Day 9 - Sunday, August 2 - Monument Valley

Today we headed into Monument Valley where we met our friends Bill and Celia. By luck, we crossed paths while they were on their way to Colorado. We all took a full day tour of Mystery Valley and Monument Valley with our Navajo Guide, David. Most areas of the Navajo reservation are off limits unless you are with a Navajo guide. Also, none of the areas that we visted had paved road and most were very sandy. Our four-wheel drive truck was the only was to get to these areas.

Mystery Valley is like being on the moon. Throughout the valley, strange rock formations rise from the red sand floor. Our guide stopped at some of the formations and let us climb to the top to take in the views.

We stopped at a quiet corner of the canyon where David barbequed lunch. After eating, we continued through Mystery Vally and then drove through Monument Valley. We got some beautiful pictures of the monuments.

Before heading to dinner, we all had to shower off a thin coat of fine red sand. During dinner we listening to the soothing music of a Navajo Fluteist.

After dark, the hotel projected the movie "Fort Apache" outside, onto the hotel courtyard wall. We enjoyed John Wayne, Henry Fonda, and Shirley Temple fight off the Indians in the beautiful Monument Valley. I forgot how corny those old westerns were.