Road Tripping to Monument Valley

October 2,3,4 2010

We left Bluff Utah on the 2nd and started driving through moonscape landscapes! No wonder they used this area of the west to shoot so many science fiction films!  It is eerie and beautiful!

This formation is Mexican Hat.

The colors are muted, the textures

are amazing. Looks so totally unreal!

The background looked like an old lava flow.

All grays and blues, the foreground is sandstone formations in various hues of reds and blues.

The town of Mexican Hat probably became established because of this landmark!

Two Navajo/Dineh men

I love that Appaloosa!

The road less travelled!

Highway 163

You might remember this scene from Forrest Gump

when he was running cross country. This is where he stopped, turned around and went home.

It is named Monument Valley for a reason,

rock monuments everywhere. Those little "dots" at the base of the rock is a small Navajo neighborhood!

Homes!

We arrived at the Goulding RV Camp and set up the MotherShip. We had huge rocks like these all around us! Very nice campground complete with heated indoor pool, nice laundry and camp store!

We got up the next day and headed

to Monument Valley. $5.00 entrance fee.

You can choose to drive yourself around the valley or take one of the many Navajo Tours available.

We intended to drive ourselves. I have driven it 3 times in the past. But heavy rains this summer made the roads very rough and rutted.

Chuck laughed at this 15 mph sign!

Road was so bad, we were lucky if we could get

speed up to 10 mph!

We didn't quite make the 5 mile marker when we decided to turn around. No use ruining our front end.

But even within those first 5 miles, the scenery was amazing!

We planned on taking the Navajo Tours the next day, but it rained off and on all day.

We decided we didn't want to take an open vehicle tour through mud and rain either so we will come back next year!

Back up at the Visitors Center, I safely got a photo

of the formation known as "The Mittens". If you look closely at that light colored strip below, you will see a couple of cars and a tour bus on the road. You can click onto the photo to enlarge it.

Monument Valley, on the Utah/Arizona border

is one of my favorite places! I sincerely regret that we didn't get to tour it this year as planned.

Put this one on your bucket list!

This was a photograph I took in 1989! I happened to be camped there when an amazing lightning storm passed through! All I had was 3 rolls of slide film.

I grabbed the film and my tripod and used all 3 rolls but got one amazing shot! The slide scan was not good, but you can see the image at least! I should re-scan that slide... scanning technology has vastly improved since I scanned this image!

Happy Trails!  Geri and Chuck on the road with our "furkids" ScottyBoy and DoogieBowser

Meet Emmanuel Gray, Navajo Silversmith

October 4th, 2010

On Monday afternoon, Chuck and I decided to

check out some local Navajo (Dineh) artists.

As soon as we pulled in, we saw a sign telling us

there was silversmiths here.  I have a beautiful, old

sandcast bracelet with a huge piece of turquoise

in it.  I bought it at least 30+ years ago when I

was living in and exploring the American Southwest.

I was living in the back of my GMC pickup truck

in a slide in camper for almost 6 years!  I bought

this bracelet way back then! A few years after I bought it, I broke it... I mean I totally broke the

silver part of the bracelet near the top! Torn

all the way through! I'll spare you the long story!

At this intersection between Monument Valley and

Gouldings Utah is a small mall made up of artists.

As soon as I saw the silversmith sign, I asked Chuck

"wonder if they could fix my bracelet?" I have been

trying all this time to find someone who would be willing to attempt a repair. Delicate part was removing the turquoise which looked like

I may have cracked it also.  I first spoke to

Marjorie Gray, a silversmith in her own right.

She spoke confidently of her husbands skills and

told us to come back at 3pm.

Meet Emmanuel Gray. He created this beautiful

buffalo and feather necklace. His work

speaks volumes about how capable he is!

But sandcast?  An old art that you don't see much

of anymore. He was forthright and honest

from the beginning! Promising nothing, hoping

for everything to go right!

He called about 3 hours later..... turquoise out

safe and in one piece! Now to repair the silver!

He did it! He fixed my bracelet! He had it

all ready for me by 11 am the next morning!

In less than 24 hours he fixed what has taken me

almost 20 years to get fixed! My beautiful

antique sandcast silver and turquoise bracelet!

It was broken clear through where the arrow

is pointing! I wish I had a before and

an after photo!  It was a jagged rip through

the silver before Emmanuel fixed it!

Now it looks brand new!

If you or anyone you know needs some

silver repair work done, or if you just want to

order something special for somebody special, Emmanuel and Marjorie Gray are the

two folks I recommend highly!

Contact info:

PO Box 360228

Monument Valley UT 84536

(435) 727-3479

Thank you soooooo much Emmanuel! My bracelet

and I are getting used to each other again!

