Day 19: Kivas and Divas
It was another early morning, as we wanted to do a 6-mile bike ride before our 11 a.m. tour of another cliff dwelling.
The boys were awesome getting ready and helping to get the RV ready to pull away at 6:57am. All the prep work last night paid off and allowed us to have this smooth departure today. We parked the RV near the visitor center and headed out on the 1-hour drive to get to our destination within the park. This drive is a doozy. It is 1 hour of windy roads, climbing from 7000′ to 8,500′ and then back down to 7,000′ at the end of the park. Today marked the third day of doing this drive, and I must admit after driving it both ways today I am glad to know my time on this road is done.
We headed out on our bikes for the 6-mile bike ride on the old tram road. Because cars aren’t allowed, it was very quiet and peaceful, and there were tons of piles of horse poop (from the park’s wild horses) to keep us focused. We also enjoyed some more pit houses and outlooks along our route. Nicholas had his first run in with aggressive ants (one got him on the thigh and knee) as we were visiting the last location. We think he brushed against a plant and one got into his shorts. Poor guy was in quite a bit of pain, but rallied and was able to get biking again.
We quickly headed back to the car to change into our hiking boots and get back on the path to go the 3/4 of a mile to the tour starting point. We arrived a minute late, but were luckily still able to join. This was a cool dwelling that they actually let you walk and climb within a little bit. After about 30 minutes, the sun was high and we were kiva’d- and dwellinged-out, so we headed back to the car. We enjoyed a picnic lunch near the car and then headed back down that hour of windy, climb-y, descend-y road one more time.
We attached the car and then headed to Safeway to stock up on groceries in our first big-ish town in a while: Cortez, CO. It also gave me the opportunity to help Rob avoid driving through the same intersection I scraped the hitch on earlier.
After groceries, Rob started us off on the 2.5 hour drive to Moab. During his drive we reentered Utah and started leaving the hilly farm land for more red rocks again.
We finally made it to Archview Campground, just north of Moab. The temperatures reached triple digits once we got there and the highs are supposed to stay 100+ the whole six days we are here. It will just mean extra early mornings, so we can be back before the heat of the afternoon.
Rob made us some yummy dinner while I worked on unpacking the car and bikes. We didn’t have neighbors tonight on either side, so we used one of their picnic tables for dinner, since our RV provided the shade on that side.