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Published: June 12th 2015
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6th /7th June
We spent another full day at Grand Canyon, though we were moving around all the time, you could probably stay in one place and it would change constantly with the time of day, the weather, the light, we must have said wow more times than we should have done but it really is such an incredible place, a local later described it as a big fancy hole in the ground.... A very fancy hole!!
Having watched the sun go down again, the following morning we drove through the park and exited at the east end. Stunning scenery, particularly a gorge carrying the Little Colorado river eventually took us to the town of Cameron with lunch at the Trading Post and then on to Tuba City, not somewhere you would want to spend any time in. All of this area and where we are heading is the Navajo Nation which is a Native American-governed territory covering 27,000+ square miles, occupying portions of northeastern Arizona, part of Utah and New Mexico. Can't say we really understand how it operates but the various tribes have some large tracts of land, in this case, the Navajo land takes
in Monument Valley which was to be our next wow.
There are lots of stalls where they sell native American jewellery and various other bits, some of it looks good quality but must all be mass produced as so much of it. The guide book had told us about a place near Tuba City where we could walk where dinosaurs once walked.......... not to be missed! Our Navajo guide was an 80 + year old grandmother who spoke a bit of English, was totally deaf in the right ear with only partial hearing in the left. When she asked us where we were from she mistook England for India. We explained we had come across big pond in big metal box and she was happy with that. She was lovely with one pink hair curler at the front of her head!
The foot prints were pointed out by squirting water into the shape on the ground and mumbling about a man who came and say about Tyrannosaurus. She had to leave us at this point as someone was looking to buy something at her jewellery stall, she told us to move on and she would catch
us up. She did. She pointed out small, medium and large footprints, dinosaur eggs, poo and even a skeleton, she was lovely and we believed it all.
We headed to Kayenta for a couple of nights.
8th June
We spent the day at Monument Valley which is just as impressive as Grand Canyon except this time the structures you are looking at are above ground, up to 1000 feet above ground some are very large and others are very slender but all really impressive and we still find it hard to understand how they formed when most of the landscape they are in is flat. We did our own self guided tour which saved us a fortune and we spent the day there rather than a set couple of hours tour. The roads are unmade so it is bumpy with no facilities though plenty of Indian Jewellery sellers on the way! The area can be seen in numerous films, one of the first was John Wayne in Stagecoach which they like you to re-enact courtesy of a horse who is standing by for your pleasure to photograph. The weather was a much more
pleasant 80 degrees with a beautiful blue sky, just what us budding photographers wanted. Each turn in the road was another WOW!
We ate at the hotel for the 2nd time as A) it was pretty good and B) there was nowhere else except the usual fast foods which we have had no option to use on a couple of occasions and had had enough already !
9th June
We set off for the 2-3 hour journey to Page with lots of stops for photographs but unfortunately no stops for coffee or breakfast as there wasn't anywhere. We were in the heart of the Navajo Nation and saw a sign to Shonto with a knife and fork, we turned off and followed the road for a couple of miles until it just petered out, no more road and no coffee. We stopped at the next town, no coffee shop of any sort so it was water and fox's glacier mints for brunch. At one of the view points the usual stalls selling Indian jewellery and other nic nacs was there and their good fortune, a coach pulled up and I should think they
did well with lots of hard bargaining going on. We had seen dozens of coach tours, many, like this one with people from China or Korea, we couldn't tell so decided to ask this group where they were from, the man said they were from Shetagoo, we repeated the same and said we didn't know where that was, he repeated and by the third time we realised he was saying they came from Chicago :-)
We arrived at Page. Our hotel was the Quality Inn and the one thing it was lacking was quality, not great but a fabulous view over the beautiful Lake Powell and huge dam. After a reccie round the area and a bit of retail in Wallmart, we enjoyend an excellent meal at the Dam bar, in fact so good we returned the next night.
10th June
We spent the following day on and around the lake and Dam which is formed from Glen Canyon, took 16+ years to fill and supplies much of the power for Utah, California and Arizona. The rainy morning cleared to another beautiful day and our boat trip through to Antelope Canyon was magnificent,
the colours and shapes of the rocks are wonderful.
A short journey from our hotel and within a mile of the dam was an area known as the hanging gardens, park and walk, a trail marked out by stones. Desert plants of all description flourishing because of the recent rains. Not only that but wildlife busily going about their business or just having fun. Large ants doing what ants do, lizards doing press ups,large butterflies not staying still long enough to be photographed and chip monks playing hide and seek. Great stuff.
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The Sheffields
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Awesome......
Really really enjoying your Blog! Photos are fabulous-Monument Valley particularly. Descriptions are great-food and drink (or lack of in parts!) taking up time- mints for breakfast washed down with water sounded yummy!! Continue to enjoy the whole experience and keep going with the Blogs -really terrific! XX