Monument Valley/Mesa Verde National Park - July 3, 2002

Today seemed like an awfully long day. I actually woke up early because it rained in the middle of the night, and then continued on and off until morning. There is an incredible amount of wind at 8200+ feet, which is the elevation of the North Rim Campground.

I actually left close to my target start time of 8 am. And made good time to Monument Valley, my one stop today. The scenery was beautiful - got to see the Vermillion Cliffs and some other rock formations on the Navajo Reservation. The Reservation is very large and extends up into Utah.

Monument Valley is in both Utah and Arizona. It is basically an area of some incredibly large and picturesque rock formations. I took the self-guided driving tour, a 17-mile loop on an unpaved road. The fastest I think I drove was about 30 mph.

Monument Valley was where it got hot today as well. The drove took about an hour and a half. Then I still had to get to Mesa Verde, where I am now.

So, I drive thru another part of the Navajo Reservation. In Utah. Two hours of some beautiful cliffs, gorges, and more rock formations. Eastern Utah is just beautiful.

NOTE: It is hard to wax poetic about rock formations, cliffs, gorges, dry river beds, and the like. Take my work for it, the scenery was beautiful in a desolate sort of way. San Diego does not have sand or rock that color. And definitely does not have any wind- or water- carved natural scenery to speak of.

I finally arrived at Mesa Verde about 8 and 1/2 hours after I left North Rim. Due to the potential fire hazard, some of the park is closed. Which makes it easy to figure out what to do.

Unlike the North Rim Campground, I was able to choose where I wanted to camp, as long as the site was unoccupied. At North Rim, I was assigned site #25. Here, I chose site #51. The showers here are free and are open 24 hours. At North Rim, showers were $1.25 for 6 minutes, and they were only open from 7 am to 8 pm.

Click on the picture, below, to see the larger version. A new window will display the larger picture.

Home | My Cats | My Travels | My Family | My Potpourri | My Guestbook | Contact Me