Monument Valley
Travels with Dave and Elaine Violette
Monument Valley UT - 8/21/2009
Author: David A. Violette, David@Violette.com
Keywords: Monument Valley, Utah, Arizona, rock formations, Dave and Elaine Violette
Description: Our stay last night was in a scenic area used in many western films - Monument Valley. The rock formations are astounding!
Some of the rocks we see along the route going north into Utah.
Our first stop was in Monument Valley UT, just over the Arizona line. The scenery around here is awesome, with some fascinating rock formations. Unfortunately our route does not go into the areas where the more dramatic spires are located; you have to take a tour to see those areas. But we do get a taste of what it might be like. I always enjoy the photos of Monument Valley we see once in a while in Arizona Highways. Our stay is only overnight, since we have to be on our way north. We stayed at Goulding's RV Park, where we stayed on our first night out on our first motorhome trip back in 2006.
More rock formations along the route
The view heading out from Goulding's RV Park.
We stayed at Goulding's Monument Valley RV Park, which is set among the red rocks in a canyon.
The drive up to Monument Valley was uneventful, though somewhat long. We got on the road at 10:00 AM from Phoenix and made good time all the way. We stopped in Flagstaff to top off the gas tank, taking advantage of our discount at Safeway, and to have lunch. We opted to buy sandwiches made in Safeway's deli since we had to get a couple of items there as well.
North out of Flagstaff on US 89 takes you through the Navajo Reservation. We have traveled this route many times, since it is our usual route going to and from WY. But this time we turn off onto SH 160 and into Tuba City. Took a wrong turn in Tuba City following the GPS instructions. I later figured out that the longitude/latitude I got from a mapping system I use were wrong and the GPS was taking us much further east than we should have been. I realized it fairly soon and we were only 15 miles out before we turned around.
We made Monument Valley a little later than our usual travel day end - around 6:00 PM. Turns out it was "later than you think" because we also changed time zones from Arizona time to Mountain Daylight Time. (Arizona does not use Daylight Savings Time so we are in the Mountain zone part of the year and Pacific zone the rest.) Our 6:00 PM quickly became 7:00 PM once I reset the clocks.
Goulding's in Monument Valley is a whole industry, including lodge, restaurant, stores, tours, RV park, and much more. Some day we will make a trip to Goulding's and stay there for a week just to take it all in. Check them out at the web link below.
While we have our Verizon broadband service to provide for Internet connection in most places the signal is very weak in this area; in fact, there is essentially no Verizon service anywhere in the Navajo Reservation. While we could get connected the speed was very, very slow. Fortunately, Goulding's has free wifi and we were able to use it. It was not fast but at least workable. Elaine had a really tough time trying to work her farms!