On to Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon - June 2

After a great dinner and a good night's sleep (not to mention some needed laundry chores) we're off to see new places!

Today we're heading out from Bluff, Utah, all the way to the Grand Canyon!

On the way, we pass through a little town call Mexican Hat.Can you guess where it got its name?

Entering Monument Valley

There was a scene in "Forest Gump" about right here.  It was the place where Forest decided to stop running and go home.

See, I told ya!

There were lots of other movies shot here as well. These are just a few:

Stagecoach (1939)

Billy the Kid (1941)

My Darling Clementine (1946)

Angel and the Badman (1947)

Fort Apache (1948)

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

Wagon Master (1950)

Rio Grande (1950)

The Searchers (1956)

How The West Was Won (1962)

Easy Rider (1968)

The American West of John Ford (TV Documentary) (1971)

The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981)

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

Back to the Future Part III (1990)

The Lone Ranger (2013)

A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)

But...we must move on because the Grand Canyon awaits!

We're approaching the Canyon from the east - this is the Little Colorado River Gorge - but I had the girls  believing it was the Grand Canyon~

Finally we arrive at the east entrance near Desert View and the Watch Tower.

We drove through the park on AZ64 and then south of the park about 5 miles to our home for the next few days.  

This is a quiet place!  Arriving a day early and we even got the site we had reserved and didn't have to move!

 Campfires are a requirement with us!  How else will you make delicious s'mores?

 Bike riding, hiking, campfires and much more! Tomorrow, our first visit to the park.

 We had the girls close their eyes as we lead them to the viewpoint at the Visitor's Center.  We then asked them to describe their first impression.  Words like Awesome! - Amazing! and Wow! were their response.

The girls and I went back in the late afternoon and did part of the Bright Angel Trail.  I reminded them repeatedly that the trip back to the top would "take twice as long and be twice as hard", but they kept wanting to go farther!  

The first tunnel on the way down.

Needless to say, they weren't very talkative on the way back to the top!  We made it back up just before dark!

Our neighbors during our time at Ten-X.

That pretty much describes day one.
Tomorrow - back to the Park!

Four Corners and (almost) Monument Valley! June 1, 2015

Glitches!  One thing you can count on in this type of travel is glitches!  And you're the one to figure them out.  NOt a big one, just time consuming.  While at Mesa Verde, I noticed that the bike rack seemed to be tilted back more than normal.  Not a lot, just enough to notice.  I thought that maybe the weight of 4 bikes might have caused some flexing.  Upon further inspection, it's not the

We left Cortez and headed for Monument Valley with plans (but no reservation) to stay at a campground Donna and I stayed at 14 years ago, right in the valley.  But first a stop at Four Corners -the place where Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico all meet.  It was closed the last time we were here and I didn't want to miss this time!  Fortunately, it was opened extended hours for the summer season!

 Each member of the gang got to stand in their own state for this one!

 Lizzie  being Lizzie!

Cowgirl Emi!

Abi said, "Do I have to?"

Even the old man got into the fun-in his own way!

There was a constant "breeze" of about 20-25 mph while we were there!

After some souvenir shopping, we're off to Monument Valley!

A glitch with the bike rack and trailer hitch on the Honda caused a delay in our departure and while on the road we decided to call the campground where we stayed 14 years ago.  I'm glad we called ahead!  They wanted $72 for ONE NIGHT!  If I wanted to pay that much, I'd stay at a motel!  Unfortunately, this is a trend in campgrounds, especially around popular sites.  They add a "per person" fee for more than two people. In this case, it was $8 a night!
So, we pull up our app (thank goodness we had a little signal) and find a campground close to where we are and call it a day early and stop short of the valley in Bluff, Utah.  That's how we roll!  To top it all off - the amazing Noni had a 15 bean soup and ham bone going in the crockpot while we were driving and when the girls and I got back from exploring some local stuff, we had an delicious dinner!

Here's the local stuff that I'm glad we stopped for!

What?  In the middle of nowhere!  Yep, they're working on the guardrail and this is their "flagman".

 These pictures are from the "Valley of the Gods".  It's in the middle of some Forest Service land in the middle of nowhere - about 20 miles from Bluff, Utah.  Pictures courtesy of my three young travel partners.

From Valley of the Gods we drove to Goosenecks State Park - a beautiful but somewhat desolate place.  Definitely somewhere to go to be alone.  The campsites are just a parking spot at the top of the bluff overlooking the river.

Gooseneck 1

Gooseneck 2

Gooseneck 3

Gooseneck 4

Yes, there really are four of the the goosenecks - hence the name of the park!  It's two horseshoes in the river.

Here's a panoramic I took with my phone - it still doesn't do it justice!

 It's hard to adequately describe the beauty of the colors and shapes seen here.

Back at the camp and ready for some dinner!

Tomorrow we've decided to drive through Monument Valley and go on to the Grand Canyon area a day early - hope we can get a campsite!

Blessed to be on this journey and see this through the eyes of the girls!