Breakie was in the adjoining restaurant and was paid for by the hotel. Fatty food again, but hey ho! There was a cute guy in booth opposite me, probably going to or from the national park.

I set off north on the 160 and then the 163 to Monument Valley. This is actually in Utah and is on an indian reservation, so the fee was only $5. There was a German couple chatting to the guides when I arrived. I had wanted to take tour in their buses as the roads were all untarred & I was not keen on driving on them. However, a minimum of two people is required. I waited to see if the Germans wanted to take the tour, but they did not. I went into the gift shop and spotted the cute cute guy from breakfast.

I set off after cute guy along pretty rough roads. There were a few deep gully's, but they were not too bad. The sand was that wonderful fine reddish soil that gets into everything. There are plenty of places to stop and view the structures. On the second one, I arrived before cute guy and was just paying for my horse ride.... well not actually a ride. I paid $2 to sit on the horse and have my photo taken. Cute guy is actually Spanish, called Miguel and lives in Atlanta. He took my horsey photos & then I took his. He was flinging his arms & legs around as though he was actually riding & the horse owner was killing himself laughing.

It was so amazing to see these wonderful strange rock structures. I have seen them on all the old cowboy movies over the years. The soil is wonderful and the rocks are an amazing colour. There were few trees about and the wind was fairly strong. When we finished the route, cute guy & I had a coffee in the gift shop, chatted about our various trips and parted ways.

I drove to Flagstaff via the 163, the 160 and 89. Flagstaff is at a fairly high altitude and there was plenty of snow around. There are also forests around as well as a lot of building works going on in the outskirts of the city. I checked into the Quality Inn which advertises that its bonus is that its away from the railway lines. I went out walking & it was freezing cold. I had dinner at a Mexican restaurant near the hotel. I do not believe I have every had this before, but I won't be having it again - yuk! The tortillas had been deep fried! The beers were good though ;-)