Two Days Full of God’s Creation & Goodness

Monument Valley, Utah

It was a 2-and-a-half-hour drive from Flagstaff to Monument Valley, Utah. The scenery in this part of the country makes the drives go by quicker than you would think!

As soon as you make the turn on 163 north in Kayenta, you begin to see the amazing “Monuments” in this area!

Like many of the places we have visited, it’s tempting to pull over at every turn out to take in the beauty!!

A trip to monument valley wouldn’t be complete without a stop at Forrest Gump point. The boys had no idea what that was!!! Haha!

Four Corners National Monument

It was another hour and a half drive to the Four Corners National Monument. It’s kind of a quirky stop, but it’s one we were all looking forward to. Shannon and I had been here 14 years ago, but they were in the process of moving the monument to the correct location! Haha! It had been in the wrong spot for who knows how many years!

It is pretty neat to say you’re in four different states at the same time!

We also visited the booths that were selling Navajo made jewelry and ate some Navajo fry bread!!

Here’s where things get interesting…………or should I say slightly stressful.

A Story of God’s Goodness

Forgive me for getting long winded here, but this story is something we need to share!

Let’s go back to yesterday for a second.

As we were leaving the Grand Canyon, we got in our van, and it wouldn’t start when I tried to crank it. I took the key out and tried again.

It started!

We were like, that’s weird, and didn’t think much of it.

This happened again a couple other times later in the day, which was slightly concerning. No one wants to get in their vehicle and think, I sure hope it starts this time.

Okay, back to today.

We finished up at the Four Corners and were ready to leave. We get in the van and…………you guessed it, it won’t start. No matter how many times I try, it won’t start. You can hear a small click when the key is turned, but that’s it.

We all started praying.

We sit there for a moment trying to figure out what in the world we are going to do. A man who works at Four Corners, drives by our van in a golf cart and I stopped him to see if he had any suggestions. He asks for the van’s manual and starts checking fuses and battery cables. He couldn’t figure it out either.

It is extremely hot outside. 97 degrees to be exact!!! Shannon and the boys go find some shade behind the Navajo booths.

I start a roadside assistance claim with our car insurance company that we are fearing will involve having the van towed to a car repair shop.

The first repair shop I called didn’t answer.

I called another shop and was able to talk with someone who was very nice! He said they would be able to work on the van tomorrow if we got it to them.

Just as I’m about to submit for a tow truck, a man comes up who was there with his family to visit the Four Corners. He said a friend of his had a vehicle similar to mine. He had heard his friend talking about unplugging the battery cables, which will reset the computer. We thanked him for the tip and decided to give a try before submitting the claim.

We had read you needed to wait at least 15 minutes to allow the vehicle’s computer to reset.

While we were waiting, a security guard at the Four Corners came to talk with us. She said the park was closing at 7:45pm and she couldn’t allow us to stay in the park overnight. We explained we were waiting for the van’s computer to reset then we would try starting it again. If that didn’t work, we would then be submitting a claim for the tow truck.

At the end of the 15 minutes, I reconnected the battery and attempted to start the van.

No luck.

Same thing as before. Just one clicking noise.

The security guard then talked with me about trying to jump the battery to make sure that wasn’t the issue. I didn’t think the battery was the problem, but we were willing to try everything before having the van towed.

She had to go talk with her supervisor before attempting to jumpstart our van.

While I’m having these conversations, Shannon and the boys are praying specifically for someone to come along who knows exactly what to do to get our van started!

Shannon had been sending messages to many of our family and friends asking for prayer. She then gets a call from her friend Shana, who is currently with some of their friends. One of which, happens to be a car mechanic. I am able to speak with him and explain what is happening. He believes there is an issue with the van’s starter.

He begins explaining where the starter is because I know virtually nothing about cars. Haha!

While I’m on the phone with him, another gentleman, who is visiting the Four Corners, comes up to Shannon and asks if we are the ones having car trouble.

Shannon says, “Yes.”

He then says, “I’m an aircraft mechanic with the marines and I’m going to get your van going!”

He comes over to me and I hand the phone back to Shannon. I then explain to him what’s going on. He agreed with Shana’s friend that it was an issue with the starter.

He quickly located the starter, underneath the vehicle, and began tapping on it with a tool. He had me try to crank the van and it started right away!!!!!

He and his family had been living in South Carolina and they were being relocated to California. What a coincidence that we were here at the same time as them, right??? No way!

God is good, people!!!!!

Shannon and the boys had been praying for someone to come along that would know exactly what needed to be done. God sent that person to us!!

Later that day we were still talking about how everything played out.

If that first guy doesn’t come up and talk about unplugging the battery, or if the security guard doesn’t have to go check with her supervisor, or if Shana doesn’t call, we probably would have already submitted the insurance claim and the tow truck would have been on the way.

We were able to drive the vehicle to our hotel for the night and then dropped it off at the car shop the next morning. Thankfully our hotel was only 1.2 miles from the repair shop, so it wasn’t too long of a walk! They were able to replace the starter and we were good to go!!

Mesa Verde National Park

We left the hotel at 10:30am and only had a 10-minute drive to the park. We spoke with a friendly man at the entrance station who gave us suggestions of how to make the most of our short time there.

We drove the entire length of the Mesa Top Ruins Road, which is the only way to access the park. As the Beatles would say, it is a long and winding road (somewhere around 23 miles I think). It is a beautiful drive!

The necessity of getting our van fixed, left us with only a couple hours to spend at Mesa Verde. Our main goal was to see the cliff dwellings. We accomplished that with our first stop at Sun Point View.

The main draw of the park is called the Cliff Palace. There are guided tours, but we settled for seeing it from across the canyon due to time constraints. It was still very neat to see and imagine how the people used to live there.

There were other buildings to see as well! We definitely enjoyed our couple of hours at Mesa Verde National Park.

Telluride, Colorado

While looking at our route for the day, I realized we weren’t super far from Telluride and it would only add two hours of driving time. I’ve always wanted to see the town because of the amazing mountains it is surrounded by. Shannon was also very supportive and encouraged us to add it to our day!

The drive to Telluride afforded us some incredible Rocky Mountain views!

We didn’t really have time to get out and walk the streets, but just driving through was good enough for me.

Arches National Park

Yes, this is not a typo. We visited Mesa Verde National Park, Telluride, and Arches National Park all in the same day.

Does that make us crazy?

Maybe! Haha!

This part of the country is currently having an early season heat wave, with temperatures climbing to 100 degrees or more. It is hot! So maybe it worked out that we visited Arches in the evening.

As soon as you enter the park, you are greeted with towering red rock formations!!

Our first official stop in the park was at Park Avenue Viewpoint. All I have to say is WOW!!!

Next up was a trip to Double Arch. This was an easy, half-mile hike and allowed us to climb directly under the arches. So cool!!!

The entire drive on Arches National Park Road is other worldly!!!

Next up was the boys’ favorite stop of the day – Sand Dune Arch. This hike was even shorter and easier than Double Arch. We all loved it!

It was getting late in the day and with light fading, we decided to make our last stop the Delicate Arch viewpoint. Obviously, we didn’t have time to make the 3.2 mile hike all the way to the arch, but at least we got to see it from a distance!

This was a full day! And the fun wasn’t over yet! We still had a 2 hour and 20-minute drive to our hotel for the night in Salina, Utah!!

Zion National Park is in our sights!!!