Monument Valley - Navajo Tribal Park

This blog entry is dedicated to all those in my life who are long time western lovers; many of the old John Wayne movies and westerns for TV were shot in this valley. Use your imagination as you look at these photographs. You can almost see the cowboys just behind the hill...

Yep, the cattle and sheep graze freely here.

This is the known as the "North Window" and was the opening or closing scene to many movies.

Harry and Mike had an idea to bring prosperity to the area in the '30's and the movie industry in Monument Valley was started.

This is the view from the front of the Gouldings Lodge.

These are some of the recent productions filmed at Monument Valley.

Howdy pardner... or whatever The Duke would say.

Valley of the Gods, Moki Dugway, and Natural Bridges National Monument

Not too far from our "home" here in Bluff, Utah (picture above is just outside of town) is an area called Valley of the Gods. It is not a state park or a national park or monument. It is just a 16 mile drive on fairly well maintained gravel roads. This is what we saw one morning last week when we took that drive. Notice that cattle roam freely here, too. These guys look like marching toy soldiers to me...

How about this for a mug...

The colors of the spring grasses add a beautiful contrast to the red earth.

This fellow looks like a choir boy to me...

After a couple of hours, it was time to leave the Valley of the Gods for the next part of our day. "Moki Dugway" - A Dugway is a trail along a hillside which is dug out to provide a path for transport. This particular path was dug in the 1950's to let haulers pass from zinc mines. It is a stretch of road that Anita would love... lots of switchbacks and no guardrails! You can see the Valley of the Gods in the distance.

Both of us always think of you, Anita, when we are going around curves on the mountainside...

When the road began to straighten a bit and we headed to lower elevation and Natural Bridges National Monument. This was the first of three bridges that we saw. Those are full grown trees that you see at the base of the canyon. This bridge is named "Sipapu" which means "place of emergence" in Hopi. It is believed that this was an entryway by which the Hopi ancestors came into this world. This one spans 268 feet and is 220 feet high. The next bridge is named Kachina because there are rock art symbols on the bridge that resemble kachina dolls.

It was difficult to photograph from the viewpoint and neither of us felt like walking the 3 miles to the canyon floor for a better view. We did walk to see the "Horse Collar Ruins" - ancestral home of the Pueblo people who lived there 1,300 years ago. It was a very cold and windy .6 mile walk. And still you could not get close enough to really see it well.

On to my favorite bridge, "Owachomo" spans 180 feet, is 106 feet high and is only 9 feet thick (and shrinking daily). I actually walked to the base of this one (Mike opted to stay in the warmth and comfort of the car as it had already been a long long day). This is the view from the lookout.

This is the view from halfway down. This is the view from the bottom of the trail. And this is the view from the bottom on the far side (where you see the boulders in the picture above.

It was an invigorating hike and well worth my time.

Overall, the day was a pure delight; although both of us agreed that we were on overload by the time we got home... there is just so much to see!

Four Corners

I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

It is something you have to do once.

I'm Not Bluffing!

For our tour of the far southeast corner of Idaho, we are basing out of Bluff and staying at Cadilac Ranch RV Park (reasonable prices and there is even a small pond stocked with fish.) This small town has an interesting history. Let me tell you about a man I met yesterday.

Mike was resting and checking out the pond, so I decided to take a walking tour of the town. Just a couple of blocks from the campground is the Bluff Fort. As I approached, it looked like many other historical areas with buildings restored and old stuff laying about. The visitor center was locked so I figured it was closed for the winter... that is until John Neilson appeared. Seems his sister normally runs the visitor center "but she hadta run to Salt Lake for a Doc appointment, so I'm fillin in." This gentleman unlocked the center and turned on the video all the while telling me about how he was "workin to restar onea da buildins".

In 1879, 240 Mormans left Salt Lake headed for Bluff to establish a Morman Settlement. They expected the trip would take them 6 weeks - it ended up taking them 6 months and makes for a very interesting story. The trail they took is now called the Hole in the Rock Trail. It covers some of the most challenging terrain known to man from rock cliffs of 1000 feet to mountain ranges that seemed to never end. They made the trip in covered wagons, at times blasting their path through solid rock with pic axes and dynamite. All 240 men, women, and children survived and Bluff was founded. These descendants are rebuilding and restoring so that their children's children will not forget this mission of faith.

I mentioned that John is a descendant. Actually, his great grandfather was one of the 240. At that time, his dad was with wife #1 - John is the child of wife #3. Old Les had all three of these wives at one time. "Ya kno da had poligame ata one time, doncha." Anyway, his great grandpa ended up with 10 children, served as the first bishop of this new found area, lived in the house across the street where John's sister now lives, and is buried "up on da hill".

This is the meetinghouse as it looked in the 1880's.

This is the house that great grandpa, the bishop, built and lived in and is now occupied by sister. This is one of the actual wagons that made the journey back in 1879.

John was an interesting man and his story even more interesting. Evidently, mormoms today travel The Hole In The Rock Trail and when all finished this facility will be a place where they can stay, a kind of retreat center.

True story - I'm not bluffing!

Canyon de Chelly National Monument

What an amazing place! Located in the northeast corner of Arizona is the Navajo Indian Reservation and a part of that area is a National Monument. Just a few blocks from the entrance is a FREE campground; there are no hookups but the sites are ok and it is certainly convenient. There are actually two canyons and the cliffs range from 200 to 1000 feet. To travel to the canyon floor, you need a native guide, but the drives on the north and south rims are open to the public and very well marked. We opted for the cliff drives and what sites we saw. I took well over 200 photographs.

