Monument Valley
The buttes and monoliths assault your senses as you go down the Moki Dugway that begins the Monument Valley area descending from the flatter, higher area into another level of wide open.
As it is April, there is some green on the ground to contrast the beautiful red sandstone. We had to stop a few times on the Moki just to ‘ah’ a couple times and take in the expansiveness of this land. The Moki actually is in Utah but so close to the border of Arizona.
We had decided to press and get to Gouldings at Monument Valley Campground. As we drove in, the quantity, size and unique shape of the monoliths increased. We finally came to the Forest Gump scene where he runs into Monument Valley. We had to stop on the highway as people were trying to get that Forest Gump shot from the middle of the road.
We can highly recommend Gouldings Complex as it is tucked in between the sheer canyon walls for the up close experience to the beautiful red sandstone making it a bit less exposed, although the wind can howl though pretty well which it did – good day for laundry.
Goulding offered tours into the valley right from the RV Campground and Lodging, so I thought this was my chance to have a sunrise tour without having to get John on the move at this early hour.
It was a bit on the cloudy side, but there was some peek through as the sun rose and I experienced the praying hands bringing in the new day. There is a Navajo Visitors center at the top where tours are offered from the little blue kiosk in the parking lot or if you have a 4 X 4 vehicle and the where with all, you may be able to drive yourself.
It was very peaceful in the valley as this is sunrise is not a popular time and Michelle our guide explained many aspects of Navajo life.
The tragedy of people being slaughtered by the government, and finally being placed on reservations. The religious powers coming in with money and exercising power over people. She likened it to what’s happening today with evangelists putting Trump in power even though so much of what he does is blatantly against their own religious principles. Michelle called a collection of three monoliths the three sisters Squash, Beans and Corn, but subsequent tours note them as nuns. She definitely had a negativity about the religions changing the old ways of the Navajo Nations.
The Chicago born Pope just announced that he will not come to the US this year; he has been threatened to keep quiet about his politically contradictory statement about the Trump administration. Just imagine if the Pope was threatened, and all of the others who must have been also-back to the beauty.
Henry Goulding came to Monument Valley in the turn of the century, returning many times in admiration of the valley. He bought Navajo items to sell back in California. He eventually very amiably set up a trading post on Navajo Land which expanded the market of the woven rugs and pottery. His wife Leona or most commonly nicknamed “Mike” had connections in the Hollywood. Westerns were big at the time, and she was the one who brought the movie industry to the area. John Wayne, Henry Fonda and many other famous actors and actresses made movies like Stage Coach and the Searchers. They brought money to Monument Valley without the influence of the religious groups.
They built the Goulding Lodge, Grocery Store and other facilities. The museum is the homestead of the Goulding family and had many interesting items about the building of the Goulding economy to the area. Evidently his two sons took over when Henry passed away, and they most recently sold everything back to the Navajo Nation. We were very impressed with the overall excellent condition of the campground from the info sheet that had every bit of info on it in such a perfectly organized way, to the new signs post that directed you how to hike up to a really cool arch or to the lodge, find tours, phone numbers for places. The laundry and shower facilities were excellent and nice to have a store right there at the campground. There appears to be a sense of pride in the area.
Back to the beautiful sunrise with Michelle driving us through the area naming the different monoliths where we stopped. The peacefulness of the morning when we stopped and got out to walk and hear about her great great grandfather being buried at one of the monuments.
Later that same day we had scheduled a sunset Tour in advance through Trip Advisor. This time we needed to drive up to the Navajo visitors center, paying $10 per person to join our tour at the upscale View Hotel. The View Hotel, Restaurant and Store shared the same parking lot where the 4 X 4 roads began and the many tour companies started their tours. We decided to have lunch at the restaurant, but it was closed because and would not open until dinner. But, the snack bar with delicious soup was available and the winds had subsided and the outside on the patio was perfect to look out over Monument Valley.
We decided to take a nap and were awaken by a phone call wondering if we were coming to our tour. Navajo nation is not on Arizona time so it was an hour earlier than what out clocks indicated. We got ready in 5 minutes and they picked us up in the parking lot – talk about service. Make sure always to know which time to use. The tours in Page or the slot canyons do Phoenix time – check the World clock because my ATT refuses to change even though I have powered off and on several times. John’s Verizon has changed.
If you were into horses, you could have even gotten your picture taken out along a cliff. I guess seeing a real live horse in the setting is so western.
The highlight of the sunset tour was stories and the haunting flute that Larry played in the echoing cave where we had stopped.
As far as sunset, we got one, which for most of the day was questionable because of the clouds. The monoliths of John Wayne’s Boot.
When taken from a slightly different angle tire into a sore thumb.
But as the day ended the blue sky poked through and the colors on the monoliths were orangey hues. Shadows were cast at many places. This tour was from a covered truck with seatbelts as sections of the road were very rough.
