After a lovely breakfast served outside on the lawn area at our motel (the owners are in the process of renovating) and a nice chat with the owner, we set out for Monument Valley, stopping first at the Natural Bridges National Park where we did a 14km loop with some amazing views of canyons with 3 natural rock bridges!
That done we headed south for quite a way before turning off to see the Gooseneck Canyons which were quite superb - deep canyons cut into the landscape, looping back on each turn, so that from the lookout we could about 5 loops!
Then it was on past Mexican Hat, which is a hat like rock balancing on a thin pillar, and then we came across signs which said the highway was reduced to 5kms of narrow gravel, with steep gradients and switchbacks! Quite surprising seeing that we were hooking along a state highway at 110kph. We quickly had our answer as the road plunged 1000 metres down a vertical cliff, with the narrow gravel road doubling back on itself with hairpin after hairpin bend! To pass an oncoming car meant waiting at a slightly wider bit of the track for the vehicle to come by!
The views from the various lookouts were incredible and then we were at the base and back on the highway again.
We passed into Indian reservation country again and immediately the horrible settlements returned dotting the incredible landscape of natural formations! After passing over a tributary of the Colorado River we entered Monument Valley and gawked at the amazing formations!
The drive up here was long and boring, but the views here made it all worthwhile.
Stopping at the Navajo Information centre we paid our $20 and headed out on the dirt road that circles some of the mighty rocks! Well, they said the road was a bit rough and that turned out to be the understatement of the century - it was bloody awful and it took all my concentration to get us around the 25km loop without damaging our tyres or some other part of the vehicle! What a nightmare - I could just see Dollar Car Rental exploding my credit card on recovery fees!
The views, what I saw of them, were fantastic, but it was a total relief to get back on the bitumen after an hour and half of dust and rocks! The long straight leaving the valley gave us the view that has been seen in so many movies.
We set out towards Flagstaff, which is back on Route 66, stopping at Kayenta for fuel and at last leaving the reservation and getting back into civilisation - the drive back was more boring than the way up!
There was another time zone change on the way - Arizona does not have daylight saving, so we gained an hour - and when we reached Flagstaff we decided to push on the remaining 50kms to Williams where we catch the Grand Canyon Train tomorrow.
Collected our tickets at the station on the way past and then found a motel where we will spend a couple of nights!
Our train leaves tomorrow at 9.15am and we get about 3 hrs at the Canyon before returning to Williams at 5.45pm.