April 2021

Valley of the Gods is a collection of rock formations that are amazing! They are ancient, sacred to Natives and spectacular to view. This is mostly Bureau of Land Management land which means you can boondock on it for free! And down the road is Mexican Hat, another cool place to boondock.

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South of here is Monument Valley- once a National Park, however it was given back to the Navajo, and so it is still closed at this time…But, we did find a tour company that drove us around the outside and pointed out the named formations and then up to Tear Drop Arch, which was only open because Monument Valley was closed.
The landscape here is indescribable- red rock, white sandstone, yellow sand, with very little vegetation- even though cattle graze here. The elevation quickly varies from 4500 ft. to 6500 ft. and not far from here 10,000 ft where there are more trees and moisture.

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Did I mention dust? Red sand dust everywhere with windy afternoons that blow it around even more and every where you walk you just add another dust layer- Rhylee has become a red and black dog. And since we are boondocking, water is precious and not to be wasted on washing up all the time! And the humidity never reaches 10%- really, really dry here. We experienced an 8 hour wind/dust storm- 20-25 mph steady winds with gusts to 50mph- the locals tell us that kind of storm might happen once a year or so- lucky us 😦

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To get from here to north of here here are two routes- the longer easier way, or the Moki Dugway. A dugway is a road dug out of the cliff side. It was constructed in the 1940s to bring uranium ore down the plateau to Mexican Hat for processing for the war effort. This road rises 2000 ft.in about 3 miles of gravel road with 6-7 switchbacks, sheer drop-offs, blind corners and no guardrails. Not recommended for RVs or big trucks- for good reason! We did notice two vehicle skeltons over the edge! Not recommended for the skittish either- I survived it, but freqently could not look out my window, at least coming down was easier than up was!

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And, Linda got her vaccine- the J&J single shot; the day before they paused it! I found a small town drug store that would give it to me and am grateful!