Someone call John Wayne, the valley's crawling with outlaws!

9/15:

Well, not outlaws, tourists. But really, with the fabled beauty of Monument Valley so well known, who wouldn't want to visit? I include myself in the tourists category, of course - I was there to see some amazing sights, and see them I did.

But first, I'd like to share with you all the view I had from my campsite this morning. I accidentally woke up in time for sunrise (something I would never intentionally do unless prompted to by someone else) and it turned out to be a really good thing I did. Here's why:

Yep, these photos taken from the picnic table next to my tent. Unbelievable!

With that good of a start to the day, it could only possibly get better! I headed off to the hotel to meet my tour guide from Navajo Spirit Tours, Will. He was a Navajo born and raised in Monument Valley with lots of relatives still living there. And until he mentioned that, I don't think I thought about the fact that people still actually live in the valley instead of just devoting the whole thing to tourism. Very cool!

We headed off down the dirt track, fortunately stopping at all of the best viewpoints. Will was an EXCELLENT guide. At every stop he had something to tell us about Navajo culture or the landscape or his family. I learned so much on that tour - wish I had taken the longer one that went further into the back country! The landscape was amazing too, of course.

The Three Sisters

"Sun's Eye"

Giant hole right in the top of this sandstone alcove! Great acoustics in here

Petroglyphs depicting a hunt in which sheep and goats were taken down by spear and bow

At one point we stopped by a few market stands that the locals had set up. They were selling jewelry at pretty good prices. But I had my eye on something way cooler - the Point. This was the place where they've filmed and photographed all of the Marlboro ads, and pretty much any southwestern ad with rearing horses and cowboys and cool landscape in the background. And there was a guy there with a horse - and he'd take your picture with you on the horse at the Point! Apparently the horse that they used for all of the ads, Pistol, had retired a month prior at age 30. So they had a new horse instead. Regardless, the horse was very sweet (didn't seem to mind his job at all and just hung out) and the guy took a lot of AWESOME pictures for me!

We moved on from the Point and stopped at some hogons, which are Navajo ceremonial structures. Inside the female hogon a Navajo woman did a yarn spinning demonstration for us - really cool! Then she pointed at me and told me to sit down in front of her, so I did. She did my hair up in the traditional Navajo woman style. I guess I had the longest hair in the group so I turned into the guinea pig. It was a really beautiful style and I have no idea how she got all of my hair into such a small bun, but I was much cooler for it!

From there we continued a little further until we got to an alcove, where Will sang some Navajo songs for us. Unexpected but definitely awesome! I was really impressed by how fearless this guy was and how eager he was to share his culture with a bunch of tourists. Very inspiring.

And then, all too soon, it was time to head back up out of the valley. I can't wait to come back here to see more of the back country sometime - and I have definitely put it pretty high on my priority list. Will told us about some of the other really cool places to see and it sounds like there's quite a lot that remained hidden to our short tour.

At the hotel, I stopped at the gift shop to get my customary Christmas ornament. Then Jane and I headed on to Colorado and Mesa Verde! I've decided that we'll stay there for a few days - it's something I'd really like to see and I wanted to leave more of the Four Corners region for exploration at a later date.

Well, we didn't make it very far before I had to stop at an overlook for a photo shoot. But who can blame me with a landscape like this and a car like Jane?

Yep, this is without a doubt the best looking car I've ever seen.

And of course Jane drew a crowd so we stayed at that overlook for a while chatting with people. I actually almost got stuck trying to leave (very deep loose gravel) so I made quite an exit for everyone - spinning tires, spraying gravel, roaring engine, fishtailing my way onto the road, the whole nine yards. I had a ball with that!

The drive from there was super scenic the whole way (which is probably why it's listed in my US Top Scenic Drives book) and I took the opportunity to take some last pictures of Jane and I leaving the flat southwestern scenery.

Hmm, interesting fold structure!

The Mustang encounters some Mustangs! Only had time to snap this shot as I came around the corner and then zoomed right by. Still, very cool to see as I didn't think I'd see any wild Mustangs on my trip!

