Its just a bunch of rocks....

Karen (the rock and tree hound of the two of us) has had a wonderful few days. After waking up in an amazing campsite that overlooked one of "The Mittens" and "The King on the Throne"; surrounded by fabulous rock formations.... (who wrote this)?  We started Friday morning in Monument Valley - on a guided tour of the Navajo Tribal Park - which is where John Ford shot a lot of those John Wayne westerns and as you drive around the area - they can point out to you all the backgrounds where scenes from such famous and diverse movies like 'Stage Coach' and 'Back to the Future III'  were shot.  It was quite the day.



Lei, Willie and Liz in Monument Valley Tribal Park

 We met our guide, Willie Blackwater, at the visitors center.  He is a native of the area, having grown up in the park - but now lives in town with his wife.  The park still has residents living within it - although they tend to be from the older generation.  There is no electricity nor running water in the park and that seems to keep the younger generations from wanting to live there.



Navajo - Hogan (both male and female type)

 Willie's people have lived in this area for centuries, but it wasn't until the 1920's when a sheep herder from Colorado names Harry Goulding with his wife Mike moved to this area to set up a trading post that the rocks were given names.  Harry was well liked and respected by the locals and was even given a Navajo name (although for the life of me - I couldn't pronounce or spell it for you...) and he spent time going around and seeing something in each Mesa or Butte which provoked a name in his mind.  Sometimes you have to really use your imagination - other times it is so obvious -

Willie took us around the path that is open to all to explore as well as some areas which were only accessible with a Guide.  He spent time conveying stories from his youth, talking about life in a 'hogan' - a dwelling traditionally used by the Navajo until the middle of this last century, as well as playing and singing for us some traditional instruments and traveling songs.  The picture above is of the two types of 'Hogan' - the larger round version is known as a female hogan - while the'teepee- like structure is a male hogan. It was interesting that he said modern homes were draughty unlike the cosy hogans. Traditionally within the Navajo culture - the male cannot gaze upon his mother-in-law's face so the only time he sees his wife is when his mother-in-law is away - made for some tense times according to Willie.

After spending the entire morning in a very small area, it was time again to hit the road.  We went south - so we could get back on track to set up for our next stop tomorrow - The Petrified Forest...(see what I mean about Karen the rock and tree hound - what could be better - she gets both of her most favourite things wrapped up in one...).  The remaining drive through the Navajo reservation was diverse and beautiful. 

We drove on through the day - the wind started to kick up a bit - but was generally a lovely day.  As you know, when things are going well, everyone is enjoying themselves, all is well with the world - that is the time you need to watch out.  I had just gotten on I 40 heading west - when I looked out my R/H mirror (when you're on a 2 lane highway, as I had been for the entire day, you don't tend to use your R/H mirror so I hadn't looked at it much that day) and saw that it was about to fall out of it's holder. (Remember our San Francisco adventure - when I 'bumped' another truck and lost the thing in the first place?) So I commented to Karen that I needed to pull over to see what I could do to try and save it.  Just like before - as if by magic - as soon as I said that I needed to pull over - the mirror fell off - this time crashing to the ground - well beyond saving, so now we are driving without any visual contact with the right side of the vehicle.  As long as I stay in the slow lane and don't pass anyone - I will be fine.  As they say in Murphy's law...or is it Sod's Law?   "What can go wrong will go wrong"....  Right about that time I looked at the monitor that  gives us a glimpse of the back  and ... it had gone off! So, only one mirror left but you have to get used to it. We decided that we'll get it done in Vegas. On Monday we are returning to Vegas to get Liz back to the airport - so we shall deal with it all then - I hope!

We made it to Holbrook, Az, where we put up for the night and Saturday morning - we were back on the road - heading for the Petrified Forest.  Prior to departing the campsite though - the wind again picked up only this time - it was really blowing.  Blowing so hard - that it actually picked up a camper off a truck and deposited on the ground.  I can't imagine why it wasn't tied down - but there you go. Meant to get a picture of the guys trying to manhandle it back onto the truck - made me appreciate the fact that I only have a mirror to repair. 

On our way into the National Park - we stopped at a lovely Museum/Store for rock lovers.  The amount of petrified wood was amazing.

 They had also imported some petrified wood from Indonesia - which was white - not the rainbow colouring of our native types.  After spending way too much time in the store - we came back out to the caravan - having to face into the wind to get to it.  Couldn't believe how strong it was. 

The Petrified Forest is actually located in the Painted Desert so the scenery was quite diverse.  You have the Petrified wood - lying all over the southern portion of the park - and once in the north - the scenery becomes more Painted Desert and remote.  I can't imagine people of old - coming across this area and what they thought that they had discovered. 

After the spending the afternoon in the National Park - it was time to hit the road again to try and beat a predicted snow storm coming in and get our campsite set for the night.  Much discussion, considerable debate and alot of checking on the Internet - and we finally decided to bypass Flagstaff campgrounds - and go further down into the Valley - towards Sedona.  Found a lovely campground - the managers were very helpful and we set up for the night - waiting on the impending 6 to 18".  As it turned out - we didn't get much more than rain - seems Flagstaff got alot more inches and when we started to pull out of the campsite - another camper stopped us - asked us our destination and told us that I 17 was closed going both North and South from the Cottonwood exit and I 40 was closed across most of state.  So we decided we would travel up to Sedona - check out the area (can't begin to describe how beautiful that area is...) and after we were done - try for Flagstaff and start back towards Vegas today - with the intention of making it back to Sin City by Monday so that we can take in the Cirque de Soleil show we have booked for Monday night. 

We were given a phone number for road status - and all morning it just kept saying that I 17 and I 40 were closed - yet we saw no snow on the road - so we decided to chance it - and by the time we got to the interstate - the traffic was flowing quickly.  So off we went - and glad we did.  While the road report said closed - we found no problem progressing.  The only thing we saw that suggested bad weather was a semi (HGV for our British readers) jackknifed on the other side of the freeway - with its trailer completely broken in half.  I just hope that the driver managed to walk away.  Well, as you know things come in 3s and true to form as Karen was driving she noticed a crack in the windscreen... all to do with glass ... some sort of sign or message eh? Maybe I need to change my glasses!

Now we are in Kingman Az, enjoying a bit of downtime - and knowing that we only have 120 miles to go tomorrow - can't ask for anything better than that.