Tuesday 6th - Wednesday 7th October 2015

We arrived in Vegas, YAY, and it was raining...! Isn't this suppose to be the desert? We grabbed our car and hit the road to Flagstaff, it was a pretty long drive and nothing too exciting to see, we drove over the Hoover Dam which we will stop in on the way back.

Dad told me to make sure I don't get a room right next to the railway tracks, or at least next to a crossing because the last time we were there it went 'DING DING DING DING' throughout the night, although I don't actually remember that! We went past Kingman which is on the historical route 66, something I want to drive alone one day! We arrived at our little hotel/motel set up, and we were about 100 meters from the tracks, but not near the crossing as I did google map where the crossing were!

On the way in I found a sizzlers...I was so excited and said we had to go the following night as it is AMAZING, or from what I remember!!!

We drove out to Monument Valley which neither of us have done, it was pretty flat plains and then we hit these giant sandstone mountains rising up.

Before human existence, the Park was once a vast lowland basin. For hundreds of millions of years, materials that eroded from the early Rock Mountains deposited layer upon layer of sediments which cemented a slow and gentle uplift generated by ceaseless pressure from below the surface, elevating these horizontal strata quite uniformly one to three miles above sea level. What was once a basin became a plateau.

Natural forces of wind and water that eroded the land spent the last 50 million years cutting in to and peeling away at the surface of the plateau.

The simple wearing down of altering layers of soft and hard rock slowly revealed the natural wonders of Monument Valley today. From the visitor center, you see the world-famous panorama of the Mitten buttes and Merrick Butte.

Andrew was commenting that it looks nothing like the movies, but that soon changed when we reached the park borders. We headed inside and got ourselves a map as we had to drive round the route to see all the sights...! How exciting!! Its a 27 km dirt road, which I was a little nervous as it had been raining here and I didn't want to get the hire car stuck in anything like the whole Jasper fiasco! However there was smaller care going through so I thought we would be fine, and gave Andrew the reins for driving it!

It was a pretty epic drive! We stopped several times and took a thousand pictures! We saw the 'stereo typical' shot of Monument Valley which is in several films including Forest Gump! It was actually amazing seeing it! Was definitely worth the long drive across the border! I was just happy it had stopped raining and the sky cleared up to a blue bird day!!

We had an awesome day, stopping and exploring, taking pictures of the area! I'm glad I actually came here, something that my parents actually haven't done before me!! The weather was improving each minute and was getting pretty warm! I totally didn't realise how cold it got!!

We drove back to Flagstaff got home and went out to sizzlers!! It was a little different to what I remember but who can complain about getting a buffet dinner on the cheap?! YUMMY!!!