One of the most beautiful places on earth - Goulding, UT - April 2009

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So we made the trip to MONUMENT VALLEY in southern Utah/ northern Arizona. I guess most people say it is in Arizona, but we never crossed the Arizona border (or see any signs at least) so personally I consider it being in Utah. It was quite the drive, but we made it late Friday night. Before hand we were told that we should take everything we might need with us since there are no stores close by (probably about 20 minutes away). We did the obligatory stop in Mexican Hat and stocked up on water, soda and candy. We stayed at GOULDING'S LODGE in GOULDING which is right next to Monument Valley. It's a little rustic (by rustic I mean outdated) and had a very "motel" feel to it and at $160 a night it was probably overpriced but then again you can either pay or drive half an hour to the closest town. We woke up the next morning, opened the curtains and there was Monument Valley (the $160 was so worth it). It was incredible. We booked a GUIDED NAVAJO TOUR for early that morning. We would highly recommend that. You just sit back, watch and admire rocks (it is more fun than it sounds), and listen to Navajo stories. The good thing about this was that the truck is enclosed (and trust us there is a lot of dirt getting kicked up by the hundreds of cars going by). Don't try and bring a nice car. The road is bumpy, crappy and just overall not suitable for a nice car. The tour makes several stops and points out points of interest (many movies were shot in this area - think Stagecoach for the older folk and Back to the Future for the younger kids). In a way it's also become fairly commercialized since at every single stop there are a bunch of vendors selling their "authentic" things. This is another reason why Goulding's are so nice because they have this old museum with all these MOVIE MEMORABILIA from old movies that was done here (John Wayne stayed here).

Back to the rocks. It's probably a 17-MILE DIRT ROAD. You can drive it and there are many signs, but the guided tour is still the way to go. There is a name for every single rock there, but the best and most easily recognizable one's are TOTEM POLE BUTTE, THE MITTENS BUTTE, ELEPHANT BUTTE and STAGECOACH BUTTE. A big part of Monument Valley is restricted (another reason to do the tour since you get access to most of these areas). We also saw EYE OF THE SUN ROCK FORMATION. Just a big hole in the rock carved out by years and years of erosion. We also saw some ANASAZI PETROGLYPHS in 1 or 2 places. So many rocks and so many things to see (my philosophy is that if you look long enough at any rock you will see a figure or shape in it - you just need some imagination). But you can only look at rocks for so long (this is why the 4 hour tour is perfect). Even the ARCHES was pretty awesome to see as you are just totally engulfed by them when you stand in front of them. The part on the tour that helped was the tour guide. She was an older lady from the Navajo tribe and you could almost sense the sadness in her voice as she was talking about her tribe. As with many tribes they are becoming very "modernized" and are losing a lot of their culture, customs, stories, traditions, etc due to the fact that the younger generations just have no interest in carrying it on.

Back at base camp (Goulding's) we got a quick bite - yummy Navajo fried bread (think "fried donut" or "naan on steroids". It tastes a lot better than I am trying to describe here. In essence all it is is fried bread. Ok I may not convince you in this blog to try it but just trust me - it is good and you should try it (make sure there is a hospital close by since your chances of getting a heart attack right away is probably 50/50.

And off we were to MEXICAN HAT, UT named after the MEXICAN HAT ROCK just outside of town. Nothing in the town itself (the closest town to Monument Valley from what we know), but we saw a lot of people camp out next to the SAN JUAN RIVER that runs right through town.

A couple miles outside of town is Monument Valley's smaller, neglected sister/ brother/ cousin/ stepson (call it what you want) - VALLEY OF THE GODS park. Another 17-mile dirt road takes you through some more spectacular rock formations (even though these are a lot harder to decipher since there are no guides so you pretty much go along at your own pace and make up things). The big difference here is that you will not see another person the whole time you are there (okay maybe one or two people). This is (as we discovered) the perfect place to bring your tent and just pitch it anywhere you want for the night. We tried to get a room in the Valley of the Gods B&B, but they were sold out (the B&B is in the park). At the end of the dirt road we were faced with a left turn to Mexican Hat or a right turn to what seems like a dead-end. And we took... THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED.

