Days 40 to 42 - Monument Valley and Mesa Verde

We departed south out of Moab heading to Monument Valley, AZ, all two-lane roads, some with shoulders others without, I prefer the ones with shoulders. These roads pass through small towns, maybe just a cross street such at Monticello and Mexican Hat. We actually stopped to take a break in front of the Mexican Hat balancing rock. You are driving along, up and down the mesa’s and then you come to the Forest Gump hill, the one where he decided to stop running and go home. This iconic shot was on the long straight road with Monument Valley in the background, we knew we were getting close.

We booked into Goulding’s Lodge and Campground, this is sheltered between two large rock outcropping’s, it is very famous and has a long history. Harry Goulding and his wife Leone, nicknamed “Mike” started a trading post in the 1920’s after acquiring a large portion of the valley when the Paiute Indian Reservation decided to relocate. They conducted business with the local Navajo people, trading food and other goods for handcrafted items like rugs and jewelry. During the depression, Harry heard that Hollywood was scouting locations and believed that bringing movie production to Monument Valley would help the local Navajos with much-needed income. Harry and Mike went to Hollywood where they happed to meet director John Ford. He saw the photos of Monument Valley and knew he found the place to film his next movie, within a few days, John Ford and his crew were filming Stagecoach, staring John Wayne. Over the years, the Goulding’s continued to host movie crews, photographers, artists, and tourists. They built a lodge, campground and a dining facility to accommodate their guests. Their history and film history are chronicled in the Trading Post Museum, they even still have the cabin built for John Wayne while he filmed various movies in the valley. Interesting to tour, very rugged. We enjoyed visiting both, a step back in time. The campground reflected the long history, while adequate, it doesn’t appear to have been updated from bygone years. The Wi-Fi and phone accessibility were nonexistent, I had to go to the group common area to just make a phone call, forget about getting internet.

Monument Valley is not a national park, it is part of the Navajo Tribal Parks and is considered sacred by the Navajo Nation,

within whose reservation it lies. Part of the Colorado Plateau, with a cluster of sandstone buttes, the tallest reaching 1,000 feet high, that have been eroded and windswept over millions of years. The valley floor is largely siltstone, deposited by meandering rivers that carved the valley. The valley's vivid red color comes from iron oxide exposed in the weathered siltstone. The darker, blue-gray rocks in the valley get their color from manganese oxide. We toured the Navajo welcome center and gift shop, let’s just say the gift shop outshined the welcome center. The valley has a 17-mile loop road that take you past all the famous buttes, we drove down the very bumpy and spine jarring hill in to the valley and saw the first monuments, East and West Mitten. Pat and I looked at each other and said no way, we are not going to drive the very unkept and bumpy 17-mile road. Instead, we drove back to the Forest Gump hill and like all the other crazies parked, got out of the Jeep and took our picture in the middle of the road. We stopped at various locations to get photos of the local landscape and the Monuments from a distance. To me, they looked better from afar vs. up close and staring up at a rock formation. We had enough of the area and packed and set off to Mesa Verde a day early.

Our drive took us around Monument Valley, interesting to see some of the buttes from a different angle. Along the way we stopped at Four Corners, the spot in the US where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet. We, well me, stood in the Four Corners circle and had my picture taken, fun to say I went to four states in a matter of minutes! A novel time and we were able to pick up a couple of souvenirs from Navajo Indians. On to Mesa Verde.

Ancient Cedars Campground, just outside of the National Park entrance, was able to accommodate us arriving a day early, after another short drive, 150 miles, we were comfortabley settled near Cortez Colorado. Pat was able to replenish his McCallan Scotch and we picked up a very unhealthy KFC dinner. The next morning, we were up and going to hit the Visitor Center, very well done, in fact it was award the best new visitor center a few years ago.

Mesa Verde National Park was created in 1906 to preserve the archeological heritage of the Ancestorial Pueblo people, both atop the mesa and in their cliff dwellings. The park has over 4,500 archeological sites of which only 600 are cliff dwellings. Approximately AD 550, people living in the Four Corners area settled in the Mesa Verde area and for over 700 years lived and flourished on top of the Mesa and eventually building elaborate stone communities in the canyon walls. In the late 1200’s in the span of just two generations they left their

homes and moved away. No one is quite sure why, but they can tell that the area had experienced a severe and extended drought during that time period. They left behind these cliff dwellings, one of the largest being the Cliff Place that housed 200 people, we were fortunate to get a guided tour. You start at the top looking a long way down to the remnants of the dwellings that are 75% intact, the ranger then gave ‘the scare you to death speech’, those with heart conditions, lung conditions or are used to sea level, (the dwellings are at 7,000 feet) may want to reconsider the tour, you will need to climb down very narrow and uneven steps, traverse along narrow paths and after the tour you will need to climb 70 narrow steps and three ladders to exit. Oh, and if you can’t get out on your own, they will need to call for a full-on rescue to get you out. Not one of the groups bowed out but we did meet 2 folks at the bottom of the steps going down that were waiting for the ranger to unlock the gate as they were unable to exit the normal route. The dwellings were amazing, the ranger explained how each person functioned to the betterment of the group, all working to ensure the group survived. Some of the structures were 4 stories’ high. There are 21 Kiva’s, circular rooms for prayer, gathering and reflection. They were very advanced for their times and understood how to build the structures to gather the weeping water through the sandstone and force smoke out through the introduction of alternate airflow. They also plastered the outside of the dwellings in various colors such as red, yellow, green and white. After a very informative tour, yes, we made it out. Very proud of us for meeting the challenge. We spent the rest of the day visiting top side exhibits on how they lived at different times between AD 550 and 1200. Well worth the visit. Off to visit friends in Snowmass, a little golfing and fine dining.
Stats: 303 miles, 63 gals
Weather: upper 80’s, low 60’s at night, sunny, no rain
Photos: Balancing Mexican Hat, Goulding's RV and Museum, Monument Valley, Forest Gump Hill, Four Corners and Mesa Verde, Cliff Palace note the people in the upper left corner looking down, and Mesa habitat.