Day 31: Sunday 26-Jul-1999

Base Camp: Arch View, Moab, Utah

Excursion: Monument Valley (Utah/Arizona)

Distance: 310mi (496 km)

Once again we got up early today and ate breakfast in the truck as we were driving. Today we were driving south to Monument Valley which is in North Eastern Arizona. We took just about the same road as down to Four Corners, but we have to continue a bit further. The park is located on a Navajo Indian Reservation. It cost is $2.50 per person over 7 to get into the park. It was well worth the money and the trip!

The weather was not all that great when we arrived. As we drove into the parking lot of the visitor's center, several guys were trying to coach us into free parking spots. The directions they gave were conflicting. Turns out they were Indians trying to sell assorted tour packages for the park, such as off road and horse back riding. We wanted to see this park by ourselves. We also had the Suburban so we did not think we needed help to get around. We stopped at the visitor's center for a little while and enjoyed the view of the valley. It started to rain. Below in the valley we could see the start of the unmaintained road that you could take to visit the valley.

	A view of Monument Valley

The weather around here at this time of the year appears to be very unpredictable. One moment we had rain, the next it stopped and then we saw some blue sky. As it cleared up a little bit we decided to go out on the valley road. Speed limit is 15mph and in some parts it is hard to drive that fast due to rocks and pot holes. In some places it is better, though. At first we had mixed feelings about Monument Valley. We could basically see two or three nice "butts" from the outlook by the visitor's center and it did not give the impression of being "that" interesting. As we drove into the park, we found it to be better and better. The weather also cleared up quite a bit as we drove in. That helped too. We stopped at a number of places to take pictures. In the valley there are some Indian dwellings. We took our time around the trail and let occasional cars and trucks pass us. The sign before we entered suggested you need a 4x4 to do this road. That could possibly be the case when the roads are really washed out. But people did it with regular rental cars. One guy even did it with a (rental) Mustang which does not exactly have all that much ground clearance. The loop road is something like 17 miles long. As you get deeper into the Canyon, you notice how silent it is when you turn off the truck.

	Part of the unmaintained road in Monument Valley

	The Sand Springs monument/butt.

When we returned back to the visitors center we turned off and went to a picnic area where we ate a late lunch. It tasted good. We also had a nice view from there. On nearby tables we could see several Indians and horses. It looked like they were waiting for a larger group of people to come, as two more horse trailers came (each with nearly 10 horses in them). We could hear a tape with tribal music playing aloud near us. Mood setting :-)

	Picnic lunch with a view

We drove out of the park and towards the main road. Just before you hit the main road there are a number of stands where they sell Indian hand craft. We stopped there and walked around. Per was looking for a belt buckle. He had looked before but could not make up his mind. We were now getting to the end of our vacation here in the southwest and chances were that we would not stop at that many Indian hand craft places after this. He walked around with the kids for a while, and finally found one he liked. It was a sterling buckle, done by a Navajo Silversmith. A one of a kind buckle. The prices were a bit high, but this is real hand craft and not something machine made.

	Per bought his belt buckle from this Navajo silversmith: Emmanual Gray. You can see it in his hands. Visit him if you are there. He has many nice things.

	Mexican Hat rock formation. A town nearby is named after this rock. It is on the way to Monument Valley from Moab.

We drove home after this. When we got to Moab we stopped at a famous restaurant (Grand Old Ranch House) and booked a table for 7pm and then drove home, where we cleaned ourselves up a little bit from the trip. We then got back down to eat a very nice dinner there. The house was built in 1896 and is now a restaurant that serves American and German food. We sat outside under a big tree with water mist around us to cool us down and water the plants. The kids liked it too even though the kid's menu was better (fancier) than most adult menus of regular restaurants. We then got back to the trailer. Lillemor and Per went outside, with the kids put to bed, to enjoy our last bottle of French Champagne and sugar biscuits. Very nice. It had survived being shaken around, heated and cooled, quite well. We bought it back in Nashua and it had been with us in the trailer all the way. It is almost full moon.

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