Monument Valley
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2007
1
43
220
Trip End
Jun 17, 2009
Monument Valley,
Utah,
United States
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Afrte breakfast and car refuel, we tended to do this every morning at the start of the day's journey, we set off to the final viewing spot that we had not seen in yesterday's fading light. The car outside temp read 35deg and it was a careful drive up the park road!
Another amazing view and then we set off on the road again. This was going to be a 'steady' day's driving through wide valleys, narrow roads on hill tops and mountain views. Just so much to see ! Two long, narrow tunnels cut through the mountain rock, Another high, twisty escarpment that was named 'The Devil's Backbone'. Most of the day was spent over 7000 feet and going through one park I spotted a small herd of Elk, that crossed the road ahead of us
Top of Moki Dugway
. By the time we reached the spot, their white tails were just disappearing into the shrubs at the side of the road. The temperature slowly rose as the day went on. Later in the morning we were driving 'down' a country road and spotted a bald eagle perched on a tree at the side. We slowed quickly and then I put the car in neutral to coast downhill towards him. The car immediately rolled backwards in what seemed to be uphill !! I had seen this once before in Ayrshire, Scotland and it was called the 'Magic Glen' or something similar. This was just as weird. By the time we had got used to it, the eagle had got bored and flown off!!Later in the afternoon we came to the end of a high mountain pass and the road sign said, " Max speed 15mph, curves and steep drops ahead". Ok - seen the need for care before, so what's different ? The tarmac just stopped and we were on crushed gravel. The outer edges were almost a vertical drop onto the now, near single width road, as it just plunged like a roller coaster ride through the hairpin turns down to the valley floor below. This stretch was called the 'Moki Dugway' and drops 1100 feet in something less than a mile.
Quite late in the afternoon and we were heading south, the terrain was desert with high mountains at the side of the valley slowly opening up into single, enormous monoliths
View towards Monument valley
. We were at the head of 'Monument valley', the home of many of the cowboy movies (and others - 'Thelma and Louise') that we've seen over the years.It was getting too late to properly see the Valley and we turned into 'Goulding's Trading Post', another visitor motel that had started as a trading post and developed over the years. It was backed up right against an enormous cliff face, which had big cracks in it. Oh well - I guess if it's stood up for this long!! Our room had a balcony that looked straight over some of the monoliths, their sides lit up bright red in the late afternoon sun. Mesmerising. Every night they show a John Wayne movie as a memory to 'The Duke' and to where movie director John Ford made many of the classic westerns.
Distance driven 320 miles
