Monument Valley

Day 12    April 16, 2015

The drive today was to Monument Valley. 

 

 

 

 

Nothing out here is close. 

This little drive was 120 miles one way.  It seems that the speed limit doesn’t mean anything either.  With the speed limit of 65 on the back roads, I locked it in at 65 and was passed by every car that was on the road including 2 big 45’ tour buses.  Oh well, I am use to this since in the RV we only travel at 60-62 mph.  Most all of the area is open range with pictures of cattle and horses on warning signs.  I guess this is what they call free range. 

I never saw a picture of a chicken though.  As we approached Monument Valley we wondered how it became so popular with the Hollywood crowd.  It appears that one of the fellows that moved into the Valley in the 20’s noticed how badly the area was doing during the depression.  He was determined that he would work on a way improve the area.  He took some photos of the area to Hollywood and worked his magic.  John Ford liked what he saw and in less than 3 months he came out to film the movie “Stagecoach”.  From there the industry caught on to the area and over 20 movies have used the “Valley”.   I tried to figure out how they filmed the stagecoach chase without falling into a wash.  Well, I had no luck.  The Valley is most impressive with all of the buttes and mesas. 

The skies were cloudy but they took little away from the massive landscape.  We did run upon some wild horses on the hike we did there.  In one of the encounters there was a colt trailing its mother.  Also, came upon a herd of goats that were being minded by two dogs.  This was very impressive.

Hiking out here is very different.  A lot of the trails that we have come upon, have a lot of loose sand making walking very tough.  Still the scenery is still beautiful.