Our last day in Moab dawned overcast and windy. It looked like it was going to snow. We packed up the car and stopped at the Jailhouse Cafe for breakfast.
This cafe was build in the old county jail, (or so it says on the back of the menu), and features really great, thick bacon. Of the four places we ate in Moab, only one was disappointing (the Moab Diner).
Our plan for today was to drive to Monument Valley, in Arizona, drive through the valley, and sleep in Kayenta, Arizona, where Tony Hillerman’s Joe Leaphorn was stationed. As soon as we left Moab, the weather got worse. It was snowing at times, and really windy. But, it was warm in our car, and the blowing snow outside lent atmosphere to the audio book we were listening to, Dead Bones, a book about the Donner party starving to death in the snow.
When we got near Monument Valley, we noticed several cars pulled over to the side of the road, with the passengers standing right in the middle of the highway taking videos. To avoid running them over, we pulled off into a turnout, with a sign that said Forest Gump Hill.
We watched as a Japanese couple took turns taking videos and pictures running down the center line of the road. Several other cars also stopped and did the same thing. Finally, Kathy and I figured, “Why not?”, and took our own picture. We’re still trying to figure out what that was all about.
When we actually got to Monument Valley we were disappointed. It was so windy that the dust made the landscape look like one of those sand storms in The Mummy. (Full disclosure: I didn’t want to get out of the car to take a picture, so I just Googled “Arizona Dust Storm”, and used this picture from Forbes.)
We checked our weather app and it showed the wind would die down in the morning, so we decided to press on to Kayenta, and to come back in the morning. We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Kayenta and ate dinner in the restaurant (Navajo tacos for Kathy and a sheepherder’s sandwich on fry bread for me. It was pretty good, but I forgot the pictures.)
One thing I’ve noticed is that the Wi-fi in the more upscale hotels we visited (Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn) is always unsecured, which makes me nervous. The mom-and-pop motels seemed to have a better setup.
In the morning, we got up early (breakfast at 6:00 am) planning to visit the park and then swing back afterwards, shower, and check out at 11:00 am. Kathy must have had a premonition, though, because she insisted we pack up the car when we left, in the event we wanted to spend more time in the park.
As it turns out, she was right (as usual). We got on the highway to go back to the park, which is about 20 miles from Kayenta. After about 45 minutes, we hadn’t yet reached the park and hadn’t seen any road signs for Monument Valley. We pulled over. I couldn’t get any service on my phone, but Kathy’s connected, and showed that we had taken the wrong road, and were on our way to Colorado.
We retraced out steps back to Kayenta, turned onto the right road (163 instead of 160), and got to the park around 9:00 AM. The park is run by the Navajo Nation, not the state or National parks service. Our guidebook said that tickets were $20 per car, but since the pandemic they have started charging $8 per person, which saved us four dollars.
You are allowed to drive the 17-mile Valley Drive on an occasionally rough dirt-and-gravel road in your own car. You cannot get out and hike, and RVs and motorcycles are not permitted. If you want to go off the main road, you have to hire a guide, of which there are many.
There are plenty of pull offs along the way, where you can get out and snap a picture or two. At John Ford point, there is a trailer with food. We lined up with several others for fresh Navajo fry bread with sugar and cinnamon, while we sat in some chairs and looked out over the valley.
The Valley Drive goes right down among the mesas and buttes. This is Rain God Mesa.
Near the end of the drive, there is a high overlook at Code Talkers Point, where you can look north over the valley.
We didn’t finish the drive until nearly noon. Since we still had our hotel keys in our pockets, Kathy called the hotel to let them know we’d drop the keys off when we came back through town.
Rather than driving straight home, we decided to stop half-way at Lake Havasu City. Driving through the afternoon, we finished our audio book and started a new Jack Reacher story. (Since I check these out from the library, the only ones that are ever available are the less popular titles).
We reached Lake Havasu around 6:30 pm and checked into the London Bridge Holiday Inn. We were both knackered, but we pulled together our last reservoirs and walked across the bridge and snapped a few pictures.
It’s Spring Break here and so every hotel room in town is full. In hindsight, perhaps we should have stayed in Siegelman, where we stopped at the Road Kill Cafe for dinner, instead.
Walking back over the bridge, we got a picture of one last sunset. Today, we’ll be back home!
