Day 7 - Monument Valley, ARIZONA to Page, ARIZONA

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Let me start by apologising as I forgot to mention we went passed a couple of noteworthy places yesterday. The first was a town called Winslow Arizona we passed by where I was hoping to stand on a corner. It would have been such a fine sight to see. Anyway we decided to “Take it easy” and the second place we skipped would have included a slight detour of about 45 minutes, so it was kind of an intentional miss not to see the Grand Canyon. It’s a bit bizarre saying we came all this way and skipped past the Grand Canyon but we have been there twice before and there is much more to see around Arizona and Utah and losing 2 hours going in and straight back just did not work for the schedule.



Well we woke up to a different view this morning from our balcony with drizzly rain and low cloud hovering around the mittens. It looks set in for the day and we have a 3.5 hour extended backcountry tour booked with a local Navajo operator.



We had a very basic continental breakfast included here so we had some toast and yoghurt and packed the car and checked out ready to be picked up at 8.15am. The tour operator arrived and gave us the option to continue with the tour or reschedule for tomorrow. He said it will be pretty muddy and is not likely to improve. We can’t come back tomorrow so he agreed to give us a full refund. The tour was described as a photographer’s paradise. Oh well you can’t control everything.



We then asked if we could check back in to our room and thankfully they let us so we can chill for a while until normal check out time. We left MV around 9.30am and it’s about a 90 minute drive to our next stop at a town called Page which is back in Arizona.



It was pretty miserable weather wise with showers and foggy conditions and only around 15 degrees. I called our Hotel to see if bring forward our check in from 4pm but no luck and since we change time zones on this route we are scheduled to arrive in Page around 10.00am so lots of time to kill. The first half of the drive was nothing special but suddenly it changed and the rain stopped. Some of the rock formations were amazing with layers of red rocks similar to the pancakes we once saw in NZ several years ago. Some of the thin rock layers were vertical and others horizontal on these rocks that were only about 3-5 metres high. Most unusual indeed with many of these on dome shaped boulders.



We decided to visit Walmart on our arrival in Page to check out this legendary store. We just wandered around looking at things and they had lots of Halloween items for sale. Kerry bought a cardigan and I bought a gadget that charges my iPad, iPhone and camera all in one as these all have different connections which is a little annoying and only cost $8-. We then looked around town to find somewhere for lunch and settled on a place called Slackers, a small diner where we shared a Navajo Taco and whilst we asked for no chillies and olives but it seemed they also left off the beans so it ended up like a salad Navajo taco which was OK anyway. This place is located on Elm Street but thankfully we won’t be having any nightmares after eating here !



After lunch we went to our Best Western Plus hotel and arrived here around 2pm and thankfully they had a room ready so after checking in we got our first load of laundry done (hard to believe it’s been a week since we left). We’ll be staying here for the next two nights to explore Lake Powell, the Glen Canyon Dam which created the lake and the Antelope Canyons.



The sun poked its head out as we were planning where to have dinner and Kerry recalled a BBQ place on main street when she was researching this area and we decided to visit Big John’s Texas Barbeque (that is how it is spelt here). It was a short 12 minute walk from the hotel. This restaurant is located on an abandoned gas station and they had tables in rows under the old fuel canopy. We got the last seats and soon a band called Cowboys and Indians started playing some live music opening with the Johnny Cash classic “I walk the line “.



We decided to share a full rack of pork ribs and a side of coleslaw. Corona was only $6- and not too bad for a restaurant. As we ate our meal we noticed the lineup to come in kept growing out to the kerbside and it was clear we got lucky with our timing. They had a condiments tray on the table we shared with the German couple with 3 sauces you could use on the ribs being traditional, sweet or spicy and whilst I was giving a warning by the waiter it was hot I was brave enough to give it a try for the last couple of ribs and it certainly had a kick. It was good to apply your own portion of sauce. The band were pretty lame really so we only stayed for half an hour and walked back to the hotel. The sunset was putting on a nice show tonight.



We actually came here to Page as a base for 2 or 3 activities we want to do and we will definitely be doing 2 of these tomorrow weather permitting and the forecast looks good. We’re over the disappointment of not doing the MV extended backcountry tour this morning and fingers crossed for a good day tomorrow.

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