriously Spicy Food from The Shed

We made it to The Shed and had to wait a few minutes for a table, which we were more than fine with as we pulled up to the bar and ordered some homemade margaritas.  We didn’t have to wait long before we were called to our table and quickly ordered some guacamole to chow on as we decided on our entrees.  The guac was spicy but we cooled our mouths down with are cold drinks.  We should have used this as an omen for our meals but we didn’t think that way.

Megan went with a burrito and I had a green and a red chili enchilada.  The burrito was huge and delicious. My enchiladas were incredibly spicy and I quickly ordered some sour cream and another beer to cool my tongue.  I thought I was ready for authentic New Mexican food…next time I’ll know better.

Lamborghini in the GumBall 3000 Race

After dinner as we walked back through town more cars had arrived and the cars were incredibly expensive and drivers all seemed to be really really ridiculously rich.  We saw Aston Martins, Lamborghinis, Rolls Royces, etc.  The drivers and passengers were all handing our little stickers and tokens presumably to get you to cheer for their team or their sponsors.  We weren’t that interested in either and were fatigued from the sand dunes, waterfall and long day in the car so we headed back to our hotel to catch some much needed sleep.