We spent our first day with my parents at their house, just resting, playing and catching up. And, yeah, swimming in their pool. The next day, however, we wanted to do some rock hounding so we'd have time to cut and polish them (polishing can take 4 to 5 days) so we headed off to Burro Creek, where the best rocks of the type Dad recommended could be found. Along the way we stopped to photograph the Joshua trees.

They are an unpleasant species both close up and from a distance, but pretty cool at the same time.

As always to our northwest eyes, cactus are pretty awesome.

Quin got into the spirit of things and wanted to hug a cactus, but I insisted on a picture first, before he got all bloody. He was very careful, though and only pretended.

I have to tell you about these cows. They were meandering along the road, completely unconcerned there was barely enough room for all of us there. See that black one? That cow was a hoot! It acted like a black lab puppy, pouncing down toward the car with it's hindquarters in the air, then dashing off like we'd thrown it a stick to fetch. Then it would turn and do it all again till they all finally decided to get off the road so we could pass. Too cute.

On our way there, we passed through the town of Yarnell. You've probably heard of the 19 firefighters that were killed fighting a blaze there, which was the deadliest day for firefighters since September 11th, 2001, and there hasn't been that many deaths of firefighters fighting a wildfire in 80 years. The fire had been completely contained just the day before, and several disaster relief crews were still out there helping with the townfolk who had lost their homes. The desert was pretty barren and you could still see the red fire retardant across the rocks and a couple of burned out shells of homes, sheds and boats. A lot of devastation. For the duration of our visit to Arizona, we couldn't go anywhere without being asked to buy a bumper sticker or t-shirt or just plain donate money to the cause. Even though I'm cynical about how much of that money goes to actually help anyone, it was nice to see nearby towns rallying together.

Later, Quin was trying to say something about the fire retardant we'd seen, but he couldn't remember exactly what it was called. He said, "You know, Mom, that stuff that makes fire stupid?"

On to the rocks!

Here in Washington, the coolest rock around is an agate, which is found on our rocky ocean/bay shores. They are small. Everything else is gray or black or brown and sometimes almost white and then ooh, ooh, you might find some crushed lava rocks in a driveway or garden. That's about as exotic as you get, rocks that are just....rocks. But there! Woo!

Pretty rocks with NAMES! My dad knew them, but I forgot them. We were looking for white rocks with red streaks, but the kids and I went a little crazy picking up everything that had any color other than rock color. The trunk was heavily loaded before we finally made our way back home. I will probably not be sharing just how many of those rocks found their way into my car and were hauled home, but I suspect my gas mileage dropped a bit on the last half of our journey.

Then, it was time to stop picking up rocks and just carry my camera so there was still room to pack our stuff around the rocks. I was drawn to the cactus again.

And, as always, cows. I can't resist a cute cow face even if it's attached to a cow that looked willing to charge and ram the car.

Back to my folks house to sort rocks, and relax!

Today's goal was to get from Dead Horse Point State Park to my parent's house in Arizona. I enjoyed seeing the landscapes and how different the terrain was compared to home. Coming into Monument Valley was really amazing.

We drove and drove and it took forever for it to get closer, but it did.

Then it was really close!

Then it was gone, behind us, and we had Arizona before us.

One of the roadside attractions was seeing the Elephant Legs. The kids weren't much interested in anything but getting to Gramma and Bapas, but I swerved to a stop, stuck the camera out the window, got this shot, and got back on the road.

There were things I wanted to see. Indian jewelry stands, dinosaur tracks, and any and all scenery. We stopped at the second jewelry shack and I bought a cheap pair of lapis lazuli earrings, then we went on to the dinosaur tracks.

We opted to not take the toothless old Indian woman's offer of a tour and instead just wandered the land and kept an eye on the other guides so we'd know approximately where to stop to see the tracks and prints ourselves without having to listen to slurred and accented speech reminding us how big a tip we should leave.

I bought another cheap pair of earrings, these made of pearls. The deaf old woman was charging $4 for them. I had 3 ones and a twenty in my wallet so I handed her the larger bill. She didn't have change so I offered instead the 3 dollar bills and she smiled in a way that should have showed off every one of her teeth if she'd had any and nodded happily. Sold.

