Kathy & Scott’s USA Tour in the Southwest

Monument Valley

From Texas, we made tracks for the Navajo Tribal Territory, via Amarillo. Our niece Cheryl and family found time in their busy schedule for us to stop for a brief visit. The style of thier home in Santa Fe is refreshingly different from what we New Englanders are familiar with. As we continued to our motel, the open spaces and distant clouds fed our eyes.

A short side trip brought us to the monument at Four Corners, where we took turns standing in New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona simultaneously. The monument has 4 rows of booths for Native American vendors, one row in each state. Then we made camp at Goulding’s resort in Monument Valley for two nights.

The temperature was pushing 100 each day, and the sand and rock held the heat so that after sunset it was still well over 90. For our first morning in Monument Valley, we visited the Monument Valley Tribal Park, which features buttes that are well known to lovers of classic Western films.

We hired a Navajo guide who gave us a customized tour in his truck one morning.

We chose the special backcountry tour, featuring several natural bridges. This is the roof of the “Big Hogan”.

Along the way, some of the viewpoints had vendors who helped us find gifts.

sunrise at our Gouldings camp site

After temperatures approaching and hitting 100 from the Smokies to the Navajo Reservation, it was refreshing to climb to the area of the Grand Canyon’s North Rim, where we stayed in a rustic cabin.

The Grand Canyon

Navajo Mountain and canyon country near the Colorado River

Page, Arizona

Our next destination was the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Having heard that all the camp sites had been booked months ago, we checked our AAA Tour Book and reserved for two nights at the Jacob Lake Inn, just north of the National Forest and Grand Canyon National Park. Kathy was delighted with the small, quaint cabin.

After a good night’s sleep, we made our way to the Grand Canyon, where morning rain made for a peek-a-boo view.

In the afternoon, the rain paused while we hiked for a couple of hours to viewpoints including Cape Final.

The next morning we were delighted to look out behind our cabin to see blue sky and 7 vultures in the trees.

Scott hiked down into the canyon, while Kathy chose a path on the level rim. Views were lovely.

We discovered that the nearby Forest Service campgrounds were available on a first come, first served basis, and we found a good camp site just outside the National Park. The price is much more affordable, enabling us to spend one more night in the cool climate at an altitude above 8000 feet. After lying down in our snug tent and sleeping bags, a rush of approaching rain sounded in the trees, accompanied by thunder. Soon it was raining with such huge drops we thought it could be hail. When the storm passed, it cleared up and the temperature went down to 45, quite a change from our previous camp site at Monument Valley.

Off the Beaten Path

Our next destination being California, we set out across Utah and the Nevada high desert. When we found Fredonia, we were reminded of the Marx Brothers’ “Duck Soup”.

Later that day we were intrigued by Joshua Trees.

We crossed Nevada, with its mountain ranges separated by wide valleys.
Much of the route across Nevada took us on open range, including State Route 375, which has the official designation “Extraterrestrial Highway”. The cows we saw crossing the highway were not UFOs.

the mining town of Tonopah