Nikkie and I love to explore. We love to take the road untravelled and see what this beautiful world has to offer. I refuse to buy a SUV (Nikkie really wants one), but every time we leave for a trip I can hear the Corolla go "Oh not again". SO right we went. A dead-end turned into the MOKI DUGWAY ROAD that winds it way op along the mesa cliffs. A narrow, not-even-2-lane road leads you to the top with drops of hundreds of feet present at all times. It was amazing and I got flat-out goose-bumps probably twice while we were climbing our way up to the heavens. It is kind of nerve-wrecking, but we survived it. At the top we were greeted by the CEDAR MESA. A tree-covered mesa with a 180 degree turnaround from Monument Valley. We kept driving and saw trees and trees and trees with some excellent hiking opportunities. Well we turned around for SUNSET AT MONUMENT VALLEY. This is a must because of the colors. Well it was probably not meant to be for us. Just before going down the dugway again we saw the MULEY POINT turn-off. We have read about this. So we followed the 5-mile dirt road and reached the cliffs of the mesa. You see for miles upon miles upon miles. The colors were amazing. The views were breath-taking. We were in awe. And we got some really nice pictures with Monument Valley way in the background. We did not exactly make it to Monument Valley for sunset, but we kind of saw it. I honestly just stood there and took it all in in silence while Nikkie was snapping away. It's hard to describe the colors. It has this deep red mixed with orange mixed with... just go there and you'll see what I mean. We made our way down the dugway... slowly... on our way back to Goulding's. What an incredible day it was. I will probably say this many more times, but (and this is a very unfortunate statement, but it is very true) there are few things left in life that wows me. As an example - I went to Hawaii on a tennis trip when I was in college and everyone was in total amazement by the beaches and the surroundings. I on the other hand really did not care for it since I grew up close to Cape Town and I think Cape Town has better and more beautiful beaches. Just an observation. But back to the point. I was wowed on this trip. We spend the rest of the night in our room with a bottle of wine sine there really is nothing to do at night.

We were up early the next morning for sunrise (beautiful) and were on our way for another exciting day. On the way out we stopped and took some Forest Gump pictures. In the movie - when he just run the whole time - he runs through Monument Valley and there is this specific spot that always shows up on magazine covers. First on the agenda was GOOSENECKS STATE PARK. The San Juan river snakes through the rocks a couple miles outside Mexican Hat. A truly incredible phenomenon. This deep gorge is cut out by this river just snaking its way through. We saw some rafter's way down in the river (definitely something we will do next time since it just seems like a lot of fun). We next made our way up the Moki Dugway for the 3rd time. We were looking for the NATURAL BRIDGES NATIONAL MONUMENT. We finally found it. There are 3 natural rock bridges. KACHINA NATURAL BRIDGE, OWACHOMO NATURAL BRIDGE and SIPAPU NATURAL BRIDGE. We hiked to the base of the Kachina natural bridge (about a 2.5 mile straight down hike both ways). Again hard to describe these things - especially when you stand under a piece of rock running from one end of the gorge to the next. We saw the other 2 bridges, but did not even attempt to hike down to the base since we were way too tired after 2 days of constant walking. The bridges are enormous and you can only stand there and wonder in amazement how these were formed. You can also hike the 3 bridges along the canyon (about 8 miles total we were told). Last on our trip was BLUFF, UT with the NAVAJO TWINS ROCK FORMATION. Again really not much to see or do. They are known for the COW CANYON TRADING POST but unfortunately it seemed like this place has been out of commission for a while. And so we headed back after an adventurous weekend. Monument Valley exceeded all our expectations. Nothing can describe it. Definitely a place everyone should see in their life time. One of our top destinations thus far.

Monument Valley was good to us book wise. We crossed off 6 things including Monument Valley, Bluff, San Juan river, Mexican Hat and Cedar Mesa. While we are at it - we have another book to add. It is called "Wonders of the World" and have some amazing pictures. Again many of the things are sometimes duplicates. In this book we have 278 things so this brings our total things to 3,322. 43 down and 3,279 to go.

Til next time.

From a red rock

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Photos

Monument Valley
One of Nik's best pictures (thus far).

Monument Valley
Big Hole. That is me at the bottom!!!

Monument Valley
Watch the tongue buddy.

Monument Valley
It was...

Monument Valley
There is that shadow picture again.

Monument Valley
Incredible sunrise