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Published: August 3rd 2008
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Monument Valley
The incredible Monument Valley on our guided tour We woke up quite late considering we were leaving in half an hour. We quickly packed our stuff and threw it into the trailer. We had a short drive and stopped off at a cliff which had ‘hole n’ the rock’ written in large letters with an arrow pointing to a small hole. Had no idea what it was actually referring to but we all took the typical cheesy tourist photos then got the van and continued driving on. Next we stopped at an amazing lookout point where we could see for miles and miles into the distance. We took some photos and relaxed for a while on the edge of a cliff overlooking an incredible rocky landscape. We returned to the van and ate lunch then continued on to our campsite. On the way we drove down an incredibly dangerous road which winded down on the edge of a cliff. It made us all a little nervous, especially when we needed to pass a car coming in the other direction, to the left of us was a sheer down drop to the bottom. But we survived and continued on to our campsite.
Jon had earlier given us a choice
Monument Valley
An amazing lookout point over the canyonlands to either stay at a campsite and put up our tents as usual or to pay a bit extra and stay and a cowboy ranch called ‘Betty & Rusty’s’. We choose the cowboy ranch for something different, it would be a good experience. We were staying in a Hogan which was a traditional Navajo hut made from mud and wood. There also weren’t any bathrooms at this campsite except for an individual chemical toilet off the side of the road. We sat and ate lunch then jumped back in the van and headed for a tour of Monument Valley National Park. On the way we stopped off at a long stretch of road made famous on the movie ‘Forest Gump’. We all got out and took photos of the amazing landscape and also took the typical tourist cheesy shot of the group running up the road, we got back into the van and continued on. We arrived at Monument Valley and had a brief look through the museum and gift shop while we waited for our tour to begin. We headed down to a small pickup truck and jumped aboard as a native Navajo Indian took us through Monument Valley.
Monument Valley
This was our room for the night, a traditional wood and mud hut, a hogan This place was amazing, completely flat land with huge mountain like formations shooting out of the ground. He took us to a local market to have a browse around then he drove us around the different rock formations. We stopped at one point while he played us some tunes on a traditional Navajo instrument, he was really good. Afterwards we stopped at a lookout point which offered fantastic views of Monument Valley, apparently some scenes from ’Back to the Future’ were filmed here. We went back to the van and headed back to the carpark.
We returned to the ranch and in time for a horse ride around the valley. Our group met at 5PM and made our way up to the stables as Betty picked out a horse for each of us to ride. I had never been horse riding before so this was another experience unknown to me. We all had a quick lesson how to control the horse then began our ride through the valley. These horses went over rocks and up and down steep hill it was a little scary in some places. We circled the valley and trotted past the rock formation called ‘Mexican
Monument Valley
The long road, made famous by 'Forest Gump' Hat’ then made back to the stables at the ranch. A few hours later Betty & Rusty cooked us an amazing steak dinner, to this day it is still one of the best steaks I’ve ever had, it was delicious. After dinner we sat around the campfire while Betty & Rusty had a chat to us and sang a few songs while playing guitar. We then started the drinking games and eventually we were all pretty smashed. One by one our group slowly went to sleep in the Hogan.
Day 53: Moab - Monument Valley
140 MILES TRAVELLED // 10590 TOTAL
Betty & Rusty
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