MONUMENT VALLEY

We awoke today to bright sunshine and near freezing temperatures. We were looking forward to breakfast because we had read about the great homemade food and espresso at the cafe across the street. We were in for even more of a treat than we expected.

Remember, we were in Bluff, Utah, population 320. The last thing we expected was GOOD food, GOOD espresso, fabulous local art work, comfy sofas and a reading library. The latte was a true work of art made from free trade beans.

We had a most amazing bowl of oatmeal with nuts and berries in it. Outside this whimsical sculpture welcomes people to the cafe.

Mind you, this is only ONE of at least three out of the ordinary, good places to eat in this town. The Twin Rocks Cafe, where we had dinner last night (featuring home made soups and Navajo Ash Bread) is located below the Twin Rocks at the north end of town.

This cafe is family owned and run and also sells local art work, jewelry and rugs. If you want to check their website, click here: www.twinrocks.com

Jim spotted a really breathtaking piece of art made from a 3' by 5' slab of local red sandstone superimposed with native figures cut from steel with a torch. Truly, if we could have gotten it home, we would love to have purchased it. Later we learned that our waiter was the artist. A very talented young man, and apparently only one of many in this village of artists and cooks.

Our goal for the day is Monument Valley and Vermilion Cliffs - starting our journey back westward. On our way out of town we stopped many times for roadside photos.



This was our first distance view of the Monument Valley area:

and here, closer:

Photos really don't do justice to the vast landscape of muted and varied tones.




Monument Valley is a Navajo Tribal Park. It has a 17 mile scenic drive on rough dirt roads (showing in the first photo below) and other, lesser roads, which can only be accessed with a guided tour. The scenes from the Visitor's Center are really good and we were getting a little worried about time, so saved the scenic drive for our next trip.


Our route today took us south on Highway 163 to Kayenta, Arizona, then southwest on Highway 160 for only a few miles, then northwest on Highway 98 to Page, Arizona, at the entryway to Lake Powell, then southwest on Highway 89 and 89A through the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument. There are no real roads into this National Monument - it is one vast remote wildlands preserved for generations to come. As its name sounds, there are cliffs and they are vermilion. And they are HUGE. When traveling next to them there is no way to photograph them and have it look like anything at all. We kept going and soon came to this lovely site of Navajo Mountain, a sacred peak of 10,463 feet which straddles the Arizona/Utah border.

From near Navajo Mountain one can hike a rugged 14 mile trail to Rainbow Bridge, the largest natural arch in the world. This one wouldn't do that hike in this season - too cold!


All of a sudden we came to the mighty Colorado River. I was so surprised to see people river rafting, but they were far below us where it was probably much warmer.


As we kept driving on this lonely highway, we climbed from the valley floor up the side opposite Vermilion Cliffs and finally got the right perspective to see these massive red rocks.

Our day has ended in Kanab, UT, apparently home of many Western movies. If we had more time we might check out the mock up western town they have here. However, we have reached the point in the trip where we are concerned about how many more miles there are to go before our flight leaves from Las Vegas day after tomorrow. Today seemed like an extremely long day in the car, but when I added it up it was only 247 miles. Tomorrow has no natural wonder objective so we will be pleasantly surprised by whatever comes our way.

Audrey