Monument Valley, Utah

Monument Valley is a place we've always dreamed of seeing and it did not disappoint.

Looking north from the Visitor's Center.

The park is governed and maintained by the Navajo Nation so hikes, walks, trails are very restricted. They would prefer to have the land kept as it has been for years. This is understandable as it's sacred to them.

There is a 17 mile road that visitors can drive along to get closer to the monuments themselves. It's a rough dirt road but well worth the time and effort.

Every "rock" formation had a name. Some were from the Navajo and some were based on imagination...what it looked like to the early explorers.

The red in the rock was even more pronounced at sunrise and sunset....morning was cold so we bundled up and took some photos from the van. Sunset was a bit better becuase we had the sun at our backs and it highlighted the bluffs.

Sunrise

This is a great photo that shows the deterioration of wind and rain erosion. The bluff to the left is the start, then it becomes a spire in the middle and ends up going to a smaller and smaller bluff to the far right and ends up as desert dirt.

The red dirt was very fine so it got all over our van, coach and shoes. This was a nice one-day visit but so difficult to show the vistas with photos. These rocks were HUGE!

We've posted more photos here should you want to view them.

https://picasaweb.google.com/100376105788369441882/MonumentValley#

Next stop: Road to Four Corners and Four Corners itself.

Kim and Steve

Canyon de Chelly

Canyon de Chelly (pronounced Canyon de Shay) is in the northeast part of Arizona and considered a center of the Navajo people. We found it interesting that the rangers and people at the visitor's center only talked about the place as being Navajo...nothing about the geology or how it was formed. But, you can see, there is a geological story here someplace.

There is a south road (where these photos were taken) and a north road. There are turnouts as well as side roads that lead down to the edge where you can look over into the canyon (very carefully).

They have jeep tours that go along the valley floor but we only stayed an afternoon and the next day until 2pm so we only viewed from the rim.

One of the highlights is the old buildings where peoples that pre-dated the Navajo lived. Here is a series of photos that start from the rim and then zoom in. Kim LOVED these! (More of these are upcoming when we get to Mesa Verde).

The buildings are between the trees across the valley.

...a bit closer...

...really zoomed in on the center buildings...they look like minature models.

We stayed at Cottonwood Park at the entrance. A free place surrounded by gorgeous fall colored cottonwood trees. We got rained on but a beautiful full rainbow came out for our enjoyment.

This was a spectacular canyon to view but, unfortunately, we had to go through the town of Chinle, which had some serious poverty-stricken homes along the road leading up to the park entrance. We weren't sure if we were on the right road. Very depressing. We read where the Navajo lives in what is considered poverty up to 50% of their people...yet they continue to live there. It's there land and their home I guess. No judgements,  just the place was a bit sad and seemed lacking in hope.

We posted all the photos here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/100376105788369441882/CanyonDeChelly#

The next day, as it rained on us, we headed northwest to Monument Valley.

Kim and Steve