Horseshoe Bend & Monument Valley

Hi all,

After seeing the beautiful stars over Bryce Canyon last night, we returned at 7am today for the sunrise. It was gorgeous as well, but very cold!! The puddles on the footpaths had frozen over during the night and were very slippery.

We had our breakfast and then packed up and left. The first section of our drive today was around two hours to Page, Arizona. We stopped for a coffee in a town called Kanab en route. Once we crossed into Arizona, our clocks went back an hour (no daylight savings observed here) and the temperature went up significantly. We’ve had such a huge range of temperatures on this trip already!

Once we arrived in Page we headed to Horseshoe Bend, a famous section of the Colorado River that has carved itself out around a huge rock in a horseshoe formation. It was stunning! We sat for a while and ate our lunch enjoying the view. The kayakers in the river below looked like little Lego pieces, so we must have been high up.

We headed back and then drove another two hours to Monument Valley. This area is iconic due to its red sandstone buttes, referred to as monuments. They were formed as the area used to be an ocean millions of years ago and sediment settled before tectonic plates then raised the surface of the ocean above the water, and the monuments remained. You’ve likely seen Monument Valley in films such as ‘Forrest Gump’ and ‘Back to the Future 3’. The area is very isolated, it’s at least a few hours drive from any major city. It remained pretty isolated and little known until director John Ford used it in many westerns between 1939 and 1960 such as ‘Stage Coach’ starring John Wayne. Apparently people used to be able to climb some of the monuments, but after Clint Eastwood climbed the Totem Pole one in his 1975 film ‘The Eiger Sanction’ this was then banned.

We visited the Monument Valley Visitor Centre first. This area is not a national park and is therefore not run or maintained by the National Park Service. Instead it is part of the Navajo Reservation. There was no information or exhibits at the Visitor Centre, just very expensive souvenirs (I won’t tell you how much my magnet was today, but Mum, think Switzerland prices!). However, the view on the platform outside was fabulous. We got back in the car and started driving part of the scenic loop drive within the park. It was 18 miles long, but after seeing the two famous “mitten” monuments and John Ford Point, it became clear that the roads here were not at all well maintained and we worried we would damage our rental car. So we went back here and enjoyed the other monuments from afar.

Our final stop in the area was to the section of the highway where ‘Forrest Gump’ was filmed. If you haven’t seen the film for a while or at all, Forrest goes on a long run around the USA and ends up with a group of followers running alongside him. When he’s running along the highway with the monuments in the background he stops and says “I’m pretty tired. I think I’ll go home now”. The view was beautiful, we could see why they chose it for the movie. I of course had to partake in a silly photo of me running and laughing up the road too. The speed limit was reduced in this area and it had “watch out for pedestrians” signs - I’m obviously not the only one!!

We then headed back to Page where we are staying tonight. It's interesting here - very isolated but near Lake Powell so lots of boats being driven around everywhere.

We had some Taco Bell for dinner tonight and then went to Walmart to buy a couple of snacks etc. We've had another wonderful day full of unbelievable sights!

Love to all
Claire
Xoxox