Today began with an early start – our sunrise tour of Monument valley started at 5:30 am. Our fingers crossed, we rolled out of bed at 4:30 AM and saw our payers answered. The expansive clouds that covered the entire horizon last night were gone! Our sunrise would be clear and blue skies.
We left Gouldings Lodge and headed to the View Hotel inside the Navajo reservation that sits in Monument Valley. There in the lobby we met up with our guide Orville a local Navajo Indian. Soon we headed out to the parking lot and loaded up into the tour van. I rode shotgun and Lauren rode in the back with our fellow tourees a familiy from the French countryside just north of Paris. After leaving the hotel lot we immediately turned on to an unpaved (and super rough) dirt road that would take us in the heart of Monument Valley.
After driving over dirt moguls for what seemed like an eternity the sunrise was getting very close. Just as we started to question whether or not we were going to make our destination in time we made it to a field overlooking the Totem Pole formation. We jumped out of the van and headed to the brick red field below. I setup my tripod in the soft, rust colored soil and and started shooting. The view was breathtaking. As the morning sun started to rise the colors of the sky went from midnight black, to orange, and crystal blue. The sun rose directly between two formations giving me an incredible shot of the sun peeking through the rocks.
Our group jumped in the van and backtracked through the valley and visited several other monuments including Indian Head, Sleeping Dragon, Three Sisters, Castle Rock, King on Throne, and many others. Along the way we learned about the Navajo culture and Orville’s family. His family is one of 14 that live in the Valley itself. Throughout the day we passed a handful of residences within the Valley. Talk about having a nice backyard view! Eventually we found ourselves at the end of our tour about 2.5 hours later. We talked with Orville for a few more minutes and learned that one of the mesas near the entrance of the park is called Grey Whisker and is name for his great grandfather.
Leaving the reservation we headed back to our hotel to pack up and checkout. We stopped by the local gas station and grabbed some supplies and hit the road. Traveling south we left Monument Valley behind and headed to the town Chinle, AZ the home of Canyon de Chelly a National Monument. The Canyon is the ancient home of several native cultures over the last 5,000 years. Once we arrived we decided to hike a trail called the White House Trail which took us down to the bottom of the Canyon. I packed my camera backpack and Lauren strapped on her Camel Back water system and we hit the trail. The way down was pretty easy going featuring at least a dozen switchbacks as it descended the 600 feet to the canyon floor. The views, and the sheer rock faces on either side of the path, were incredible.
After about 40 minutes we reached the bottom of the canyon to find a few Navajo homes, a scenic river, and some ancient cliff face ruins. We took some pics, a few sips of water, and began the ascent back up the trail. The going on the way up was quite a bit more difficult. Especially given that I over packed my camera bag and had 40 pounds on my back. We finally made it out of the canyon and completed our 1.5 mile trek after a total of 1.5 hours. Grabbing some quick sandwiches we continued to explore the canyon stopping at several scenic overlooks.
We needed to cut our tour short and get on the road to our next destination the Petrified Forrest National Park a short 90 minutes away. Then we hit the wall. The hike in the canyon coupled with our 4:00 AM rise was too much for us to handle. We resorted to driving in shifts so we could each grab a quick 20 minute nap. We arrived at the Park at about 2:30 PM thanks to an odd section of Arizona on Pacific Standard Time. Our first stop was a short, easy hike that followed a ridge giving us panoramic views of the Painted Desert. We then hit Blue Mesa and Newspaper Rock. Newspaper Rock was a fascinating slab of sandstone with black sides that featured hundreds upon hundreds of petroglyphs. Our final noteworthy destination in the park was Crystal Forrest featuring petrified logs with quartz and amethyst crystals growing inside their hollow cores.
At this point we almost had an interesting event. Lauren had been driving for quite some time leading up to the park and was now driving us out of the park. After refusing to stop for gas at the beginning of the park she was now staring at an almost empty tank with no gas station in sight. With only fumes left in the tank we had to continue on to Holbrook, AZ where we would be staying the night. Twenty nervous minutes later we arrived at Holbrook and filled our tank lesson learned.
Our overnight stay was at an, shall we say, interesting hotel. In another fit of childhood wishes come true Lauren had booked us at the Wigwam motel. Our room was all of about 200 square feet and featured a bed, a super small bathroom and shower, and a 20 inch TV. We caught the first half of the Bengals vs. Cowboys preseason game (holy crap Bengals, learn how to get some points plz) and then headed to dinner. A few hours later we are now retiring to bed early for another early morning – we have a 350+ mile trek to Las Cruces, NM ahead of us on our next leg.
-Justin
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