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Published: July 13th 2008
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Highway 163
You just have to take this photo, just not right without Forest Gump in it though. I made a good start from Chinle this morning and headed for Monument Valley, just seems one of those places that if you are in the area you just need to go to.
The drive there was through some pretty barren landscape.
All this part of Arizona is made up of Indian reservations, mainly Navajo but some Hopi in the middle of it all.
You can see why the early government gave this land as reservations, it is so aris almost nothing will grow here.
I am getting tire after my last few days activities and all the driving, so I had decided that when I get to Monument vally I would camp there for a couple of nights and relax a bit.
When I got to the park entrance (not NPS but Navajo here as all on a reservation) I paid my $5 entry fee and the $10 for the camping ground, on approaching the visitor centre everything appeared to be in dissaray.
They are presently doing substantial renovations to the visitor centre and the other facilities there, just the cafe and the gift shop were open.
And worst of all the main campground with the showers an all was
The local Tourist stores
Wal mart eat your heart out....... shut, the camping was a bit down a dusty dirt road in essentially what is a carpark for the main (and only) walk that can be done through part of the valley.
Facilities were a few portaloos to one side of it.
So up with the tent made a bit more interesting due to a stiffening breeze, enough that I had to peg it to the ground before putting it up.
After achieving this it was off for a look around, not a good day for photos as it was a bit overcast but still hot.
I was a bit dissapointed about things here, the scenery was good but access to the main part of the park is difficult.
It is very restrictive where you can go, only one walkway and one very rough road.
Due to the winds and the cloud I decided not to do the walkway, and the road although can be done in the average car with caution as many people were, my car who's suspention makes some horrible noises on bumpy sealed roads I decided was not even close to being up to it.
So it was to look into option 2, go on one
View from the visitor centre
Yep definately in the right place... of the tours that are on offer by the Navajo's.
I had budgeted about $30 for this.
The tour which takes you along the same road which the public can drive on is 1 and a half hours long and costs $60 per person, i was also told that you need a minimum of four people per tour, so I could pay them for 4 people and they would take me.
I declined.
The other option was to pay $175 for a jeep to drive on the road.
I went for option 3, go back to my tent for some rest.
So it was back to the comfort of my hot tent in the ever increasing winds which were slowly filling my tent up with red sand and dust which was being blowen up and into the airvents (mesh).
Unfortunately this "camp" was also on the top of an exposed hill.
As the winds got harder more sand and dust was coming into my tent at an ever increasing rate and the tent itself was showing signs of finding this all too much.
As I was wishing that I had my Mac Pac tent that was sitting at home in
The camp
This tree should give me shelter from anything.....not New Zealand and is pretty much everything proof and just laughs at winds like these.
The next tent over then collapsed it's occupants out sight seeing.
I pinned down its remains with a few rocks so it didn't all blow away and decided that before my tent suffered the same fate to pack up and find somewhere else safer than here, particularly as in the west there was a virtual wall of sand approaching at some speed across the desert, a sign of worse things to come.
I was almost packed which really ment open car door and boot and throw everything in as fast as possable, when the main front arrived.
I had left of my t-shirt (working on the tan) so this gave me the benefit of having the airbourn sand hit me over much more of my body, a feeling like thousands of small needles hitting me.
I'm sure that there are people that pay for these pleasures.
Monument valley would have been better if the weather was good for photos and not windy as it was and I had a vehicle that I could have acessed the dirt road on, taken my photos and left.
I
hope that they reopen the main camp ground with toilets etc as it would be a good place to stay., in better weather.
Returning to the small town of Kayenta I discovered that the local accomodation was either booked out or too expensive for my budget.
So I started to head for Page Arizona which was to be my destination in a couple of days time.
A few miles ou t of town I found a small hotel that was a bit cheeper than in town but still a bit expensive.
However by this time I was so tired, I stayed.
It was in the blink and you miss it hamlet of Tsegi.
Finished off the night watching Silence of the Lambs on TV.
Great bedtime viewing.
Fooy note: I later was told that the renovations at the visitor centre have already been going on for a year! Don't hold your breath.
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