Dear Isaac and Maia,

My Southwest road trips go by like a blink. We have finished day 3. Today, we started with some beautiful scenery up near Lake Powell and not far from the Grand Canyon.

The first stop was Horse Shoe Bend. It was a hike through the sand with no guardrail when Maizzy and I came here in 2015. Now, it is $5 to get in and it is a paved hike with guardrails and a big parking lot. Sigh, The guardrails are a good thing, though – I was less afraid to look over the edge.

The pups enjoyed the hike, although it is already warming up in AZ. I always say that Sazi is a tourist attraction in her front carrier – people ask if they can have a picture. I can just see their grandkids looking through photos years from now wondering who the heck the woman with the dog is.

We then drove to a place that is just down the river but actually about a 30 minute drive to get into – Navajo Bridge. The Navajo Bridge is on the edge of the Vermillion Cliffs. It was very scenic – at one point, we drove way up and through one of the cliffs. The colors in this area are absolutely unbelievable.

I wore the pups out, which is good because we had a pretty boring 3 hour drive on the back roads after this. I HATE I-40. It is a bunch of semi trucks. I feel like my Honda Fit is a minnow amidst a bunch of sharks. Plus, I am avoiding the interstate because I think there is where I picked up the virus last year.

The land went from colorful canyons to flat grasslands for miles and miles. This is largely the reservation – both Navajo and Hopi. I was glad I found a gas station first.

There were some interesting buttes as we got closer to Winslow. They are called the Hopi Buttes and are an old volcano field. They were kind of cool rising up out of the nothingness of the area. I noticed a lot of native settlements at the base of some of them.

We got to Winslow – such a fine site to see. Tomorrow, we venture to the Senora desert. This is where the ecosystem that I live in drastically changes. It is going to be hot. Funny, we saw snow on Saturday. I hope we see some cactus flowers!

Love, GMH