So, after lots of ancient history in New Mexico it was time to go and see some epic scenery, as seen in many, many movies! It was an interesting drive to Monument Valley, through the Navajo tribal lands and quite different to what we’ve seen already in the USA. The way that people live seems much poorer and less pride in what they have, there are significant amounts of rubbish along the road side in this area. One of the things we have observed along the roads are signs saying the road has been adopted by an organisation or person, who then endeavour to keep it clear of litter; this was not the case here sadly.

On the way we took a slight detour to see the Four Corners Monument, so named as it is at the intersection of 4 states, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona and Colorado. That is three more states we can say we have visited, lol! It is very touristy, with space for about 50 stands for locals to sell Navajo crafts. Not all of them were set up, but we saw one person selling the most amazing pottery, his decorations on them were beautiful, true pieces of art. We didn’t buy anything from him as we are living in such a small space, but Mark did buy a dream catcher!

We had booked into a small campsite called Arrowhead, 2 miles from the Monument Valley entrance. A local Navajo family own the land and made us feel welcome. As an extra bonus they had 2 lovely dogs. One, Alpha, became a regular visitor. From the campground we had great views of some of the amazing rock formations in the area. 

We had been advised the best light for seeing the rocks was in the morning, so we got up early and headed to meet our driver/tour guide. Our tour guide was a local Navajo woman, she was nice but quite guarded with how she would share information with us. I think a lot of the Navajo people are, we were not sure how much they like have tourists around! Anyway, we could not have driven Shaun into the valley, so had to have a tour guide to see it;  she pointed out rock formations and filming locations, and did tell us a bit about the Navajo. We loved seeing Monument Valley by a 4 x 4, it was nice for Mark not to be driving and being able to look around. After the vehicle tour, we did a lovely walk into the valley, around West and East Mitten Butte and saw the location of one of the filming locations of Back to The Future, one of Marks favourite films! Surprisingly no-one else was doing the hike! We saw John Wayne’s favourite view; it is pretty special. He spent a lot of time here and made 5 movies here, all with the director John Ford, ranging from Stagecoach, 1939 to The Searchers, 1956.

We left Monument Valley after another quiet night, and being entertained by Alpha, the dog who likes to chase light reflections!

We were headed for the Grand Canyon, which we have been longing to visit! We found a nice park up 6 miles from the Desert View Watchtower, in forestry land, so quiet, and free. We found a lovely park up with an established fire pit and lots of wood already around it, so had to have a fire. When Mark was cutting up the wood, the smell was divine, it was Juniper wood, and when it was burning it was not too smoky. 

The following day we cycled into the Grand Canyon National Park and visited the Desert View Watchtower, and enjoyed our first views of the Grand Canyon. It did not disappoint! It is awe inspiring and seeing it did bring tears to my eyes. I was surprised at how lovely the watchtower is and how well it sits within the environment. It was designed by Mary Coulter, an early female architect.  She designed some great buildings based on local architecture instead of the traditional European styles that were the vogue at the time. The inside of the watchtower reflects the local area and history and is decorated with petroglyphs and different rocks to reflect its environment.  

We cycled back to our lovely camping spot and enjoyed another peaceful, secluded night, before going to the very big campground in the National Park! Whilst it is lovely to park in quiet secluded spots, being in the national park campground gave us easy access to services and facilities. It is nice to be able to do both.

We arrived at the South Rim  Grand Canyon Village area and settled into the campground, which was only just opening for its first day of the season. We got the bikes off and went to explore, we visited the Mather viewpoint, which was quite busy with people, and then rode out to Hermits Rest, a road that goes right along the South Rim. A free shuttle bus goes along there, but it was nice to see it from the bike and be able to stop easily. We also saw out first elks, which are huge, and strangely look a bit like camels??

When we got back to the village we saw the Grand Canyon Train, which comes up from Williams, Arizona. It sounds like fun, it has food and entertainment to while away the hours, and it was very busy; it had on a steam engine which was nice to see. We then went for a drink in the El Tovar hotel, a very nice hotel with a terrace and a bar with a great view! We went in another Mary Coulter building, called the Hopi House, after the Indian tribe. It was a souvenir shop, but the building itself was interesting and lovely. There was a nice mixture of things for sale, from the usual T-shirts, caps and mugs to local Indian art.

The following day we cycled out to a different view point, Kaibab, and did a 4 mile walk, down into the canyon and back, past a view point called Ooh Aah Point, and yes you do go ooh aah!  The path is really well constructed, and felt safe, even though there was a small amount of ice at the start. We did not reach the bottom of the canyon; that hike is really long, about 10 miles each way and you are not advised to do it in a day; most people will do it and camp overnight at the Phantom Ranch. We had great views at Cedar Ridge to enjoy whilst we ate our picnic and saw lovely Blue Jays and little squirrels. Apparently, the squirrels are the most dangerous animal in the park, as they bite people who try and feed them, and carry nasty germs! We didn’t feed them!

We enjoyed more drinks at the El Tovar bar later, whilst watching the sunset, and enjoyed seeing the light play on the colours of the canyon walls.

The next morning, we woke to snow; the weather forecast didn’t really warn us about that. We managed to do some indoor things, a ranger talk about the geology of the Canyon, done in the small Geology Museum. We are fascinated by the geology we see on our journey, and wish we understood more. We learned that the oldest rock in the canyon, at the bottom, formed about 1.84 billion years ago, and the youngest rocks, at the top, are from 541 to 252 million years ago. These different geological periods are what gives the canyon its different colours, different colours indicating different rock types and ages. Six million years ago the Colorado river started to carve through the Colorado Plateau to create the Grand Canyon. Water in the rocks, that expands and contracts caused more gorges and canyons that lead into the main Grand Canyon. That is history!  There is so much to learn and understand, every day is a school day! 

Continuing with the indoor theme we viewed some of the historical buildings in the Grand Canyon Village. We really enjoyed seeing the old house which used to be a photographic studio and reading about the Kolb Brothers who set it up. Amazing men and their lives and how they helped bring tourism into the Grand Canyon. Just one of their adventures was to travel the Grand Canyon in a boat, a thousand mile trip, and film it, so they could then go out and show it around the USA to attract more visitors. This was done in 1911, the first motion picture of the Grand Canyon, way before the age of social media, but the same driving force. True pioneers and adventurers!

We experienced various weather conditions at the Grand Canyon, ranging from full sunshine to snow. It was fantastic to see the Grand Canyon in the different lights that the weather conditions afforded us. Seeing the Grand Canyon was truly one of the highlights of our trip…….so far! Yes, it lived up to expectations!!

Time to head south, we want to try and make it to Baja California, Mexico to see the grey whales before they head back up to Alaska, can we make it in time? It means driving longer distances and less time for exploring than we prefer?…………….