SouthWest USA - Part 4 Monument Valley

Friday 25th May was spent at Monument Valley. In the morning, 5.30am, we witnessed a spectacular sunrise from our balconies at the wonderful hotel, The View.

                                                                       The View Hotel

                                                               Sunrise over Monument Valley

                                                         
                                                             Monument Valley at Sunrise


                       After breakfast we did the Wildcat walk around the West Mitten Butte, spectacular.

                                                                West Mitten Butte

Will Cowboy, a native and local Navajo took us on a sunset drive around the valley. Like a classic movie star, Monument Valley has a face known around the world. Her fiery red spindles, sheer walled mesas and grand buttes have starred in films and commercials and have been featured in magazine ads and picture books.

                                                                       Camel Butte

This great valley is spellbinding. The landscape overwhelms, not just by its beauty, but also by its size. Monument Valley's epic beauty is heightened by the drab landscape surrounding it. One minute you're in the middle of sand, rocks and infinite sky, then suddenly you're transported to a fantasyland of crimson sandstone towers.

                                                              Totem Pole and Yei Bi Chei

The fragile pinnacles of the rock are surrounded by miles of mesas and buttes, shrubs, trees, and windblown sand all comprising the magnificent colors of the valley.

  

                                                         The Custodians of the Valley, The Navajo

SouthWest USA - Part 3 Page to Monument Valley

Thursday 24th May was our longest day on the road, 400ks. We were heading to Monument Valley via Page where we wanted to spend time in Antelope Canyon (See separate post).

On the way to Page we stopped at Cameron and had lunch at Cameron's Trading Post. This town, with no visible community, was in the middle of nowhere. However The Trading Post was enormous. It was big enough to provide entertainment and support for all the Indians at Custer's Last Stand. The Indians were successful once again, lunch was great.

 At Page, after (I) stuffed up our bookings, to fill in time before Antelope Canyon, we visited Horseshoe Bend, a wondrous example of nature's journey, and Glen Canyon Dam, an impressive American engineering feat. The dam, which straddles the Utah - Arizona border, is the custodian of the 186 mile Lake Powell with 1960 miles of empty shoreline set amid striking red rock formations, sharply cut canyons and dramatic desert scenery.

                                                                     Horseshoe Bend
                              The River wraps itself around a dramatic stone outcrop to form a perfect U.

               
                                                             The bridge to Lake Powell

 Lake Powell and Glenn Canyon Dam.

                          At 710 ft tall the dam is the USA's second highest dam, by 16ft, after Hoover Dam.

Antelope Canyon is hard to explain. Wind and water have carved sandstone into an astonishingly sensuous temple of nature where light and shadow play hide and seek. At 400 mtrs  long it's symphony of shapes and textures and a photographers dream. It was all that and more. I'm not sure about the photographs. 

                                                                       Antelope Canyon
                       Later that evening we arrived at Monument Valley to witness a spectacular sunset.

           
                                                                     Monument Valley