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Published: September 24th 2022
Woke up to a cloudy morning and reflected on how the Pink Jeep tour experience yesterday would easily rate in the top 10 experiences of our USA travels to date without doubt. We just had a yoghurt on our balcony with some OJ and then hit the road at 9.20am for the first leg to Flagstaff.
But just before we jumped in the car we had a quick game of Cornhole next to the carpark. We both eventually landed the bags but no-one got a bag in the hole.
The road climbed in altitude and the temperature dropped accordingly and it was 16 degrees when we arrived at our designated breakfast spot the Galaxy Diner on the old Route 66. It was really interesting how all the cactus trees disappeared once we rose to the frost zone.
We have had problems occasionally with people understanding our accents so we decided that Kerry would order both of our meals. Once the waiter (Reed) arrived Kerry asked for a half serving of French Toast and Flapjacks for me (aka Pancakes). Reed asked Kerry if she wanted any eggs or anything else and she said
“no that’s all”. Then he turned to me and asked “and what can I get for you sir ?”. Seriously, he thought whole order was just for her !
The altitude in Sedona was 4500 feet or 1700 metres and here it 7000 feet or 2108 metres barely 100 metres below the height of our highest peak Mount Kosciuszko.
We kept on heading north on Highway 89 and stopped at the Cameron Trading Post located near the Little Colorado River. These trading posts used to be all over Navajo Nation where the locals would be able to see their arts and crafts to make a living but seems the politicians over time killed the business model with regulations. Navajo Nation is the official native american reservation that covers most of northeast Arizona.
We then drove another 2 hours through to our planned early dinner stop at Kalenta. As we approached the town we saw lots of the yellow school buses everywhere so it must have been finish time. Not sure where they all live as there are just a few shacks and trailer homes dotted along the main road.
The scenery and landscapes have been constantly changing about every 20 minutes the from plains to rocky areas.
We arrived here at 4.30pm and the sign as we approached the only set of traffic lights in town said “welcome to the world famous Amigo Cafe”. As we entered the restaurant we had to sign in at the front desk (no phone app like we’ve been using at home for the last 2 years !). The three previous entries in the book were from Germany, France and Italy so we are not the only foreigners in town. Masks are mandatory in Navajo Nation to protect these indigenous folk so makes sense.
The two guys next to us had their meals delivered just as we sat down and wow they looked unique and tasty. Kerry ordered the Fry Bread Chalupa with prawns and I ordered the Navajo Taco. Both were served on the native tortilla that is deep fried so looks quite different.
They brought the meals really quickly and they were awesome and we were soon back on the road for the final half an hour drive to Monument Valley. It
was not long before we starting seeing some of these majestic rock formations they call buttes. I think the formal definition is a rock the has a flat top with steep sides. It was a bit odd that we briefly crosse the border into Utah before taking a right hand turn to head to The View Hotel where we are staying for the night.
It was overcast with cloudy sky’s when we arrived and were soon checked into our ground floor room. We rushed out to the balcony and there was the famous view of Monument Valley with the mittens in their glory albeit in the shadows it the clouds. We were madly taking photos from all directions and had a go at doing some selfies but it soon turned to laughter (maybe we should have practiced earlier ?).
It was about 30 minutes before sunset when I caught a glimpse of some light appearing on one of the rock formations and you would not believe it unless you were here but the sun appeared and all the Monument Valley started shining under dark clouds as if they were under a spotlight. You come
here for one moment in your life to see this and talk about being lucky !
Happy to get any feedback on the blog in the comments or fire away any questions you have and I’ll try and cover these in the days ahead. Quite a few extra photos today as it hard to choose the best ones.
Tomorrow we start with an extended back country tour of Monument Valley for 3.5 hours before heading off
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Amy
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Holiday
Hi Guys! we are loving following you on your holiday!! How spectacular is Monument Valley!! They are all great photos!! have a great time on the tour tomorrow - how many more photos will you take??? HEAPS!! Everything is the same at home. all good. No mail. we had a storm and rain at the end of last week ( no damage nothing to report - except were over the rain!!) but finally an amazing beautiful clear warm weekend. So keep having an amazing time! Love The Vidlers!!