Grand Canyon to Monument Valley

 

Today dawned cool and wet at the Grand Canyon, with very impaired visibility and a lousy forecast. So we decided to leave a day earlier than "planned", and head to Monument Valley (MV). On the way out of the Grand Canyon area, it was so foggy you couldn't tell there was a canyon there at all.

We got a nice site at Goulding's RV. It's a little family empire in the desert, in southern Utah just north of MV. It's in the midst of a huge Navaho reservation. MV has been the backdrop for a number of films, particularly John Ford westerns with John Wayne. Here's the view from our site:

 

No, we didn't run over the dog. He just liked laying there.

 

As I was setting up, Cathie found there was a tour leaving in a few minutes, so we decided to take it. 

First we toured a hogan and its summer kitchen:

Our driver and his mother inside the hogan

 

Then it was 4 hrs of back roads, amid these fantastic rock structures:

 

A little market way out here for souvenirs

I think this fellow poses for every tour. For a fee you can get your picture taken with him.

 

At one point dark clouds rolled in and the rain came down. Luckily the open tour vehicle had roll-down sides.

 

 

Then the skies cleared again, only a 20 minute rain. It sure did get muddy though - glad we weren't in our own vehicle. 

 

 

We stopped at some very clear petroglyphs (click on the pic to enlarge):

 

Rainwater was running down from the higher plateaus

A nice rainbow after the rain

We visited a large cave, a natural hogan:

Even a natural vent in the roof

A Navajo camp

Looks like a face and clenched hands, with a hawk perching

We didn't get back to the trailer until after 8pm, hungry but glad we took this wonderful tour. We're planning on heading to Mesa Verde Natl Park tomorrow morning, so won't be here very long. 

It was a really nice night, we were able to sit outside until after 10 pm (!) for the first time in a while, just down to 17C from the day's high of about 19C.