Day thirteen: Bluff
Earlier start today. Although I nearly didn’t get my coffee. It was a DIY thing and we were taking our breakfast to sit outside our room in the sunshine. Graeme totalled the plastic coffee cup pushing the lid on too hard. Who knew he was so strong!
We had planned to visit Horseshoe Bend at sunset last night but gave it up in favour of the Navajo dinner. We went this morning instead. There is a steep uphill walk from the car park a few miles outside Page. There were lots of warnings: wear a hat (check), at least one bottle of water per person (check), no sandals (check), we were good to go. The reason for the warnings became clear as the path is fine sand with underlying rocks that can trip the unwary with no railings and open to the elements. After the up came a flat section with a shade shelter before the long winding downhill section to the overlook, there are no other amenities. The walk is worth the view. The Colorado river bends in a Horseshoe shape here and the overlook is at the base of the horseshoe. We took our photos, careful not to go near the steep drop, no fences here, and we’re just taking the mandatory selfie when great drops of rain fell. Of course our waterproofs were in the car. As it turned out there were several showers of a few minutes each so we got damp; with it being so warm we soon dried out. We saw a few lizards (geckos?) and a lot of people walking in both directions. Most were wearing shorts, except the Japanese who were covered head to foot in addition to hats, scarves, scarves over and under hats and masks.
We got fuel and left Page, and today we leave Arizona. Following the US98 south East we saw Navajo Mountain. Canyons gave way to sand dunes and sandstone outcrops, occasionally a green stretch, trees even, before it petered out again. The drive to Monument Valley was long but there is no direct route.
Monument Valley wasn’t quite what I expected. The iconic image is of buttes but in fact there are much larger formations and quite a few of these. It was also pretty busy. Part of the off-road route is one way and it’s all on a bone jarring, nausea-inducing dirt road. But the great views kept on coming. My favourite is called Artist’s Point. The valley is owned by the Navajo Nation so there is an entrance fee of $20; there are also numerous stalls scattered all over selling jewellery and dream catchers.
Near the village of Mexican Hat there was just that, a giant balancing rock looking like a Mexican villager, wearing a hat, sitting in the sun. We went off-road, another bone-jarring ride but worth the great view of the rock from the ‘front’ of the Mexican.
Goosenecks State Park was a detour off the route but it is a special place. The San Juan river meanders back and forth in its 1000 ft deep canyon and four of its flows, two away and two towards, can be seen at the same time. The path of the river can be tracked but only by canyon spotting as it winds its way through.
The Moki Dugway is a twisting, hairpin road, mostly unpaved (unimproved) gravel track that winds its way up the cliff face. In fact approaching the cliff it was hard to determine exactly where the road was. Graeme enjoyed himself enormously driving up the hairpins and fresh air bends. We turned off onto yet another unpaved gravel road towards Muley Twist Point. After about 5 miles the road ended at the cliff top. We walked to the edge, very carefully as we were now 2000ft above the San Juan river, and took some photos down across the plain and of the river. Then we wound our bumpy way back to and down the Moki Dugway, back past Goosenecks and on to Bluff.
After an early dinner I was ready for bed. Exhausted!
