Day Twenty Two
Colorado NM, Monument Valley
Having thrown our entire schedule out of wack yesterday, we have decided to scrap the original plan for today and basically head for our main destination of today, Monument Valley. Funny thing is, this will take us across Colorado (allowing us to visit just one NPS site today, which we both had never been too), and then back to Utah and south into Arizona. We are a little sadened by this, but that is what you have to deal with when you do things on a whim.
We both slept in a little later than we normally would have, so as not to push ourselves too hard. After breakfast, we casually head out onto the highway and head west on I-70. This route will take us over the Rocky Mountains, though one of the greatest strecthes of interstate ever built.
 After about 3 hours or so, we arrived at our first stop of the day, Colorado National Memorial, clear across the state near the Utah border. Colorado NM preserves one of the grand landscapes of the American west. Bold, big, and brightly colored, the plateau-and-canyon country, with its towering masses of naturally sculpted rock, embraces 32 square miles of rugged, up-and-down terrain. This special place, where you can contemplate glorious views that strectch to distant horizons; where you can discover solitude deep in a remote canyon; where you can delight in wild country where desert bighorn raom and golden eagles soar. Getting here, you climb a to the crest of a high plateu and enjoy a 23 mile drive along the rim. We both agreed that if it is impossible for someone to travel to all that southern Utah has to offer, that a visit to this one place would allow them to see a little bit of everything. Here you have canyons, red colored rock, spiring monoliths, arches, and Bryce Canyon type scenery.
Leaving yet another national treasure behind us, we head into Utah again for the third time this trip and re-visit Moab, where our previous trip helped us know where we could find the cheapest gas, and the best eats. They say that timing is everything and we had plenty of time to drive the remaining 200 miles to Monument Valley.
 As we headed south, the scenery gradually turned to an almost alien landscape devoid of vegetation and covered with red soil. If not for the nitrogen blue sky above, we might think that we are on Mars! Then, we started seeing these towering monoliths rising from the valley below. We were entering Monument Valley. Monument Valley is located along US 189 on the Navajo Indian Nation Reservation. This valley is considered sacred to the Navajo's and the most sacred portion is contained in the Monument Valley National Tribal Park. We arrived about an hour before sunset and started scoping out photograph locations. We settled on the visitor center steps (the center was closed but their were lots of people there). There are many members of the Navajo nation which offer to guide you into the area, which is closed to the public an hour before sunset. Otherwise, it is open to the public to drive through there. Unlike some more unscrupulous people that I have encountered in foreign countries and places in the U.S., even though we were approached several times and offered services, once we declined, they did not bother us again. Its a huge industry and is very competitive, so you can see the desire to reach someone first. While the sunset was not very spectacular (compared to some that we had seen), the color of the rock and the towering monoliths rising up over 1,000 feet made it that much more spectacular. I can't imagine this scene if the sunset was better. When we returned to our hotel in Kayenta, I took a look at a few of the pictures I had taken with my digital camera, and they came out spectacularly. I really think that going here has to be one of the easiest pictures to get an almost perfect with one take. Just go here on any day, wait for sunset, point and shoot! You'll be guarenteed a beautiful picture. The only trick is framing it right...
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