This was the first of nine canyons we visited. On the floor of the canyon, the people who have lived here for many generations, still raise corn, peaches, and other crops. We were told that many of the families live in the canyon in the summer and move to the cliffs in the fall so that children may attend school and it is easier to get around. The canyons hold heat and are a very fertile growing land.

The canyons are fed by a river - the river actually formed the canyons thousands of years ago. In the canyons are many cliff dwellings that were constructed by "the ancients" and occupied in the 1200's and sometimes before that. All the cliff dwellings are located on the north side to make the most of the warming sun in the winter and as a protection from storms.

The picture below is of the 'White House In Between" named because of white on the rock. The pueblo below once was tall enough to merge with the ruins above. There were over 80 rooms and 4 kivas (meeting areas). It was a thriving farming village 800 years ago.

The goats roam freely around the canyons, as do the horses and sheep.

This is another one of the amazing canyons; both close up and from afar, they are amazing.

At each of the overlook areas, there were Navajo men and women, young and old, selling their handmade wares - jewelry, woven mats and rugs, and sand painting. This is the young artist from whom I bought a new piece for the motorhome (it looks good on the desk).And this is the canyon from which "my rock" was collected - he said it reminded him of an arrowhead and that is why he picked it to design.

This canyon is called Antelope Canyon because of the drawings on the canyon walls which are said to be done by a well known Navajo artist inthe 1830's. Look carfully and you will be ruins of the ancient village that occupied this canyon; there are several round kivas, meeting areas, and who knows how many rooms in this village. I think this particular picture of the canyon wall looks like a face...

This is the floor of the canyon, you can almost see the crops growing...

And this is the canyon from a distance.

The last picture is the of the most famous part of Canyon de Chelly - Spider Rock. The overlook is 1000 feet from the floor of the canyon, so you can tell how tall this rock is.

This place was beautiful - a must see, if you haven't been there!

A Welcome Surprise

We were in town doing some shopping this morning and suddenly Mike is saying "Hello Sandy". I look around and coming towards us is my nephew's wife. We visited for a bit and found out that their family was visiting her parents in Sedona for a week. Today was their wedding anniversary and she had just stopped in to pick up a card. I gave her my cell number and later in the afternoon, Jeff called to say they would be stopping by.

We spent a very pleasant hour talking about all kinds of things, including places to go and things to do in the area. And what a coincidence when we determined that the golf course we were on this week was the very one on which Sandy's parents live when they are in Arizona.

After they had left for their anniversary dinner, Mike and I agreed, it was a welcome surprise to see family. Thanks, Jeff and Sandy, for taking time to visit us.

IT'S SPRING!

We have spent the last week at our Western Horizons Resort along the Verde River south of Sedona, Arizona. All around us there are signs of spring.

One day we went exploring along the side "paths" looking for hidden treasure.

We drove through creek beds where there was evidence of spring rains (and it was only later that I realized I had also taken my picure).

And the Indian Paint Brush was blooming - a striking red against the desert colors.

We did find the cache, with the help of a kind couple on a 4-wheeler, and we heard the history of this once famous spot. It seems that this was a wayside station for travelers between Camp Verde and the camp at Prescott in the 1860's. Standing there you could almost feel what it was like for those early Arizona visitors on horseback and in wagons.

We took away a good memory and ... some Arizona Pinstripping, which did not make Mike real happy! Luckily, there is a product which cures this problem and the next day, he made them disappear.

One day we decided to go golfing near Sedona - you couldn't find a more scenic place to hit a few balls. It should be noted that on one hole, I did get on in 1, but then it took me 4 more to actually get it in the hole... what a game. This is a par 3 course in Oak Canyon.
The daffodils were blooming.

Trees were blooming. Oh yea, it is definitely Spring!

Another day, we decided to drive to "Cherry". Along highway 260, there is a sign that says, "Cherry 11 miles" and it points directly into the mountains... so how could be resist. We ended up at the top of the mountain and saw some beautiful scenery. This shows the road we took up the mountain.

These are the hills around Sedona from "our mountain" on the Cherry Road. You can see the road we were on in the foreground.

When we got to the top, there was a Prescott National Forest Campground that looked like it had been closed for some time. There were a handfull of houses and small ranches in the area and the road was suddenly wider and tarred. As we drove further, we started to go down the other side of the mountain, it was gravel again and the scenery was very different. It was a very interesting 14 mile drive.

Another day, Mike decided we should go explore the area northeast, towards Flagstaff. There is a lake in that area that looked to be pretty good size and he wanted to check it out. Besides we had never been to Happy Jack - sounds like someplace you should visit, doesn't it... Well, this large swamp is Lake Mund. There were signs to many smaller lakes, but the roads were closed due to spring melt and mud.

Hey Janet, this is a place you may want to work some day. It is the 4th smallest post office in the world and it is in Happy Jack, Arizona.

This motorhome driver must not have been thinking when he pulled off the road and into the spring mud! Sitting inside when we went by, he was no doubt waiting for a tow. Bet that was a bill $$$$ bill.

I don't know if this is a sign of spring, but it is a very familiar site in Arizona.This little fellow greeted us when we went in search of another cache. He was the best part of that adventure.

The finches are cleaning us out of seed on a regular basis. Their song is a true spring sign.
I enjoy trying to get the perfect picture of a finch on a branch - this is only one of dozens I have taken.

YES, it is definitely Spring!