On this same day we did the Canyon Hike to an Arch right from our campground which was lovely and then decided to visit the Goulding Museum near the lodge. It was really well done and John was quite surprised to discover that the Navajo Code Talkers supported the Bougainville Campaign in Solomon Islands where his Uncle Walt had been stationed in WWII.
It was a busy day with two tours, a hike, and a museum visit all in one day !! John loved his beef stew on the first night at the Lodge Restaurant and his chicken fried steak at the View Restaurant. Both restaurants get food out quickly, and there are lots of staff around bussing tables, taking orders electronically, and then servers bringing out the meals. Navajo fried bread is popular, but I really feel like it needs to be hot like right from the fryer and that is difficult in such a bustling place. The view at the View Restaurant was outstanding, especially if you take your food out to the patio to have the expansive view of Monument Valley from on high.
There is a KOA which is really exposed, and there are a few other options including a parking lot style RV area within the confines of the Visitor Center area. Not sure about making reservations here but it certainly had the best view of Monument Valley.
Slot Canyons
After visiting Leprechaun Slot Canyon and Jenny Canyon in 2022, the lure of all those beautiful photos from the Antelope Canyon was calling. Many content creators complained about the Upper and Lower Canyons being so crowded with hundreds of tourists passing through each day. These two famous canyons parking areas are only 1.5 miles apart making traveling to the tour easy, but it is quite a herding operation in both. I found the Mystical Canyon on-line as a place where you could camp or rent a teepee for the night. Since we were driving in from Monument Valley, I booked a 2pm tour which was about 10 miles before Page where Upper and Lower tours were located. We got there early and they were able to accommodate us ASAP as we drove for several miles on sand wash roads in our guide’s Suburban which was quite comfortable. Having the sun high in the sky produces the beautiful colors and at this time we did not know about the “Vibrant” setting on the Iphone.
Mystical Antelope Canyon
We had a private tour with Joe through this part of the Antelope Canyon for about 1 hour as we walked through the ¼ mile long canyon. You can’t own land on the Navajo reservation, but you apply for a 70 year lease that can be passed down the generations.
Canyon tours require the heavy duty metal stairs because when the flash flood comes, water goes through washing sand and debris further down the canyon.
The twisted shapes and colors that are let in by the light were beautiful in the natural standard setting, not the “vibrant” setting.
Joe even showed us an old rope where people would have to climb up and down back in the day. It was so cool having this ¼ mile of canyon all to ourselves.
Joe also showed us the many plants that were used from making tea, to cleaners for washing, to preventing thirst, and for food as we walked back on top of the canyon walls.
He also talked about how many people are welders in the area, and one could see the extensive heavy duty metal staircase, ladders and railings that are needed to make the tour safe.
Lower Antelope Canyon
We got a primo time for the tour as the sun was high at noon making the colors come alive. We were also instructed by our pick up guide to turn our phones to “vibrant” style and keep cleaning the lens. This was particularly important because we were experiencing this on a very, very windy day. Not a bad place for the cross winds, but sand sometimes was blown in and would come down in dust and sometimes sprinkles. Taking videos are forbidden in the Lover and Upper Canyons so a slide show must do. We got very few shots of the entire canyon from top to bottom because it was pretty full of people, but the colors just looking at the walls were incredible.
Some of my photos were pretty unreal as far as coloring goes, and I mean unreal because we never saw those pinks and purples.
But wow, I love textures. The “vibrant” style setting on my I phone was super charged or something because I have two photos taken within a minute of each other and the one has the more typical vibrant red-orange.
The same shot taken one minute apart, but noticed the difference in color. Both were taken with vibrant because I didn’t switch back-and-forth.
Maybe it was the reflection off an occasional veil of sand that showered down. But don’t expect to see those pinks and purples like in these super beautiful photos here.
Upper Antelope Canyon
The Upper Canyon experience happened at around 2pm and it was much darker than the lower.
The awe was not there like at the Lower Canyon it also was quite windy and we were glad to have our Florida gators to cover our breathing opening because sand would sprinkle down. Our tour guide did her best to get shots of us with “Angel Wings”
Or at “Warp Speed”.
Much of it was pretty dark.
Antelope Canyons
I had so many great photos that I made a 5 minute slideshow. It was hard to pick just one or two.
