Happily stumbling into a community of off grid rock-dwellers.

 "Whatt'ya live under a rock or somethin'"

_Wondering if this community would mind if we parked here for the night,
 actually led us all to get a pretty epic experience, new friends, and a good story. :)
        After seeing (and parking) under this natural arch that's smack-dab in the middle of the community of rock-dwellers, we were happy when Joe (the neighbor under the rock next door) came out and said that it's no problem that we park there, and he even welcomed us in if we wanted to see the inside. Very humble person Joe was, and we were sure happy he came out because we only asked one of the kids down the street named Nefi if we could, and he said it SHOULD be alright. so we were a little uneasy.

The next morning though as were done making coffee, we got the "full tour" from Nefi, the 3 Joes, and a couple of their friends too, when they came over to say hi.
We talked about how cool it was and how thankful we are that they let us take this epic parking spot for the night. Then they said how cool it was we live in these vans, then we said how cool it was that all you guys live in rocks, and i think we all became good friends at that moment.
We each all gave each other a new perspective on living.  i dig that.

       

Being blown away was a constant as we hiked around with them all day. Learning about the solar panels that give them  power, the water sources, the gardens, and the individual chicken farms and cattle soon made me realize.. these folks are off-grid out here just living happily under a rock.. Brings a whole new meaning to "whattya live under a rock or something?

Nefi and all of his friends showed us everything from the community house, to the zipine at the top of the rock, and everything in between.

Looking down the community zipline that we unfortunately didn't get to try out due to it being Sunday

The crew led us up the mountain with help from these sketchy ladders

Empty spots. You build to suit.

Climbing up onto the roof

The view of the homes from the top of the rock.

Every house has a church room, but in the case of the community house, its fitted with a room for getting baptised.

Community house entrance

The wealthiest member of the community outfitted his portion of the rock to resemble a castle.

We had some fun with our new rock-dwelling friends.

These religious people live in unique homes blasted out of sandstone rock in the desert south of Moab, Utah. the story goes that "The Rock," was founded about 35 years ago by Rob Foster, who's mission was to create a safe, remote space for a Christians that embraced plural marriage after "god" told him to come here to do just that. These large houses were built by using dynamite to blast caves into the sandstone, then they fittted modern homes complete with running water, electricity, internet access, and more into the crevice. this place is rad, and so are the people. they don't get a lot of visitors like us who are just willing to drive up there, but i'm sure glad we did.

If you look real hard, you can see us trying to blend in with the locals in our spot under the arch.