It is heavier than I remember and I this I

may have bent it out of shape a bit when I

slammed the truck hood down on it! But it

is repaired as good as new and we will become

good friends again!

Capitol Reef Utah

Capitol Reef Utah

September 29, 2010

Just a cute photo of DoogieBowser!

Capitol Reef is layers of colors

and visual texture everywhere!

Capitol Reef lies between Hanksville

and Torrey Utah on Highway 24.

Well maintained roads that were not

too crowded in late September.

Scenery is spectacular!

There are dirt roads to explore,

if you choose to do so!

There are so many layers of

colors to the Earthmother!

Click on to enlarge these two photos.

They will explain the how and why

of Capitol Reef!

Strange rock formations everywhere!

The rock walls dwarf the motor home

RV ahead of us on the road!

I think this formation was called

The Egyptian Temple

Roads were carved into the rock

More odd colors and shapes

This looks like an amphitheatre

The earth's upwelling is

obvious here

We love the roads less travelled!

There were petroglyphs

You might want to click to enlarge!

My honey's braid is getting long!

We hope you enjoyed the quick road trip

through Capitol Reef!

Happy Trails!

Geri, Chuck, Scotty and DoogieBowser

Grand Staircase_Escalante Monument Utah

September 27, 2010

Touring Escalante

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument extends over 1.9 million acres of sandstone canyons, plateaus, coloful cliffs, and unique rock formations.

It is named for the Escalante River Canyons and

for the Grand Staircase - a series of colorful cliffs

that extends north from the Colorado River at the Grand Canyon to Bryce Canyon.

The Monument protects world's treasures including artifacts of the Anasazi, as well as fossils, minerals, petrified wood and dinosaur bones! Escalante was once home to the 30 foot long duckbill hadrosaur!

The one found here , most of the skeleton was still intact and included the rare find of the fossilized skin. 

If time is limited,the best way to see all of this is to drive along Scenic Byway 12.

Personally, I would NEVER drive a big

motorhome or 5th wheel

or a pull behind travel trailer on this road!

Highway 12 is not only steep with 10% downhill grades,(and uphill too!) it is very narrow, extremely full of S curves and switchbacks.

Leave your RV in a campground!

We met a lot of people driving their RV's but we

were glad we didn't have The MotherShip

attached!

The road is treacherous but beautiful and should be enjoyed from your car! Also be aware there are cattle everywhere it is all open range, so drive slow and stay alert!

The road out of Torrey is beautiful!

Beautiful horse ranches along the way

                Huh?  Snowplow signs ???

Overlooks are beautiful! Today is

hazy due to control burn fires in the area.

Everytime Chuck and I get out of the truck,

Doogie Bowser and Scotty start barking

up a storm!  Chuck is trying to quiet them down.

You can tell from looking at Doogie...

it ain't workin' to good!

Aspens wearing autumn and canyon reservoir

Highway 12 meets autumn

We are very high up!

VERY high up! Steep drop off!

Easy to see the ancient sea beds...

Fossilized sand dunes

more beautiful horse farms...

more fossilized sand dunes

steep hills with rock walls

beautiful vistas...

Sometimes DoogieBowser acts as co-pilot

Sheer rock walls !

sharp curves...

eeeeeeeeekkkkkkk!

sometimes you meet rock trucks!

eeeeeekkkkkk!

This is just one of the rock overhang areas

we drove through.

Watch this road! You can see it wind around 2 "S" curves, but see that dark streak going diagonally UP the hill? Yep, that is the road!

Look to the far right and you will see a truck camper coming down this road! This is driving up a huge fossilized sand dune!

Beautiful!

curvy roads!

Beautiful red and white banded sandstone!

That red rock formation is Capitol Reef

On the way home, we ran into a cattle drive complete with cowboy and dog!  

 He was doing a great job too had the cattle
 headed towards the gate...


          
when these 2 idiots on a motorcycle (look under red arrow) decided they were in a hurry and plowed through all the cattle scaring the wits out of them!
They almost ran us over trying to get out of the way of the noisy motorcycle! They ran past the gate and we left that poor cowboy trying to round them all up again!
 
 

More cattle crossing the road!

You really need to be aware when driving on

open range roads that cattle have the right of way!

If you don't believe me, just ask this guy!

We hope you get to take this trip one day! Southern Utah is worth the time! Sadly we are leaving Torrey and the Thousand Lakes Campground! We could easily spend another week here! However we head out for Blanding Utah in a few hours! Journey on!

Ya'll keep in touch!

Happy Trails from Geri, Chuck, Scotty and

Doogie Bowser!