There She Goes Again

I’m enjoying this trip but geez, the driving distances are huge!  We’re driving to Monument Valley when all of a sudden I see “The Wild West” off in the distance.  We’re still at least a half hour drive from MV but there it is.  And the sky isn’t even clear.  I’m not sure if that’s global warming or just schmutz blowing in from somewhere.  Someone told us it comes in from Los Angeles.  I’m not sure I buy that no matter how much cruddy air they have there.  We arrive at the Visitor Center and all around me I hear French.  Evidently the American SouthWest is the current French destination of choice.  In Page, Rick (the guy running the hotel) said the majority of their guests are from France.  Some travel writer wrote up his Dad’s hotel and they’ve been swamped ever since.

We did the self drive tour through Monument Valley.  One of the best things was seeing a man on a horse off to the side of one of the formations.  THAT was truly the quintessential Southwest image.  How did these things form?   I know they’re geological formations and all that but it’s just incredible.  There is so much nothing everywhere and then you’ve got these massive formations jutting out of the ground.  Really makes you feel insignificant when you realize that you will be long gone and they will still be here.  Thousands of years after I have looked at all of this they will still be standing.  Who knows if people will still be here but if the Earth hasn’t been destroyed I have no doubt all of this will remain and won’t look much different than it does now.

Next up, on our way to Cortez, we went to see the Mexican Hat.  It’s a rock formation that supposedly looks like a sombrero on a pile of rocks.  It was obvious which rock was supposed to be Mexican Hat but it didn’t really look like a sombrero.  What was even more amazing was how far we were from Monument Valley yet we could still make it out in the distance.  We had plenty of time left today so we decided to drive through the Valley of the Gods.  I thought it would look like Monument Valley but it doesn’t.  It is more rock formations and some of them are pretty interesting but they’re different.  Same, same, but different. 

My 10-year-old guide book said Muley Point is a must see so we headed that way.  Holy shit, what a drive.  We drove up one of the massive rock (are they rock?) formations on a twisty, curvy, tiny, scary road and then drove down a rutted dirt road to arrive at the end of the road overlooking more of the Colorado River (and more goosenecks).  It was beautiful and all that but I wouldn’t call it a must see.  A must drive if you’re into that crazy, unbelievable, could-die driving type stuff (it reminded me of that scary, dangerous, crazy road in New Zealand) but not all that stellar.  I think I’m quickly growing jaded after seeing so much natural beauty everywhere I look.  We’re not actually sure we ever found Muley Point but on the way out two cars passed us going the way we’d come so maybe that was it.  If it was, it wasn’t signposted.  Charlotte and I were a bit nervous about the drive down, after all it seemed like we came up really quickly and the road was skinny with no guardrails, but it turned out to not be a very big deal.   Thank goodness John is a confident driver!

Next up, Cortez and the wonderful Tomahawk Motel.  What a great place, it’s straight out of the 50’s and a real treat.  The woman who runs the place has two huge Great Danes and is from some Scandanavian country.  She sounds (and looks) exactly like one of my clients who is from Norway.  I wanted to ask her how she ever ended up in Cortez, Colorado but I know it’s going to be because she met some guy, blah blah blah.  After dropping our stuff we headed straight to Fiesta Mexicana for another round of yummy, yummy food.  I highly recommend Fiesta Mexicana if you’re ever near one.  The prairie dogs in the lawn outside the restaurant were really fun too.