We've had an amazing time in the Southwest over the past week - before we embark on a 2-day journey to the Southeast, here are our top takeaways.
At Two Mittens in Monument Valley. Get it???
1. The landscape in the Southwest is amazing and well worth seeing! We found this part of the trip to be incredibly scenic and unlike any other place we've been.
2. Towns are scattered and pretty spread out in these parts. We drove through a lot of nothingness in between all of the parks / cities we wanted to check out. We can't imagine seeing all of these awesome places without a car.
3. Staying in one place for just one night is exhausting after an extended period. It really helps to have intermittent "rest days" while on a road trip. Even though we might be sitting in a car for long periods of time, that's not actually restful!
4. Santa Fe is for an older crowd with specific interests (art and jewelry). This was one of the first places we visited that we felt could have been skipped. Go to Sedona instead!
5. Tex-mex food is delicious but requires moderation.
6. Navajo food is delicious but requires moderation.
7. Weather is highly variable! We often started out chilly in the morning, only to drive and find ourselves sweating by the afternoon. Nights were almost always cold - pack layers!
8. Monument Valley is definitely worth a visit. While harder to get to and definitely less well-advertised, it is one of the coolest places we've seen. Hard to imagine the landscape was created by natural forces over millions of years.
9. The exploitative feeling we felt while touring the favela in Rio was echoed in the Navajo nation. We felt torn between our appreciation of the scenery and acknowledgement that we were walking on once-sacred land that was now being "rented out" to tourists (and those who still live on it are almost all struggling with poverty).
10. Not much rain out here! It happened to rain while we were in Arizona and every person we spoke to commented on it. Guess we were lucky?
Peak: Capturing the Forest Gump shot at Monument Valley
Pit: Rainy days in Arizona
Next stop: Dallas, TX