We continued on, happy with our experiences and purchase till we needed to stop again, this time at a virtual cache about this bridge, which I wanted to photograph.

Ribbert joined the fun and sat on the info plaque we needed to claim the find.

There were two Earthcaches in a National Park that I wanted to stop for since I had a National Park Pass and all. I wasn't really sure what kind of info they wanted or where I should get it, but I got lots of photos and came up with apparently the right answers.

It was beautiful but there was a storm brewing outside, and one in the car as the kids were pretty impatient with reaching our destination.

We stayed in the car the rest of the day except for when I had to stop and get gas. Under the overpass, they had carved out deer shapes in an interesting "ancient Indian cave painting" style. On the lead deer, someone had attached a red pompom on it's nose. That was pretty funny, but unfortunately there was no place to stop for a photo.

Drove along a freshly graveled road as we neared my folk's town. People were driving crazy-fast on it and one large pickup kicked up a rock that hit dead center in my line of vision and chipped my windshield. Oh well. Kept on going and eventually made the kids and grandparents extremely happy by finally arriving to where we'll stay for a week.

In the morning, we shook out all the red dust that had accumulated on our things while we stayed there, and packed the car. One of the ravens that had done some mischief came back to laugh and taunt us.

It was quite upset that we hadn't used the grill and it used gestures of pecking at the cold grill and shaking its feathers at us. I apologized for not eating more while we were here and deliberately -- oops -- left some muffin crumbs.

The sun is up! It's time to drive across Utah and into Arizona!

At least till we find a cache, a cool landmark, Indian jewelry shack or wacky roadside attraction, of course. Like the jeep "parked" at the top of this hill; you might not even be able to see it in this photo, but it's there.

The Hole N' The Rock was one of those very entertaining places that has an eccentric collection of stuff outside, and a tourist trap of knick knacks inside. That is to say, inside the rock. There was a whole shop carved into the rock, and for a small additional fee, we could have taken a tour of the rest of the inside of the rock. We did not. The outside was enough for us!

My first eye popping moment (besides the jeep) was seeing this guy, he was about 15' long and stuck way up on the wall.

We wandered about taking photos because it was one of those places that there was something weird, unusual and different at every turn. Like His-n-Hers fire hydrants for the dogs.

Or like a cactus made of bowling balls. Seriously.

Or a "jeep" made of license plates and scrap metal!

And old signs.

And old bulls.

And golfers made from golf clubs.

After touring the oddities at Hole N' The Rock, we drove on through Utah, occasionally picking up caches but mostly just driving. Bonus, we saw Wilson Arch, which was a earthcache, at just the right time for a stretch.

Is it enough to see it? Or enough to get out and look around?

Of course not, we also had to climb up to it. What were you thinking??

I eventually caught up to the kids that scrambled up that steep hillside like it was a manicured football field and got some pictures of the arch from the inside.

Only to turn around and see Kendrah dangling her feet -- for real this time -- over a very steep drop-off. I freaked out a little and yelled at her to slowly scoot back to safety. Then yelled, "Wait, let me get a picture first."

I busied myself with photos so I didn't have to watch Kendrah getting up and away from the edge. She ran around barefoot on the narrow ledge we were on with the arch above us but I couldn't watch.

Oh good heavens, there she is in the shadows, playing around on the slope like she wouldn't die if she fell or something.

Meanwhile, Quin is running up and down the hill, showing people the "best" way to get to the top. Kendrah is slipping and sliding down the hill and I finally tell them both that if they keep disregarding their safety, I needed to keep my camera ready cause I wanted to get pictures of the tragedy in order to make some money from their spectacular deaths.

They behaved better after that.

On and on we drove, till we got to the Mexican Hat, where I pulled over for a few quick shots.

Then we drove some more. There wasn't much out there to keep the Unhappy Frog from pouting, but it was new and different to us. I enjoyed the endless road and the almost nothingness out here.

We drove into Monument Valley next, but that will have to wait for another post.