The Pitts Stop

Utah – Monument Valley, Monticello

April 27:  Page, AZ to Monument Valley, UT

We sadly left Page today, but are looking forward to Utah.  The drive from Page to Kayenta consisted of long stretches of boring desert interspersed with dramatic cliffs.  Much of the drive takes us through the Navajo reservation, and we are getting good at spotting the octagon-shaped hogans on the Navajo home sites – many without electricity. 

Kayenta is a good-sized Navajo town with multiple fast food places, a shopping center, and lots of look-alike housing.  In the Kayenta Burger King is the museum devoted to the Navajo code-talkers.  We stopped just to see the museum and were deeply disappointed – just a couple of military uniforms and associated gear, and a few pictures. 

 The drive from Kayenta to Monument Valley is spectacular.  At one point, we reached the crest of a hill; the valley was spread out below us with two massive buttes on either side of the road, giving us the feeling of a gateway. 

Twenty miles further, we arrive at Gouldings Ranch – the only campground with hookups for 100 miles as it is a grandfathered oasis in Navajo lands.  Gouldings also has a restaurant and a motel.  The original owners of Gouldings were the first to market the area to Hollywood for making westerns, and John Wayne became a regular visitor at Gouldings while making his movies, such as Stagecoach and other westerns.  The campground is nestled into the Cliffside and they have planted gorgeous purple iris everywhere and we have fabulous views of Monument Valley National Park right below us. 

The weather is very iffy – lots of thunderstorms threatening all around, but it is supposed to be worse tomorrow, so we decide to drive down to the park before the heavy rain and storms begin.  We first stopped at the visitor center and then drove the 17 mile dirt road loop through the park.  The mix of sun and thunderclouds on the red sandstone monuments were dramatic and we got some terrific pictures, but the weather rapidly deteriorated and solid clouds don’t make good pictures.  Back at our campground, the sun peeked out right at sunset, illuminating first one monument and then another.  We obtained some of our best pictures – all the RVers were out of their campers admiring the stunning scenery.

April 28:  Monument Valley, UT to Canyon de Chelly

As expected, the weather is not looking good – overcast and threatening rain.  We decide to take a chance and drive south to Canyon De Chelly.  Jack now has the cold and is feeling lousy, the temps are only in the 40s and it’s very windy.  We probably should have stayed in and relaxed, but we pushed on. 

Canyon de Chelly is a large grouping of cliff dwellings in relatively small canyons with streams and farmland in the valleys below.  It was pretty and we enjoyed looking at the green valleys as a change from the desert and rocks, but we didn’t appreciate it as much as we could have had the weather and Jack’s cold been better.  The most famous ruins here are called the White House Ruins and are the only ones accessible, but Jack just wasn’t up to the 600 foot descent into the ruins and the 600 ascent back out, so we skipped it.  We were able to view many of the ruins from the South and North rim drives, including Spider Rock where the Navajos believe Spider Woman lives and keeps the bones of victims and Mummy Cave where preserved bodies were found. 

One interesting aspect of our drive through this part of Navajo country to and from Canyon de Chelly were all the horses – most grazing untethered near the home, but usually outside the fence on the road’s edge!  We were glad to see the horses didn’t seem to want to cross the road as no one slowed down at all when one was loose alongside the road.  Back at Gouldings campground, the sun again did its magic by coming out just at sunset and casting the most beautiful glow across the monuments.  More pictures.

April 29:  Monument Valley, UT to Monticello, UT

Today we continued north through Monument Valley Park and enjoyed the incredible buttes, spires and rock formations, but we found few places where we could maneuver the large RV off the road to take pictures.  We did see one RVer with a video camera mounted on his dashboard – could be a little bumpy, but that may be the only way to get good pictures out here short of renting a helicopter.  We drove through the town of Mexican Hat and were able to get pictures of the famous rock that gave the town its name. 

A few miles further north, we saws signs for a state park called Goosenecks.  It sounded interesting, so we parked the RV, disconnected the car and drove to Gooseneck Park where the San Juan River makes five gooseneck turns, one right after another.

Driving further into the park, we drove up to Muley Point Overlook via the Moki Dugway – a windy, twisting road up the side of the mesa and then down a dirt road to the overlook.  This was one of the scariest roads we’ve ever traveled – no guardrails and very narrow gravel road with loads of switchbacks to negotiate the 11% grade for three miles, ascending 1200 feet.  The views of Shiprock and Monument Valley were great.   

We returned to the RV, had lunch and continued north through Bluff and Blanding to Monticello.  The campground was inexpensive, but no internet and not much to the town, but I was planning on just using it as a base to explore the southern end of Capitol Reef Park to our north and Mesa Verde to our southeast.  We stopped at the visitor center and the library to check email and did a little grocery shopping at a very small store.

April 30:  Monticello, UT

We got up early and drove down to Four Corners, where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado meet. 

We got pictures of Jack straddling all four states and checked out the Native American artisans and their work.  Some amazing artists were demonstrating their crafts and Jack bought a painted rock. 

We then drove on to Mesa Verde and we thoroughly enjoyed the ruins. 

A terrible forest fire wiped out the trees on the northeast entrance into Mesa Verde.  Mesa Verde peoples were farmers that lived more than 700 years in the area beginning 1400 years ago. 

On our return to the campground at Monument Valley, we stopped at a Denny’s in Cortez, CO for a surprisingly good and inexpensive turkey dinner.  We didn’t get back until 8:30 pm – it was a very long day.  The weather is threatening rain again and is drizzling sporadically.  The drive down to Four Corners via the Navajo and Ute reservations was strikingly different than the ride home through farmland in Colorado and Utah.

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