Heavy snow the following morning saw the first major "plan B”. We had intended to drive to monument valley and stop for the night at the roadhouse and spend the afternoon at the Native American Reservation. Heavy snow and the threat of road closures saw us drive right through to Moab a long day in difficult driving conditions. Despite the conditions the drive through Monument Valley took on an eerie feel totally different to the desert landscape depicted in the movies. Moab is a quaint town in Utah but its major claim to fame is the Arches National Park.

After taking a short breath from the Grand Canyon, the next day we moved on to another absolute highlight Monument Valley. The ladscape is ideal for a Western movie, and so it is much used as background for that kind of movies. First, after coming there, we had a lunch in an restaurant run by the Navajo indians who still live there. We had a really local dinner: with beans and bread! Tasted very good, and again, the sizes are still big!

We took the tour which is run by the Indians. The indian can really tell something about the history of these rock formations. We also found out that it was very difficult to travel with a car, the rocky and sandy roads are really not good for a normal car. You really need a Jeep. But it is not forbidden to go with your own car!

The nature is really a miracle. Again moments of silence. What a views we could see in this trip! Luckely our Indian friend had brought water, because the temperature was about 35 degrees! Well, and for the rest, the photo's speek for themselves. Some tips: if you have a normal car, take the Indian trip, we saw some cars in trouble! And with the Indian trip you will hear the history of these rocks and the Navajo indians too.

After a long drive, we arrived at Monument Valley in the early afternoon. We’d decided to camp there so we went straight to the Visitors Center to register for the Mitten View Campground, which we’d heard was very nice with a great view over (yep!) The Mittens formations and is located next to the Visitors Center. But nope, preparations were going on for the Red Bull Airshow, which would be taking place in a couple of days, so the Mitten View campground was closed. So there we went again, trusty guide in hand, in search of another campground. Just outside of the park proper, we found the Gouldings complex, where we found an excellent camping space (see review).

And yes, there they were again, those Red Bull people… Now I can appreciate events like these putting a couple of dollars in the local economy as much as the next person, but do these people really have to act as if they are master and commander of every inch of space, lording it around with such a show of possessiveness? Such arrogance… grrr… Anyway... ignoring flashy Red Bull people and focusing on the marvelous landscape surrounding us, we headed off into the park to explore, where we did the self-drive loop road linking the best known features of the park. It was all so familiar from TV and movies, yet exciting to see in real life!

Monument Valley is not a National Park, but a Tribal Park, run by the Navajo People. Most formations have spiritual meaning for the Navajo.

The self-drive loop road is 17 miles and starts at the Visitor Center, winding trough the valley and giving different perspectives of the formations. Pullouts are marked at the most scenic spots. You won’t miss them, at almost every one you’ll see some stands with Navajo ladies selling crafts and jewelry. And you won’t miss the many tour jeeps from the Gouldings Lodge, either. Some of the most impressive stops are at Merricks Butte and The Mittens, at John Ford Point and at the Totem Pole and Yei bi Chei formations. At John Ford Point you’ll almost certainly see a man on a horse striking a pose in the distance. It is expected that you make a small contribution for taking his picture but we couldn’t find a box or anything so we just snapped away (looking around a bit guiltily..).

After a couple of hours drive, we arrived back ‘home’ at Gouldings Campground with our car almost unrecognizable by the fine red dust covering it!

We would have wanted to do some hiking in the park to see it more up close, but it was getting late, maybe some other time...

Sooo sind nun schon einige tage unterwegs und haben wundervolles und faszinierendes gesehen. Wie sind durch riesige Steinboegen gewandert (arches) in Tunnel gewandert, haben mit Indianern meditiert und sind in einsamen Seen geschwommen. Heute waren wir auf ner jeepfahrt mit einer echten Navaho, die uns das monument valley naeher erklart hat. In einer hoehle hat sie uns ein indianischel Lied vorgesungen und ich bin noch ganz hin und weg.

Einziges Problem.... habe mein gesicht seit Tagen nicht mehr in nem Spiegel gesehen, duschen sind etwas wovon wir nur traumen koennen ("wascht euch in seen und fluessen!") und die einzigen toiletten sind plumsklos.... ach ja wer die natur geniessen will....

