We got up as usual 8 am. All same breakfast in Days Inn, just there was no hot dishes, meaning no scrambled eggs. We made waffles ourselves. I made some extra as I was really hungry.
I loved that gallon of maple syrup!
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My friends were scaring me that hurricane is coming to Texas and can reach us. I asked a lady at the reception if that may happen. She kindly checked in weather forecast and said that they don’t say anything, just watch out for warnings.
First stop was Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. I was hoping to see that nice Indian sculpture that I saw in Google images, but to our disappointment it wasn’t there anymore. We peeked inside of the museum and it was local Indian art museum, but we had a long way ahead, so we skipped it.
Then we stopped in the old town for a walk. Sun was so hot and the sky was pretty much clear.
We even found a wishing well. We stopped for coffee there.
Once we loaded our car with food and water from Walmart we were on our way to Shelly Canyon. for everything. That should last us 3 days.
The landscape was changing very quickly.
Another quick stop in Gallup was to get a bite at Burger King. I was so glad I took the medium meal. The cup barely could fit in my hand! That is large in Europe!
And this one is large! Humongous!
After some driving we stopped at Window Rock. It looked spectacular! It looks monumental in real life!
The only thing that Americans don’t realize that putting those flag poles in front of this beauty ruins it. I guess humans leave their footprint everywhere.
A view from the car was more and more spectacular as we drove further.
When we saw fields of these bushes we stopped for some photos.
Once again very difficult to capture that beauty of nature.
There were fences with horses further. They looked like mustangs.
As we drove further the clouds were gathering.
Suddenly our paved road ended and forest road started. I missed the fact that better to avoid road #7 when reading Shelly Canyon website. It is highly not recommended (it was in capitals!) to drive through it as it ks unpaved and in case of rain it becomes slippery and muddy. Oh yeah we some mud! Pity I didn’t capture those parts where someones big wheels made ponds of mud on the road.
It started slightly raining when we drove it. We couldn’t go faster than 30 mph in the best parts of it. In muddy places we had to slow down even more.
When we were back on paved road soon enough we started seeing canyon. We stopped at Sliding House Overlook. It just looked breathtaking!
Somewhat looked like the surface of Mars.
We saw thus strange footstep. Somebody must have carved it in. Humans and their footprints, literally!
Some cactuses growing other there.
Then we stopped at White House overlook, where we wanted to do a hike, but since it was 6 am it was risky to go back in the dark.
We quickly stopped at Junction overlook. The Sun was going down and we wanted to make it to campground before sunset.
Tsegi overlook was another quick stop.
Tunnel overlook didn’t impress us, since you cannot go much further without a guide and the shadow was ruining the view.
We made it to campground before sunset. Build our tent and went to see the setting sun from up the small hill.
The sunsets are always beautiful!
Today we have made 240 miles.