Evidently there are other sections that are being developed for tours through different parts of the 30 mile long Antelope Canyon through Navajo lands. We saw several Slot Canyon tours advertised as we left Page. One of the most important things is to for slot canyon tours is to go around noon when the light gets in and all the color magic happens. Two in one day is overkill, but you never know with weather, wind not a problem, but not optimal. Rain will cancel the operation. We had a tour operator who took us to each canyon in a van and organized us getting onto the standard tours with guides. So our personalized tour was a bit of a rip-off since we really just had the typical standard guides who worked the specific slot canyons although we were nicely transported there. Our van operator got all the tickets from the on-site operation who conducted the tours, we never stood in line. He informed us about the area as he drove and all about the leases on tribal lands that can only be passed down to generations. Sometimes brothers and sisters will split their inheritance like is the case with the Lower Canyon where there is Ken and separate Dixie Company who give tours. He had a great video of when he was an Antelope Canyon guide himself. It showed what happens after the flash flood. The on-site canyon guides turn into clean-up and pump and carry buckets of water out of the canyon. Then they have to refill it with sand that got washed out. The video was very interesting and showed him chest deep in the canyon water during this operation. The canyon only ever filled to the top once in his memory, otherwise a typical flash flood will fill it under 10 feet. Careful of the times because right on the Arizona, Utah and Navajo Tribal land and they follow different times and ATT and Verizon couldn’t even agree on the time. As we drove from Page, we saw advertisements for many other slot canyons on the way. We really enjoyed our Mystical Canyon because it was so private. The Upper and Lower Canyon are tourist herding, but really beautiful. You might google Dixie Antelope Canyon tour if you don’t want to go through the big tour middle man companies like Viator or Trip advisor. Goal achieved, we saw three impressive slot canyons !!
Horseshoe Bend
This is the must see in Page Arizona. Ten bucks gets you a parking space where you take a ½ mile hike on a wide gravel path to the edge. Believe me it is a treacherous edge – like 1000 feet sheer drop off, but so impressive.
Navajo Bridge and Condors
We came to this incredible bridge some 1000 feet above the Colorado as we headed to Lee’s Ferry to find the Kayak Launch area.
Not only was the view down to the Colorado incredible, but there were also about 5 condors that were flying over it for several minutes.
It was amazing to see these huge birds first sitting on rock ledges and then swooping back and forth over us.
Glen Canyon Dam Overlook
There is a Carl Hayden Visitors Center right of the highway or there is another overlook from the Scenic Route in Page. The view is stunning both looking downstream from the dam and onto the dam from the Scenic Route Overlook. There were some very treacherous edges here.
Kayaking Horseshoe Bend
Three kayaks viewed from atop Horseshoe Bend – I want to be one of this looking up the steep cliffs instead of down !!
Unfortunately it was to be a windy, windy afternoon so we decided against it, but drove around to Lee’s Ferry. This is where you park, and get the Haul service Kayak the Colorado to ferry you up stream. Of course they want to rent you the vessels too, but I believe you can take your own too.
Best to stay right there at Lee’s Ferry Campground and be close for a morning trip. Wind can be a problem and even when drifting with the current. The haul service actually back tracked to make sure their guests were okay. This is definitely on the bucket list. They said it takes 3 to 4 hours.
Lake Powell
We also investigated the various Marina Operations at Lake Powell and went to the recommended Lone Rock Beach which used to be an Island, but lay in the sand since the water was so low Many people camped on the beach with big rigs and there was no boat launch ramp. That’s why it was recommended as a good quiet place to launch paddling equipment. There were big steep banks to the water since water was so low. We walked the path down the beach to evaluate if it could be a Vinny thing. On the far side of the beach was a gradual place to put in, but lots of carrying would be required. Not a very pretty place to camp as the surrounding area is mostly sand hills. There is a risk of getting stuck in the sand although a lot was gravel.
Decided to explore the Wahweap Marina and Campground – this is where there were huge yachts that seemed like they would get grounded in the low water, but many were already on the ground.
Then there was a separate, regular people launch where we saw hundreds of boats that were moored. All I could think of was that this place must be a zoo on the weekends. There was a beach site where most likely paddle boards could be pumped. There was a reserveable Wahweap Campground right there as well which would be convenient to an early launch. Definitely not on a weekend even the yacht launches were several 100 feet long with multiple lanes.
As we headed back to Page (only 10 miles) we stopped at the Navajo Mountain View Point which showed a very interesting picturesque steep walled area of Lake Powell that would be interesting to paddle down as a day paddle from Wahweap Beach Hmm something to consider. Hopefully the water will rise.
Saguaro National Monument
Lots of cactus variety in the Sonoran Desert where the Saguaro grow. They are massive cacti that house tiny birds and others.
During the scenic gravel road drive we even spied a rattlesnake traversing the road.
After learning all about Javelina hogs and how they seem to know the garbage days in the neighborhood, we were able to see them at the really cool Saguaro Museum.
Evidently they knock over trash cans and create quite a ruckus. They hate dogs and have been known to try and tusk people’s legs to try and get to them even if the owner has picked one up. Saguaro is an hour or so to Steve and Terri house to complete our spring trip to Arizona.
Travels with Vinny VanGo 
incredible pictures, like from a magazine
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