Bin ueber und ueber bedeckt mir rotem Staub... *heul*

Under construction

We are leaving Grand Canyon today. Sad, but we had fun. The drive home is almost never as fun as the drive to a destination. But, we almost never devote a day to just driving. Spending a day in a car is the surest way to screw that day up. On the other hand, if you can spend a part of that day seeing something special, it not only enriches the experience, but breaks up the day. Sure it will take longer, but if you are in that big a hurry, fly, and don’t waste the time driving at all. It’s not that much more expensive, and what it saves on nerves is worth much more than the cost.

But that’s enough lecture for one day. To break up our day, we are going to make a long lunch stop at Monument Valley, UT. Monument Valley may sound familiar or you may know exactly where I am talking about, but I would be very surprised if you have not seen it in a picture, TV show, or movie at some point. Our plan was to be on the road by about 7:30 AM and we pretty much were. Our breakfast came from the local chapter of the Golden Arches Dinner Club (I had a McMuffin), and we were soon on our way.

As always we weren’t going to just drive until we dropped. First, even though it is not the fastest way to get to your destination, we still stop every few hours just to stretch our legs, and break up the monotony a bit. Our first stop was at Tuba City, Arizona, at about 9:30 AM. I imagine there is a colorful story about why this small town in the Navajo Indian Reservation is called Tuba City, but we weren’t that interested at the time to try to find out. All we saw was the gas station/convenience store, and we were soon back on the highway. About 1 ½ hours later we had crossed into Utah, and pulled into a wide spot in the road called Goulding. Goulding is more or less the gateway to Monument Valley. It has a lodge, diner, store, and museum. Our plan was to spend about an hour or so eating lunch, and seeing what there was to see.

Maybe calling it a wide spot in the road is a touch cruel. I liked it. It was an oasis to be sure. The views of the Valley were great. Monument Valley has been featured in countless westerns, several (Stagecoach, Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Searchers) starring John Wayne. It was in Forrest Gump. The scene in which Forrest decided he is done running and is going to go home, shows Monument Valley in all of it’s splendor in the background. The 3^rd Back to the Future movie had many scenes there. It was featured in the biker movie, Easy Rider, and many others. I wanted to stop here because I am a John Wayne fan. The scenes in The Searchers were particularly powerful, as it was filmed in Technicolor. I was expecting a bit of a let down, as the colors were so vivid and powerful. I had made a point of watching the movie before we left, so they were fresh in my mind. But, I wasn’t disappointed. The reds were bright and sky a robin’s egg blue straight out of the local cinema. My only compliant was that the major geological features were a bit distant. You could still them clearly, but being up close would have been something. Find a tour would have been easy, and had we been staying the night there, it would have been a given. But, this was only a pit stop. Perhaps another trip.

The food at the Stagecoach Diner was good. Nothing great, but there were no complaints either. It was nice to take a long break. So we relaxed a bit at the restaurant, discussed the trip so far, and bitched about the heat. If you can’t bitch about the heat in the Navajo Desert where can you? We were too far away to walk to any of the actual “monuments”, but Gouldings was built beside one of the smaller sandstone features, so we at least got a look. We also found a desert flower that had forced its way up between the asphalt parking lot and a flagstone retaining wall. It was the only plant like that in the area. The other flora consisted of tumbleweeds, brush, and scrub oak.

We wandered into the general store to have a look around. Jessi asked about a cowboy hat. We’re in the middle of John Wayne country, so it never occurred to me not to say Yes. She had half-heartedly asked about one in Santa Fe and while we were at the Grand Canyon. So, why not? We lastly looked around for a spot where we could take a few pictures with the monuments in the background. Jessi’s new hat would make a nice prop, too. We found a nice spot just by crossing the dirt road. We all lined up and a couple extras were snapped to take in the geological features, and we decided to gas up and be on our way.

We continued north on US-163, and passed Mexican Hat, UT about half an hour later. I snapped a picture of the rock formation as we went by. This was the sad part about this trip. There are a lot of things to stop and see in this area of Utah.  Four Corners was not too far east of here, Natural Bridges National Monument was just northwest, and much further to the west was Grand Staircase National Monument, Bryce Canyon, and Zion National Park. But time and money said that we had to let these wait for another time.

