We move onto Gallup, drive through the town and make our way to Window Rock, on the Navaho Indian Reservation. The Navaho Indians run their own laws / way of life, so in this huge geographical area, the Navaho Indians law is what all obey.

We find our way through the town and get to the Window in the Rock, a massive round hole in the rock

We leave unseasonably very cold  Window Rock behind and make our way to Chinle across the plains, again magnificent scenery, with mountains on all sides and massive flattish plains between. The weather is not too great and temperature is around 40 to 45 degrees F, and wet, with some hail, sleet and snow thrown in!  We check into our hotel and after a little while once the Sun comes out again, head off to Canyon de Chelly. We follow the South Rim trail and call in at 7 view points. The Canyon is breathtaking, some 1000 feet high in places and huge. See the pictures to try and give you an idea of it. This Canyon is a gem, not often mentioned but so well worth a visit.

Detour - Day 2 – Chinle to Monument Valley Arizona. 

Top of Page

We woke to a sunny day, although still a little chilly, we head for the North Rim of the Canyon de Chelly. The viewpoints showed off this Canyon as a spectacular natural site. The rock formations, history and height of the canyon makes an incredible sight.

We move on, taking Indian Route 12 towards Monument Valley also joining the main highways of 191 to Mexican Water, 160 to Kayenta and 163 to Monument Valley. The size and beauty of the scenery on these routes was fabulous, the rock formations, mountains and individual mounts, completely different to what we have seen before….

So to Monument Valley. We check into our room with views over the first part of Monument Valley. We board our 3½ hour tour of the area. I am not sure how many photos were taken, mainly by Kath, although it must be 200 plus, some may say quite restrained! The Valley is unbelievable, just like the movies and mega amount more. The rock formations appear as you turn the corners and are breathtaking. The late afternoon sun also helped make it spectacular.

We have a Navaho Native American as our driver and guide. He certainly knows his stuff and guides us for the time around the valley, through all the areas open to the public and then through other areas which is why we had to pay the extra fee! I have to say with the sights, the magnificence of the area and the guide it was well worth it. It's scenery you can just stand and stare at.

All the various natural statues have names and some with imagination (a lot of in many cases) you can see shapes, people and animals! The bumpy road, sand-dust and numerous stops add to the experience!

Detour - Day 3 –  Monument Valley Arizona/Utah to Grand Canyon Village Arizona.. 

We awaken with the sunshine pouring into our window and the sun arisen over Monument Valley, still quite a sight which needs photographing. After a relaxed start we check out and visit the trading store, which is now the museum, John Wayne's Cabin and the large gift shop. Lots of memorabilia about the Gouldings establishing the lodge in the 1920s and the many films that were shot in the area, especially featuring John Wayne and directed by John Ford, brings back memories of watching the Westerns on TV as a lad, never thinking I would visit the place where the locations were shot.

We head for The Grand Canyon, via Tuba City, a small nondescript place and Cameron (not the PM). Cameron has a large trading post with just about every gift under the sun for the area and wider, a gallery, post office and not a lot more. The scenery down to Cameron, is vast wide open spaces of rough scrub land, nothing to write home about.

Following the road we also follow the Little Colorado River and Canyon. We stop off at a view point, which is breathtaking with the depth of the canyon and the sheer drop with not a lot of guard rails about. Ideal place for some really good photos, and well worth the stop.

We make it to The Grand Canyon National Park and pay our $25 to get in. For that it's admission for a week, a map, newspaper and local guidelines. We visit all the "overlooks" that we can to view the North Rim. The Grand Canyon is simply huge, spectacular and you can see where it got the name from. The canyon walls, hills within this, rock formations all make up a fantastic scene. The colours are not as bright as we thought, some of this may be due to the height and brightness of the Sun, and others due to the amount of artistic licence in the books / brochures! A really fascinating and spectacular drive down.

Detour - Day 4 - Grand Canyon and area.

Top of Page

Today we visited most of the lookout areas you can over the 30 miles or so stretch of this unique area that is available.

The size of the Grand Canyon is stunning, stretching at its widest for the area we were in from 10 to 26 miles. With the ever moving sun and clouds just watching the scenery is mesmerising as it is constantly changing and you see different things the more you look or come back to view.

The view points all have something different to see, be it towers of sandstone, glimpses of the Colorado river, the rapids, the river / path scars, the different numbers of huge cliff faces, in one place there were 4 layers of cliff before you got to the bottom, 4-5 miles at least... Hard to imagine but I hope I have painted a little of the scenery, see also Kath's photos which will give you an idea.... When looking at these your imagination will try and see how big it is, times it by 10 and you might be close!