Sept 30 Trip to Monument Valley

Sept 30 Trip to Monument Valley

Left Lake Powell Lodge and drove to Paige. Needed a battery for the camera so went to the Shopping Centre in town but forgot it was Sunday. Finally Marg M found out where  Walmart was and it was open.

Followed Highway 98 towards Kayenta. On our right was the Kaibito Plateau and the Morman Ridges rose above that. Reminded me a little of the hills as you cross the Nullabor. Many of the round hills are banded in  a similar way to those in the Bungle Bungles. Then we passed Square Butte and it was very similar to Chamber’s Pillar in the NT.

Visited the Navajo National Monument and all the way along the road leading in to the Monument, the Navajo people were out picking Pinyon Pines. They remove the seeds (pine nuts) and this is used to make eg. Pesto.

We passed through Kayenta and the Gouldings Lodge before making a right and heading up the hill to The View Hotel – our lodgings for 2 nights. We are on the third floor with a fantastic view across Monument Valley.  We booked on a sunset tour of the Valley  leaving at 5PM. Meesha Holliday, a Navajo woman, was our driver and guide. We first went down the steep road that was made for the John Wayne movie “Stagecoach”, then we went passed Merrick Butte, Elephant Butte, Three Sisters and John Ford’s point (lovely panorama). We then went into the restricted area and visited Totem Pole, Yei Bi Chei and Sun’s Eye before heading to the sunset viewing spot. Meesha then took us to a spot where we lay on the rock and looked up at the Eagle. While we were there, she sang to us, first in Navajo, then she sang “Colours of Wind”. It was also “Harvest Moon” so we stopped to take pictures of the moon.

When we arrived back, we went to dinner then when we arrived back at our room and looked out, there was the moon above the buttes.