But we did stumble on to a little museum, at a rest area on US 191, a little later. I don’t remember what city it was in. It could have been Blanding or Moab, or neither. But we stopped to go the bathroom and discovered that this place had a display of hand made quilts. My mother has made quilts since I was little, and I had to admire the craftsmanship of several of these. So we all wandered about and I snapped a few pictures to show Mom once we got home.

Our final stop of the day was going to be in Grand Junction where we had rooms reserved at the Ramada Inn. We got in sometime around 7 PM, checked in, and had dinner at Starvin Marvin. That did us in for the day. A little TV, Margo and Jessi took a dip in the pool, and soon it was off to bed. Tomorrow we would be going home, but we would spend a good part of the day in Glenwood Springs. I wanted to say “Hi” to Doc Holliday.

Today is a day in Navajo lands.  We started on the road north-east to another of the Navajo National Monuments.  This one is famous for its free-standing sections of what used to be mesas.  Now they are towers that have been named such names as West Mitten, East Mitten, The Three Sisters, Camel Butte, Thunderbird Mesa, Totem Pole, and Elephant Butte.

We spent nearly two hours on a self-driven tour on a very rough non-paved road/trail doing 5 to 15 miles per hour, bouncing, vibrating, and jarring ourselves.  We could have taken a Navajo guided truck tour, up on the back of a twenty year old truck with bench seats and a canvas top driven by a Navajo guide, but we watched some of them go and could see that the folks were bouncing a lot more than we would have liked.

The gift shop and restaurant area was really quite nice and the gifts and souvenirs were fun to look at and hard to pass up.  A couple found a new home with us.

I said to my friend " I want to ride in the U.S. "  He replied " How about taking a grey hound bus trip, after retirement?" I couldn't wait so long. " Dream on?  I made it! "

We were sorry to miss this place last time...this area was in movies like Thelma & Louise and Forrest Gump...great scenery!

How could we sleep? Rise and shine! Enter the valley again. Well, we did it. One more bumpy descent. The lighting was different and we very much enjoyed this trip. Stopped at John Ford Point, had a look at the totem pole and all the other fascinating rock formations. Incredible colours!

Arround noon we started for Monument Valley.
Since I am German my image of the "Wild West" from childhood on had always been stamped by old Western movies and - shame on me - cigarette commercials! Since a lot of them featured Monument Valley as location going there to me was a trip to the "real" West.
We found a free space at Mitten View Campground which is definitely among my five favourite campsites so far.

A hand reaching out...

Monument Valley is a Navajo Tribal park that sits on the Arizona and Utah border. Absolutely a marvel of nature and a strong spiritual center for the native americans. Huge rock formations spring from a flat red bowl-type valley in varying shapes and sizes. It feels almost mystical to be there. Many Navajo traditionals still live within the valley and most are sheep herders. You can drive the loop road through the park with your car, take a tour with a guide, or ride on horseback. Across the way is the Gouldings Lodge (www.gouldings.com), which is actually the site of one of the first trading posts in the area. The hotel was built by the old post and has many arts and crafts for sale, as well as a lot of really cool historical information. Down the road a bit is the Firetree Bed & Breakfast (www.firetreeinn.com). The accommodations are actually an authentic Navajo Hogan, which has been "modernized" inside with a nice bed. Stay here and you'll get a true sense of the traditional ways and its a real slice of the southwest. Lots and lots of local jewelry for sale at good prices - you'll be amazed by the creative style and detailed designs of the braclets, earrings, and rings. As good as anything you'd see in Santa Fe!

This unique area of south-eastern Utah is home to some of the most amazing sandstones formations in the world. Located on the Navajo reservation in the desert region these large natural structures, some as much as 1,000 feet tall, have been in more Western movies than any other place on earth. There is a 14 mile very bumpy dirt road that you may drive that takes to among the mittens and other features. Or, you may take a tour on one of the many Navajo’s open trucks while they tell you what you are seeing and tell stories and fables. Either way, picture taking is a must. Because the mud is so slick, the tours and dirt road are closed if it has recently rained. There is a small fee to get into the area, but well worth while.