On our way out we had to retrace our route on Hwy 95 as the more direct route south via Hwy 261 toward Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, UT is not recommended for any overweight vehicles or towed trailers. This road includes 10%+ grades on narrow gravel roads with hairpin turns, switchbacks, and a steep drop to the valleys below on either side. We didn’t need to have any white-knuckle moments.
Sometime during the drive we received a text message from our house/pet sitter. Our home town Arlington, VA had had severe storms with 80 mph winds. Sixty percent of the city was without power, including our house, and expected to be so for several days. Esther was worried about her aquariums. Then another bad news message. We had large trees down in our backyard. We have 2 huge oaks towering above our house. Supposedly nothing major hit the house. Of course, we would be in a cell service black hole so we couldn’t call to get any details.
After 100 miles and about 3 hours of worrying we arrived at Gouldings Camp Park in Utah. It is located 4 miles from the entrance of Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. We spent part of the afternoon trying to find out more about Arlington and our house without much success.
Finally we gave up and decided to view the monuments as planned. After paying our $5 per person entrance fee to the Navajo Park, we headed down the 17-mile Valley Road. Actually, it is an extremely bumpy, washboard-heavy, unpaved dirt road that loops around the monuments. It is recommended only for high-clearance 4WD vehicles although we did see a few sedans attempting the drive. The Navajo have pickup truck tours if you don’t have a suitable vehicle. At each of the 11 viewpoints we got out to take pictures of the monuments. At several of them Navajo were selling silver and turquoise jewelry, dreamcatchers, other trinkets, and cold drinks. Several folks had horses on standby at various points for those willing to take a tour on horseback. That might be fun when it isn’t 100 degrees. We also saw a few Navajo homesteads between the monuments. That would be a difficult life.
The monuments are truly huge and supposedly change color from sunrise to noon to sunset. Using your imagination you can see different shapes such as an elephant, a thumb, mittens and a nun. Some were named accordingly by early settlers, others have names with Navajo significance. We learned the difference between mesas, buttes and spires and the different rock layers.
After dinner the boys swam in the indoor campground pool.
Once again Esther was the first awake in the early morning and tried to get some sunrise pictures of the monuments in the distance. She did see bats swooping and a local Blue Heeler Cattle dog accompanied her on her walk around the campground. The dog hung out at our campsite for a long while and got a cheesestick breakfast.
Finally we received word that the power was back on at our house and some pictures to show what appear to be only several huge oak limbs littering our yard and damaged fences. The large oak trees still seemed to be standing, hopefully.
A quick hike up the rocks around the campsite lead to a large hidden arch and some pretty scenery. When hitching up the camper Ethan discovered a tarantula hole with shed exoskeleton parts littering the entrance.
The Davids' Cross-Country Trip 