I was thinking back and forth whether I should make up for the slightly disastrous start in the Valley of the Gods with a third night or should go on. In the morning I decide to play it safe [don't want to run out of water] and slowly go on today.

The better part of the morning is spend making sure to leave as much of the red dust accumulated in all [ALL!] my gear here in the valley. I am rather sure though, that I might carry some of it back to Germany [or for the rest of my life?].

The remaining miles through the valley are again pure insanity. The snow on the red rock looks like icing sugar. I truly appreciate it in that regard. It makes for a fantastic scenery. I will go through all my pictures for Christmas and post them here. In the meantime: Google [or whatever search engine you prefer]!

To get a nice last view on the Valley of the Gods I take a slight detour up Moki Dugway - a 5km switchback gravel ascent beautifully carved into the northern rim of the valley.

Aaaaand down again... Down to Goosenecks State Park where the San Juan River carved yet another beautiful canyon. Just as in Canyonlands in Moab it all looks more or less like the Grand Canyon. Someone in Moab told me that all of it is basically like the world famous Grand Canyon, the Grand Canyon just has more of it [I guess that's why it's called "grand"]. Having visited the Grand Canyon before I am also much more pleased with these smaller versions - same views but all to myself.

Since I spend most of the day just immersing myself in the landscape it's already sunset time and I decide to simply role out my sleeping pad under a little three sided shelter on the Goosenecks parking lot and leave the tent away. The open side is facing east so the sunrise will await me in just 14 [that's fourteen] hours. In the meantime I have the star sky and - 7 degree ahead.