After a nice leisurely breakfast (during which my biker camp neighbors showed me more interesting roads to drive on the map), I packed up and headed out for a long drive. The eventual destination was Monument Valley. The way that this part of the US works, you have to go a bit out of your way to get where you want to be. So instead of just beelining from Bryce Canyon to Monument Valley (which would not be a terribly long drive), I instead had to drive back down south through Kanab, across the state line to Page, and then kind of around and under until I could approach the reservation from the south. Very odd but the views were pleasant (of course) so I didn't mind having to drive an extra few hours.
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| Another shot of Jane and Red Canyon, of course |
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| Sometimes I see traffic barrels in my sleep now. I believe I have seen all of the road construction that America has to offer. |
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| Why does Arizona have such a weeny state entrance sign? Utah has all these giant billboards and yet Arizona can only muster a 2'x2' sign? C'mon! |
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| Wooo geology. |
We hit Monument Valley around 5PM, right when the lighting was getting really good. I stopped by my campground (Goulding's, right outside Monument Valley) really quickly to claim a spot and stake my tent. Then I forewent dinner and instead booked it to the valley so that I could see sunset!
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| Hello, Monument Valley! |
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| Holy cow |
I parked Jane in the lot at the View Hotel, which is located right at the end of the paved road before it turns to dirt. My biker friends had told me not to try the dirt roads with Jane - while getting down into the valley is easy, getting up is not so. Apparently it's very sandy and cars get stuck with alarming frequency. So instead I sat at the top and watched people who had not been informed of this trying to get their cars back up the hill. Saw a few modern Mustangs and Camaros struggling mightily - luckily all of them made it up!
There was a giant cloud blocking the sun for a while, so the three famous buttes of Monument Valley (the ones that most pictures are of, at least) were in shadow. But right as the sun started to set the clouds moved and I (and all the other tourists there) were treated to a gorgeous sunset in which the buttes blazed with light.
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| Just insane. |
Of course I had to get Jane in on the action so I found a spot in the parking lot where there were not a lot of people standing around and snapped a quick shot (okay, many shots, but this one is my favorite):
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| Featuring: my shadow |
Pretty good, no? But this guy had another idea and it turned out to be a pretty good picture too:
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| This is the shot he was taking - would have been really cool without all the rest of the parking lot in the background |
The light faded from the buttes pretty quickly as the sun went down behind the mountain, so Jane and I headed back to camp so I could make dinner in the dark.
Not a bad day! The driving days are actually kind of my favorite - it's just wonderful to get in the zone and jam out with some great music and the rumble of a V8 taking you somewhere, anywhere. Unfortunately there's not too many of those left.. for this trip at least!
Tomorrow I'm going to take a tour of Monument Valley (the parts down the dirt roads that I can't put Jane on). Then I've decided I'm going to head on into Colorado to Mesa Verde, a national park famous for its amazingly preserved cliff dwellings! Til next time... Kelly signing out.
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