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Published: August 9th 2009
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One in every corner July 14th
Break-up day as we today would continue to Grand Canyon. Business as usual as Tine and Paul went down for breakfast while the children slept late, can't really blame them - not very exciting.
Got packed and ready and soon we were heading southwest towards the Four Corners, Navajo National Park to make a fool of ourselves by putting one foot in Utah, another in Arizona, one hand in Colorado and the other one in New Mexico. Totally ridiculous taking into consideration that all of this belonged to the Indians a long time ago and is now a reservation which has become famous because somebody drew some lines and decided that 4 states had their corners there!!!! Imagine that we had to cue in this ‘middle of the desert’ location to get our picture taken. As this site is surrounded by Indian trading posts selling Indian jewelry, we had to get our money bags out of our pockets and later regretted that we hadn’t bought some more of their products as they are very specifically Indian and pretty and simple.
And we continued into the desert to pass through Monument Valley (well there wasn’t really any
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The 4 corners national monument choice but the desert!), a long ride and a substantial detour taking Highway 191 and 163, but always beautiful landscapes, like i.e. Mexican Hat.
One funny thing is the many signs we’ve seen saying ‘careful don’t enter when flooded’ or ‘slippery when wet’ or ‘careful when icy’ and it has been bloody hot and dry all the time we’ve been here. If we’ve seen one or two riverbeds with a little water in them that is all, it is more or less impossible to imagine that it can be swirling with water and that there are rivers with such a strong current that it becomes dangerous. Also interesting is it that we were told that Mesa Verde has a temperature below zero (Celsius) most of the winter.
These last many days we’ve been at a rather high altitude on the Colorado Plateau. The Colorado River itself runs at an altitude 750 m above sea level just to give an idea about the altitude, generally speaking.
The awe of seeing Monument Valley when you enter from the North with the highway descending in front of you and the fantastic sight of oddly shaped high red butts is stunning. The popularity
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Images of Indian country of the spot for a photograph was proven by the many tourists that parked at a specific location and stood in the middle of the road to get their own shot of what they had seen in brochures or in John Wayne Western movies. A pity we didn’t have time to visit this National Park (this was only the opinion of Tine and Paul).
Besides this, it was a rather depressing ride going through this large Navajo reservation (country) which was by far only rock and stone. People living in caravans or in newly build, boring areas (very few), not much romance left in this. Tine would, however, find it very interesting to come back at another time of year and have a real outback experience with a guide and tent and everything for a couple of days (no scorpions or other creepy things thank you) - it must be fantastic to see on horseback but not in 40 c or 106 f.
Interesting reading Tony Hilllerman - a crime writer whose crimes take place in the reservation of especially the Navajos and who takes great measures in describing rituals, traditions and thinking of the different tribes. When you
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Images of Indian country at the same time are passing by the different locations mentioned in the book it makes things come alive.
Made a stop in Tuba City, one example of the above mentioned settlements, to buy gas, coffee and more souvenirs, Eskil finally found what he wanted to buy for ‘mormor’. After one more stop at an Indian trading post we saw our first view of the beginning of the Grand Canyon west of Cameron. On our way from the parking lot to the view point we were warned by signs of snakes and lizards on the hiking trail. Looked intensively for them but no luck.
One other stop at Desert View just after we entered the National Park - and the first real look over the Grand Canyon. A tower constructed to fit into the surroundings and with very pretty replicas of wall paintings - very nicely made and great views over the canyon from that area.
And at last we reached our motel in Tusayan. Settled in, had dinner in the ‘cheap restaurant’ but became very friendly with the waiter because we ordered a better bottle of wine and we were not hungry when we left but
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Images of Indian not impressed either.
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Michael Viera
non-member comment
Glad you are Finishing the Blog
Hello Tine, I was afraid that when you got back to Denmark you would not have time to finish your travel blog of the southwest. I continue to enjoy your fresh perspectives on places that Karen and I have visited over the years. Your children sound very much like our daughters Heather and Lauren did when they were about the same age as you children and tired of all the travel spots that Karen and I were interested in seeing. Looking forward to your next chapter. Michael