Monument Valley

I am taking this trip somewhat out of sequence, but I can do that...

On June 28th, we headed east. We spent two nights in a row in the same place at the Lake Powell Resort in Page, Arizona. It's a good thing we did. Ryan got sick the day before. Spent the entire day throwing up...so we just did what we could to keep things normal. But this day, he woke up feeling fine and hungry, so we started out.

About 40 miles out of town, Denis had a moment of panic. He couldn't find his iPhone. Megan did a U-turn on the highway, thinking to go back to where we had last been, but I convinced her that we needed to stop and just look in the vehicle. We did. In a few short minutes, the phone was located and we could breathe a sigh of relief. Whew!

Our destination for the day was Cortez, Colorado, by way of Monument Valley. We were in dusty/dry conditions...on a Navajo reservation, where there were trailer homes and lots of abandoned vehicles in little patches of ground that were devoid of vegetation and shade. The only significance anywhere was the topography--stark and beautiful landscape.

Monument Valley is something you see in cartoon backgrounds (like Cars 2) and other desert scenes in movies. There is nothing--and then there is a large monument of stone sticking up out of nowhere. More than one. When you enter the park (reservation) you are told that there is an 11-mile road that you can take around the monuments, but it will take 1 1/2 hours because the road is rough. I think Meg wanted to go on the road tour, but I didn't think it was a good idea. We could see the formations quite well from the Navajo Center/Gift Shop.

There was wind. (There is always wind.) We sat on an overlook at the Center and looked at the valley. Soft Indian flute music was piped from the guest center. Otherwise, there was no sound. If ever there was a place to contemplate the meaning of life, this is it. I felt so very minuscule, surrounded by huge rock formations that came about over eons of Nature at work. I could have sat there for hours! If there is a soul on earth who doesn't believe in the existence of God, he/she needs to go to Monument Valley. I was transfixed.

As with almost every experience, there is a human side. Megan went to the restroom. As she was exiting the stall, there were five European men standing there! She freaked. She told them it was NOT okay for them to be there...etc. Not sure how much they understood, but she wasn't a happy camper! Then, as we were leaving the place, Robin became separated from us, so there was a mini-search launched. Thankfully, the lost was found fairly quickly and we moved on to our destination for the day: Cortez, Colorado.

Monument Valley was my most spiritual experience of the trip. It was as if I were part of an ancient experience. No wonder the Navajo treasure it so much!