We drove the 45 miles from Bluff through a town called Mexican Hat :-) to get to Monument Valley. It was hard not to be in awe at the sights as we got closer - huge mesas and buttes rising from the canyon floor. We took a private tour that wove us through beautiful sights at every turn - lucky we didn't take the might Mitsubishi out there as the road was very rough.
From Monument Valley we headed north to Canyonlands National Park arriving early afternoon. The landscape is similar but there are many more rounded rock formations alongside the road. We drove to the end of the sealed road and were enjoying the scenery when the skies opened up. Many of the areas we still had to explore had large flat rock surfaces to walk across and one had ladders to climb down so we decided that we couldn't see more in this weather which was a shame. We continued the drive to Moab and checked in to our hotel. We are really close to the main street so we went for a walk and looked in the many shops - lots selling t-shirts! Our dinner spot for the night will be over the road at Frankie's Bar and Grill.