Monument Valley

August 19

We decided to take a tour into the valley because it is on the Navajo Reservation and you are only allowed to go in so far.  Last night we took a walk around the park.  We counted 30 rental RV's.  Later Bruce talked to the office girls and they told him there are only 10% Americans here.  Europeans fly into LA and rent an RV.  They have a circuit that they follow and Monument Valley is on it.  It gets kind of wild around 4:00 when they start piling in.  When we got on our tour there were only us and another couple from West Virginia and 14 people from Italy.  They were very polite but the guy in front of me had a deodorant problem.

 

This is our tour bus.  No windows and Bruce didn't fit in the seats.  We made it work.



The tour bus drivers are all Navajo.  They no 2 speeds, fast and stop.

They name all the rocks these are the mittens

This a traditional Navajo Hogan or house.

 

The inside is constructed of either Juniper or Cedar logs

When you enter the hogan you must go to the left and shake every one's hand and then you can sit down.

They call this one the 3 Sisters

This is JOHN FORD POINT.  It was his favorite place in the valley.

There are about 300 Navajos who live in the valley.  Some live in hogans and others have small homes.  The kids go to boarding school.  Even Navajo kids like basketball.

These are petroglyphs from the Anasazi people.

 

These are called the totems.  Scenes fron the Eiger Sanction were filmed on the top of the tall one.

Falling rock?

The cube

 Now if you remember our tour bus was open.  Red rock makes red dust.  They drive like maniacs.  We were covered in red dust when we got back.  I couldn't get a brush through my hair and I am sure glad no one got car sick because there were no car sick bags.  The water turned red when we took showers.  We cleaned up and headed north to the little town of Mexican Hat.

These are rocks from that area

Disney again

We headed back to camp and waited for the 4:00 herd.  We took Ziggy out about 9:00 and there were 2 rent-mes behind us waiting for another.  They were all out looking at the Big Bear.  They were from France.  We seemed to be one of the sights just like one of the monuments.