Colorado's state sign is kind of boring, but at least it's bigger than Arizona's

Actually just a picture of some really cool clouds

And now the clouds in front of me. Check out that hood reflection! 

Looks like it belongs in a magazine, doesn't it?

We reached Mesa Verde just in time to check in at the campground and pitch the tent before dusk fell. I also had time to book two tours of the cliff dwellings Cliff Palace and Balcony House - both of which are inaccessible except when guided by a ranger. So I'll go see one of those tomorrow and the other one the day afterwards!

Last time I'll see this sight for a while - still a little absurd every time I see that car parked next to a tent

The stars here are beautiful and you can see the Milky Way all laid out above you. So I think I'll go stargaze for a while. It's been a fantastic, incredible day full of great landscapes and great drives. Kelly signing out.

Some more photographs of the most-photographed place in the American West

9/14:

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.

Another shot of Jane and Red Canyon, of course

Sometimes I see traffic barrels in my sleep now. I believe I have seen all of the road construction that America has to offer.

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!

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!

Hello, Monument Valley!

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.

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):

Featuring: my shadow

Pretty good, no? But this guy had another idea and it turned out to be a pretty good picture too:

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.

Flying solo once more

9/13:

Well, back to being solo! It's just me and Jane now. Sad to see my parents go as they are excellent company but it is nice to no longer have a schedule again. I know that I'd like to go to Monument Valley before I end the trip, and I know that I have to get home by September 18th, and that's about as much as I've got set up for now! The rest of my trip I am just going to wing, as it's one of the last chances I'll have for a while to truly do whatever I want.

Instead of planning out the rest of my trip like a responsible adult, I started the day with a hike of the Fairyland Trail, a nice long 9-miler right near the lodge. The views were amazing and the hike was very pleasant. The hoodoos of Bryce Canyon are seriously cool, both aesthetically and geologically speaking.

These hoodoos look like snail shells!

A far-off collection of hoodoos that looks like a castle, as seen through a hole in the rocks

At the end of my hike I passed a couple who recognized me from Arches. We stopped and chatted for a while as they were running their trip in the opposite direction that I had been going, so I had been everywhere they hadn't been yet! I was able to give them some good advice about hiking Zion and parts of California. Hurray for being useful to someone for once! They were from Israel - Dan and Leia - and were backpacking through the southern US. Very nice couple!

I decided to finish up the afternoon with a tour of the southern overlooks of the park. It's a very nice drive down to Rainbow Point and there's lots of places to stop and take pictures. I actually saw Dan and Leia at the point, and every overlook thereafter! Pretty funny. They asked to see some of my fossils and I was really bummed out that they were all packed away, as I think they would have really liked the fish fossils I collected in Wyoming (assuming that they haven't been destroyed by being in a muscle car for multiple weeks by now). Anyways, I got some cool pics from the overlooks, and one picture with Jane and the hoodoos.

Well, damn.

Not the greatest shot but there weren't really any opportunities to have your car juxtaposed with nearby hoodoos... so I made do!

I really, really should have started charging $5/picture at the beginning of this trip... I'd be rich!

And then it was on to the campground. Because my parents are no longer here, I am back to living in a tent! By now I kind of like it better, really. I stayed at Ruby's Campground, the most disorganized chaotic camping place I've ever seen. No layout to the tent sites at all, just kind of go and plop yourself down where there's a picnic table. I found a good spot with a place for Jane and it was next to a bunch of bikers, which is what I usually look for. I may have said it before somewhere on this blog, but bikers are the best people to camp near when you have a vintage car. They know what it's like to be on the road with no one but yourself to bail yourself out of trouble, and thus always seem to be super friendly and willing to lend a hand if needed. And they're usually well-traveled and know of cool spots to visit. So of course I promptly made friends with these guys. They pulled out the map and gave me some options of places to visit on my way to Monument Valley. So now I've got more options than I had before, and of course I've made exactly zero decisions about them.

I do know that tomorrow I'm going to leave the Bryce Canyon area and head to Monument Valley. I'd just really like to see the most-photographed place in the American West. After that, I may tour around southeastern Utah a little bit more, or I might head into southern Colorado. Who knows! Kelly signing out.