Monument Valley, Utah

Shonto, Arizona
Navajo National Mon. CG

 

 WOW

 

When I left off we were leaving our overnight stay at Burger King.  We drove the short distance back to the Navajo National Monument where we had originally intended on staying.  Just like the nice ranger said, the road in is a normal paved road.  This is a very small park.  There are two camping loops, Sunset and Canyon View.  Sunset is a dirt/gravel road that is narrow and has low limbs.  I would not take anything large there.  Too bad as they have some of the very largest pull through campsites.

A long pull through to the right.

 

I did not get any pictures of our site in Canyon View, but there are a few sites that would fit a rig like ours.  It was a very pretty park with lots of bushes and trees.  A few with Cliffside views too.  The ranger also said we could park in a long spot before the campgrounds or in the bus parking if we needed. 

 

I will say this, we have been over most of the area in this huge Navajo Nation and there is almost no cell reception unless you are in one of the larger tiny towns.  We barely had signal in Kayenta and strangely, while there were full bars of Verizon LTE showing in the campground in the Navajo National Monument, it was very spotty and it really only worked for calls, not data.  Steve struggled working here.  He also had an emergency problem come up that kept him working on the weekend so we had to cancel our plans to hike to the cliff dwellings that are here and then to go to Canyon de Chelly next.

 Back to the beautiful scenery.

We took a nice ride through the other, more popular park known mostly as Monument Valley.  You pay to get in and you can then pay for guided Indian tours or drive yourself through a one way, decent dirt road.  Any vehicle can drive it.  No trailers though. You actually enter through Utah.

This is the road that takes you through.  It took us maybe 2 hours to drive through, stopping to take pictures and look around.

 Some of the monuments had names, but I forgot most of them.

 Large red sand dunes.

 

 This one was my favorite, The Totem Pole Monument.

 This boulder was so much larger than our truck!

 Steve trying to put it back.  So strong!

 I caught this hawk flying just above me.  Not bad for an iPhone.

 A little wood structure of some sort.

 Another balanced rock.

At this overlook there was a girl trying to hold up a flag in the crazy wind while the other guy took pictures.  I thought the wind might carry her over the edge it was so strong.

 The sun was beginning to set and casting long shadows.

 Love the patterns the wind made on the sand.

 A rock with a face.

 You could also take horseback rides or photography tours.

We sure loved the colors of the monuments.  Very impressive.  We even hoped to be back at our campground for the sunset which is supposed to be amazing from the bluff.  At first it appears there is nothing from the turnoff until the campground.  But I suspect there is a home or two on the side roads as we saw some interesting wildlife you wouldn't expect to see.

 First there was this lonely cow in the middle of nowhere up here along the road.  Then....

 Geese that formed a line and crossed the road right in front of us!

Goose Crossing

Then some playful ponies.  There must be a home nearby with some open gates.  Or maybe it was just mealtime?

The sunset wasn't so spectacular, but it was a nice end to a nice day.  Tomorrow we will move up to Page to break up our drive to Bryce Canyon.  We'll be trying out the Elk's Lodge and just kicking back for a few days.