Saturday, 2nd October 2010
On the road from Cortez to Kayenta we took a detour to Goosenecks State Park to view one of the best examples of entrenched river meanders in the world. Returning to our route we stopped for 'digital moments' to capture the rock colours and formations. Our next stop was to be rather more of an adventure, at Monument Valley. Here we boarded a small 'bus', adapted to negotiate the roughly surfaced 17 mile route to view the various formations and to enjoy the 'delicacies' of a 'cookout' (otherwise known as a BBQ). After a similarly 'bumpy' return journey we continued on our way to Kayenta.
Four miles off Utah Highway 261 near Mexican Hat, you can look into a 1,000-foot-deep chasm carved by the silt-laden San Juan River. The river meanders back and forth, flowing for more than five miles while progressing only one linear mile toward the Colorado River and Lake Powell. This is recognised as one of the best examples of entrenched river meanders in the world.
Monument Valley is a Navajo Nation tribal park, straddling the border of north-eastern Arizona and south-eastern Utah of the Colorado Plateau. It preserves the Navajo way of life and some of the most striking and recognizable landscapes of sandstone buttes, mesas and spires in the entire Southwest. The area is entirely within the Navajo Indian Reservation near the small Indian town of Goulding, established in 1923 as a trading post, and now has a comprehensive range of visitor services.
Monument Valley has been featured in many forms of media since the 1930s.
Appearances include films, such as Clint Eastwood's movie 'The Eiger Sanction'
(Clint Eastwood and George Kennedy were filmed on top of the "Totem Pole"),
Westerns by director John Ford such as 'Stagecoach' and The Searchers, cartoons
such as 'Chip n' Dale's Rescue Rangers', Metallica's music video 'I Disappear'
and science fiction movies such as 'Back to the Future III'; television
appearances as in 'MacGyver' and 'Airwolf'; as well as DVD covers, book covers,
and video games such as the PlayStation 3 video game 'Motorstorm' and the NES
game 'Rad Racer II'. Most recently in the movie 'Cars' as "Ornament Valley".
The silt-laden river . . .
continues to cut . . .
deep bending chasms in this section known as . . .
The Great Goosenecks of the San Juan River
Zig-zag patterns form as the rock is eroded . . .
and more erosion creates peaks and valleys . . .
along our route
Mexican Hat . . .
and zooming in
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Arriving in Monument Valley . . .
we are met by John Wayne . . .
and some of the transport . . .
indicative of his time
The Mittens are the first formations . . .
that we stop to enjoy . . .
on our journey
through the park . . .
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and past the Three Sisters
An interesting formation . . .
is more like its name . . .
when the photo is rotated through 90 degrees
Petroglyphs seem to pop up everywhere
Our 'luxury' coach . . .
and a visit to watch some weaving . . .
shame we didn't see work on the weaving outside the Hogan
Female Hogan . . .
and a male Hogan (terms refer to the age of the design)
A group of riders . . .
pass at an opportune moment . . .
while we wait for our steaks to cook
Nothing like eating 'al fresco'!
Twilight changes the scene dramatically