Today, we have left Moab and have headed to Monument Valley with a detour into the Needles section of Canyonlands National Park. Our first stop on our way in was Newspaper Rock. This rock held many secrets to the past with its numerous pictographs engraved into the rock. This was very peaceful for me.
As we headed toward the park, the best Judy and I could figure, was that we were now driving in the area that the fog was covering the day before. We followed the road around to a 4X4 trail called Elephant Hill, a trail I had seen on YouTube. I was excited. Then, I read the warning sign. This is the most difficult trail in the park and one of the most difficult trails in the state of Utah. I thought to myself, really, can it actually be all that bad?
So I got out of the jeep and walked to the sign where I could see the trail. In the first 100 feet there were at least 20 places where I could see my skid plates ripping out from under the truck, not to mention all the rest of the obstacles that would destroy my drive line several thousand miles from home. We opted not to go on. I did, however, get the small buffalo drum and walked the trail for about ¼ mile. I promptly sat down and thanked Creator and all the spirits for keeping us safe and began to play my drum.
So I got out of the jeep and walked to the sign where I could see the trail. In the first 100 feet there were at least 20 places where I could see my skid plates ripping out from under the truck, not to mention all the rest of the obstacles that would destroy my drive line several thousand miles from home. We opted not to go on. I did, however, get the small buffalo drum and walked the trail for about ¼ mile. I promptly sat down and thanked Creator and all the spirits for keeping us safe and began to play my drum.
As we left the area and headed on to Monument Valley, we quickly went from the sun shining on us to a total white out as we climbed up the Abajo Mountains to an elevation of over 7,070 feet. To put it mildly, the driving was intense for the next 2 hours.
We arrived in Monument Valley on Saturday afternoon at about 3:30 PM. Our first order of business was to see if we could a friend of ours named Stephen. Sadly, he was nowhere to be found. We went to get settled into our room at Goulding’s Lodge. After we unloaded the jeep we decided to go for posole at the The View Restaurant that overlooks the Valley. We were informed by the Navajo ranger at the entrance booth that the restaurant did not open until 5:00 pm. So we decided to take a ride down into the valley. The day had been a dreary and overcast one so we did not expect to see much. It was just very nice to be there. As we drove along the snow began to fall hard and fast. It was quite surprising to see how quickly the snow covered the landscape. In a very short amount of time everything began to look the same and Judy and I were very glad we had been here before since the roads can become very confusing. As we started our acsent out of the valley we stopped to get a couple of photos. An HHR Chevrolet Panel Wagon pulled up beside us to ask if we knew the way out. Judy explained to the lady which route to follow and off she went. Although beautiful as it fell, after a few minutes we decided we needed to head out of here ourselves because the snow was really starting to drop. As we moved along, we rounded a curve only to find the lady in the HHR, turning around. She had become disoriented in the snow and had thought she was heading the wrong way. We asked her if she wanted us to follow her out and she asked us if she could follow us out. Of course, we agreed to this, so off we went. After about 20 minutes or so we made it to the top and out of the valley. We bid the lady and her friend good bye and went for some food. After a wonderful meal of spicy posole, we headed back to the hotel.
It was now decision time. After much discussion, weather checks online, and more discussion we realized that if continued our vacation as planned we would be doing a whole lot of hiking in the snow. This was not appealing to us at all. Although we were disappointed, we formed a new game plan. Hope your day was a
blessed one.
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