we drove through manti on our way down.
which took us a different way than we usually drive down to blanding, which was fun. such great scenery!
we stopped at our favorite restaurant in blanding for burgers. i have been dreaming about their burgers since i last ate one in august of 2019!
we went to some familiar sites that sierra hadn't been to yet, and some new sites.
such tiny, tiny cactuses with flowers on them. i loved that!
we found the most gorgeous pieces of petrified wood in this area, and we even found some agates!
b found several arrowheads or parts of arrowheads. sierra and i found none! (of course, we didn't keep any.)
it's always a sad time to find a balloon in the wilderness.
i think we thought this was bear poop.
a handle!
we went up to the top of one of the very bears ears!
we started the ascent up to the other ear, but didn't make it very far. the trail was awful--very steep and hard to manage. 
there were cicadas up in this part of the monument. they made a drone, although not a super loud one, that would start up in the morning and go throughout the day but not during the night. when we went to other parts of the monument, we didn't see or hear any. interesting.
we went down the moki dugway, which is a pretty crazy road. you drop 1000 feet over the course of about 3 miles.
we then drove through valley of the gods. 
i loved the lines in these mountains near mexican hat.
the san juan river at mexican hat.
a dead cow we found in a canyon by a watering trough.
this was an awesome site, although nearly all of it you could only see from down below.
note the big circle pictograph on the wall above the center structure. very cool.
me losing my footing.
we started a hike one morning at a place that had tons and tons of potsherds at it.
we have some cactuses like these and were happy to see that they can get flowers. 
we explored a new area and b found this metal marker that for some cosmic reason said #1 NORMA. say what?! 
b likes it when i flex my arms.
in this area, we spotted a site on the other side of the canyon that from our vantage point looked impossible to get down to. but when we got over to the other side of the canyon rim, we found a way down. it was a little challenging but doable. that was really fun to see a place off in the distance and figure out how to get to it!
we also went to goosenecks state park. the view is incredible.
we went to a place where we could be right next to the san juan river. i wished we had had our swimming suits. it might not look it, but it was hot.
sego lilies are so beautiful.
our last morning, we went to one of our favorite areas that has several sites in it. and the spring there is really incredible.
lots of rock art.
tool sharpening spots.
bear paw prints on the rock. very cool.
it's hard to tell here, but this is quite large.
i never tire of seeing blooming cactuses--i love the variety in color and shape and size.
a collared lizard!
oh i love collared lizards.
we had a wonderful time! can't wait to get back there.
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