Monument Valley

Jane Reporting for 9th October

Today (9th October) was all about Monument Valley.  We left Tuba City after a Very Good Breakfast (porridge for Jane and Gary) and headed off toward our next stop, the View Hotel in Monument Valley.

On the Drive
Apart from a couple of stops (one something of a failure as the park was closed due to the National Park closures) we just drove and drove and drove, pulling over when we could to take photos.

Rocks in Monument Valley

At one of the stops Gary announced he could see a 'burrito'.  Even with my glasses I can't see as well at distance as Gary can so I checked his pronouncement by taking photos at full zoom and peering at the dispay.  Sure enough there was a black, white-nosed burro grazing in the dry water course.

While we were sitting there a white and grey patched burro joined the first one and then I realised there really was a 'burrito' curled up beside where they were grazing.

I have a lot of photos (as you can imagine) but this is one of the best.  (You just must click on the following photo it make it bigger because the baby burro is just so cute!)

Burros!

Lyn visits lots of these roadside stalls, and this one was more rustic looking than usual:

Roadside stalls

As the day progressed clouds came over which did dull the colours a little, and made distance shots hazy.  As well as that the wind was roaring across the open land and walking into it was a fairly gritty experience.

Rock formations

At the turn off to the hotel we stopped at a visitor centre that included a series of shops selling locally made jewellery and arts and crafts.

The best of all worlds for Lyn; scenery and shopping

Inside the visitor centre were information boards explaining how the trading post owners, the Gouldings, approached the Hollywood director John Ford with the suggestion the Monument Valley would make an ideal movie location.  Ford was so impressed that his next movie, Stagecoach (filmed in 1938 and released in 1939), was filmed there.  The movie starred a young John Wayne.

John Wayne mural in the visitor centre

The View Hotel
And then we reached the hotel.  What a marvellous spot and it has been set into the landscape as much as possible.

Hotel room

Lovely rooms, all with a balcony overlooking the desert and buttes.
 

Gary leaning on the balcony

Ready to write the blog

Night Shots
Gary came home from dinner and wanted to take a photo of the cars still coming back along the very rough desert tracks out to canyons and view points.  We had been watching the cars come and go along the tracks while having a drink on the balcony, and then seeing them come home with their lights on in the twilight as we had dinner.

By the time Gary was taking photos it was almost dark and his camera had trouble with the low light so I set my little camera to a 'night shot' setting and this is the result:

The last cars making their way home

State Quarters
This one I rotated so that the top of the bridge was horizontal but that now looks like it might have been a mistake.  The bridge is steel arch bridge over the New River Gorge, near Fayetteville, and was opened in 1977.  (Thanks, as usual, to Mr Wikipedia's entry on the subject.)

West Virginia