The next morning, we rose bright and early, after a long night in our tent in the middle of nowhere. The “tent experience” was great, and we left well rested and relaxed.

We wanted to see the sunrise over the “Mittens” (don’t they look like hands?), which was fortunately only a few minutes away.

Thereafter, we drove the car over the valley loop, stopping at other ones along the way.

It looked like it was going to be a warm and sunny day, but when we were on the road, the weather turned… Apparently, there’s a hurricane nearing Hawaii (right before we arrive there of course), which is bringing bad weather also to us here. Still, we continued onwards, and stopped at a place along the road simply called “Dinosaur tracks”. No explanation, nothing.

We expected a museum, but it was just a desert with an Indian stall there selling jewelry. As we approached, the salesman said his 83 year-old deaf mother will show us the tracks for a tip. We agreed, and the tracks started literally as we walked off the road. The old lady showed them all to us, wetting the dino tracks with her water bottle to make them more visible. She indicated also dino eggs, skeletons, and even dino poop. It was fascinating (we’re dino geeks). Apparently, it’s Navajo tradition to not build nor excavate this land, so we could see it as it’s been for millions of years.

After this unexpected highlight, we got back into our car, and drove through a thunderstorm and lots of rain to our next destination; the Grand canyon.

Oh, and we saw a coyote while pumping gas along the route:)