NAVAJO COUNTRY AND MONUMENT VALLEY

It was so hard to leave The Grand Canyon.  Michael really loved it there and I think he would have been quite happy if we had just driven away and left him.  But we assured him that where we were going next would be just as incredible...but in a different way.

We were heading to Indian country.  Navajo country.  Dineh-land.  The place where John Ford filmed so many of those old western movies.  The place where all the Indians were Apaches and Saguaro Cactus grew...both absolutely false! 

Leaving The Grand Canyon, we drove northeast through some of The Painted Desert.  We needed to be in Kayenta, Arizona by bedtime, so unfortunately, there was no time to stop for picture taking.  These few were taken as we zoomed down the highway so they're really blurry.  Sorry.  And, of course, we were still plagued by the overcast sky which just turned everything grey.  Trust me when I tell  you that in the right conditions, this area is full of beautiful pastel colors...lavender, orange, yellow, russet, blue...you name it, it's there!

This whole region is all about geology....everywhere you look there are interesting, beautiful and sometimes, downright comical rock formations.

This is one of my all-time favorites.

You can drive a car between these huge feet....hopefully that gives you an idea of their size.

I love to see them because they are fascinating and also because it means I am getting closer to Kayenta, where my Navajo 'family' lives.  Unfortunately, this trip we didn't get to see them. 

Kayenta sits at the bottom of another incredible formation called "TOES." 

This is the view from our motel room, the next morning after we arrived.

I took this photo many years ago as my friends and I were hiking up TOES.  All those 'sand dunes' are NOT...they are solid sandstone rock.

This is the pretty little town of Kayenta from TOES looking toward BLACK MESA.  Again, this picture was taken many years ago, but I just had to show you how pretty it is.

Driving out of Kayenta, you will see this.

I found this website when I was looking up the correct name for this formation...Agathla.

It looks like an excellent site if you are at all interested in the Navajo people.

http://www.lapahie.com/El_Capitan_info.cfm

Before long, you start getting hints of what is to come......

I might as well tell you right now that I think this is going to turn into multiple posts.  I cannot, for the life of me, decide which of my hundreds of pictures, I can possibly leave out of this post!  I'll start with these.

From the moment we entered the park, this is about all I saw of Michael.

Our rental car had a sunroof and Michael made good use of it!  But his bum was black and blue after several hours driving on the bumpy, rutted dirt roads through Monument Valley.

Most of these formations have names.  Here are "Mittens." 

I could have spent hours looking at the gigantic cliff faces.  I saw so many pieces of abstrac art in them.

This is the only hogan in Monument Valley you are allowed to take pictures of. I'm sure it was built, primarily for the tourists, but it is a good representation of an old style hogan. There are several private homes of Navajo people throughout the park. It is requested that photos not be taken of their homes. I'm sure many people do it anyway. But I see it as blatant disrespect and I won't be a part of that.

You can rent horses if you want.........

and ride through this beautiful landscape..........

Or you can do it in a pick-up truck............

Or you can do it in a fire engine red rental car, like we did.

I'm flat worn out from picking and choosing between all these pictures.  I think I'll just have to do it again tomorrow.  Would that be ok with you?

Happy Trails to you...till we meet again.

I am so GRATEFUL to Dineh for sharing their beautiful home land with us!