So 7 hours later, we arrived having seen just a tiny peek at what was around us, and knew it would be a cool place!
We left the Grand Canyon and headed towards the Navajo Nation. Once you leave the Grand Canyon area and get to the reservation, you almost instantly start seeing roadside stands of all shapes and sizes, selling crafts, jewelry etc. While much of it can be fairly similar from stand to stand, you can't tempt fate that the ONE you don't stop had might have had that perfect Christmas gift, accessory etc so stop at every single one we did! We did find some neat things, and some cool gifts for friends and family.
Just a short bit before Monument Valley is the Navajo National Monument, which we had read had some neat ruins that many people miss, so we stopped to check those out. You can only hike to an overlook without a ranger, and they only do tours on the weekend, so unfortunately we arrived a day early to get to walk all the way to the dwelling, but still very cool nonetheless! It was down in a great little valley, nestled into a beautiful bowl/cave in the side of a sheer rock face. It definitely got me excited for visiting more ruins!
We got to Monument Valley around sunset, so treated ourselves to dinner in a restaurant and tried homemade pork green chile with Navajo fry bread....pretty yummy and great to have a hot dinner you didn't have to cook in the cold! When we went to set up camp, the girl at the hotel said they had a "primitive" campground and told us how to get there. When they say primitive at Monument Valley, they aren't kidding....it was in a great spot with a beautiful morning view, but it sure was difficult to even figure out where the "sites" were supposed to be.
The next morning was absolutely beautiful, with clear blue skies....and a wind that surely would have given a penguin the shivers! So...more eating out. We are being very poor campers at this point, lol :o) Over breakfast, we hemmed and hawed a little about where to go next, and settled on Mesa Verde since I wanted to see more ruins, and I conveniently reminded Bryan that it was only Saturday, and still had until the following Sunday to be home!
The drive through Monument Valley is 17 miles, plus some side areas that you can only reach if on a guided tour. The road is pretty rough, and I wouldn't recommend taking a little car, though many people did. As you drive through, the formations are truly like monuments rising from the desert, definitely a beautiful place!
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