South to Monument Valley

As you may recall, the remnants of Hurricane Norbert dumped lots of water on Arizona and southern Utah.  Lee and I were in Moab at the time, which did receive some rain but it wasn't bad.  After Moab, we had planned to visit Capitol Reef National Park and then take I-15 from St. George to Las Vegas.  However, a part of I-15 was washed away by a flash flood, and it was announced that reconstruction of the road would result in a detour for big rigs like ours, going 250 miles out of the way, for up to a few weeks.  So we changed our plans, and decided to go farther south to Monument Valley, and then across through Flagstaff and north to Las Vegas.

Between Moab and Monument Valley there were interesting rock formations long before we arrived in the Valley.

 

Our first view of Monument Valley, even from a distance, was exciting.  Several vehicles had pulled off to the side of the road for the "photo-opp".

 

Our campground was across the main road from the entrance to Monument Valley.  I enjoyed our site.  We were surrounded on three sides by red canyon walls, being situated in a narrow gap.

 

Here is the view from the campground looking towards Monument Valley. Awesome!

Monument Valley itself is an adventure.  It is not a national park, it is a Navajo Tribal Park.  The entrance fee is $20 per vehicle, and the self-guided tour is a dirt road, recommended for 4-wheel drive vehicles only.  Although there were many regular cars on the road, I was happy to be in our Jeep Liberty.  Lee did use the 4-wheel drive to get back up the hill at the end of the tour, and it made a difference.

I mentioned the self-guided tour, a loop, is a dirt road.  It was quite dusty, and I had to take a photo of a white vehicle that had parked in front of us to show how dusty it truly was (not to dissuade anyone from making the trip - just know you will need a car wash afterwards!):

By the way, visitors can sign up for a guided tour, which visits more areas in the park.  I was so happy to not be on one of the tours, though.  People had scarves wrapped around their faces because of the open-air vehicles and the amount of dust, not to mention the fact that the trucks traveled in groups.  Woe to the people not in the first truck!   It looked terribly uncomfortable.

Monument Valley is probably best known for its use as a backdrop in Western movies when Westerns were popular.  Stagecoach, with John Ford and John Wayne, was filmed here with the permission of the Navajo tribe in 1939.  Everyone will recognize the iconic "mittens", one with a right thumb and one with a left.  Visitors get an excellent view of the mittens from the Visitor Center.

There were a few other formations visible from the Visitor Center, just to the left of the mittens.

By the way, the Visitor Center has a restaurant that serves simple Navajo food.  I had mutton stew, and the Indian fried bread was delicious (although not necessarily healthy - we had it for dessert).  The gift shop had some of the best prices on jewelry and pottery that we saw in all of the Southwest.

As we drove along, we saw other formations - an elephant and a camel (more or less).  I liked the two students being taught by a Catholic Sister.  Her folded hands and habit, in profile, are very apparent.

More awesome views on the loop tour:

I loved this formation, called, appropriately, the Totems.

Here is the view upon returning from the loop tour:

Looking back at the formations around which the tour loops:

Being in the park at sunset was definitely worthwhile.  We watched the colors and shadows change for almost an hour, as did many other visitors:

It was especially fascinating to watch the shadow of the closer mitten encroaching upon the other:

I have no idea how often this happens during the year, but I think we were very fortunate to see the shadow of the one mitten centered on the rock formation of the second mitten.  How lucky is that??  Beautiful!

Thank you, Lee, once again for your great photographs.

I have one more post to go, of the final leg of the trip and wrap-up.