Monument Valley Adventure

This past weekend with three days we decided to take a road trip to Monument Valley. Along the way we stopped at Dead Horse Point State Park. We stayed at Goulding's Lodge on the Utah side of Monument Valley.

Goulding's is nestled at the base of a huge sandstone cliff with great vistas of the monuments. The lodge is fully equipped with a restaurant, pool, gift shop and museum. John Wayne made a number of his movies here. In fact the area is known for its movie appearances, shoot just the other night watching NL Vacation and it is represented in the crash scene. It took most of the day Saturday to get to the lodge so we didn't do much exploring once we got to the lodge. Kicked back watched the sunset and took some pics from our balcony.

Walked the property and took in the sites and interest. There is an old cabin that John Wayne used for his movies and the Stage coach from movies.

We didn't get in the museum it was closed by the time we got around, but we did check out the gift shop. Being on the Navajo Nation tribal land the gift shop is loaded with Navajo jewelry, pots, rugs, baskets...etc. all beautifully hand crafted. Plenty of John Wayne memorabilia as well. We ate the restaurant that evening very good tasting and fresh made, I had a Navajo Taco, HUGE, and fresh cherry pie alamode. Drawback is you’re in a remote area and the internet was not stellar, but we did manage to get some reception for some activities. 

Sunday morning came early and foggy, made for some cool sunrise pictures of the monuments with low hanging clouds and the fog. We had breakfast and made our way back up highway 163 to Mexican Hat, Valley of the Gods, and Goosenecks State park. While in Valley of the Gods we ran into a group of ballooners that had just launched and set down for a morning activity. We came around the corner of the trail we were on and there sat a balloon in the middle of the road. This is an annual event over MLK day and Sunday they launch in Valley of the Gods. Next year we have it marked on our calendar to attend and cover more ground. So much to see in such a little time. After going to Goosenecks we made our way back to Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. Highway 163 has been used in multiple films most notably Forrest Gump where he turns around after his running scenes they have named it Gump Hill. Inside the park they have a decent road throughout the park for all vehicles, unless it is wet.

We seen and took pictures of all the monuments in the park, we did a self-guided tour. You can get a guided tour through it and get narration of all the sites and movies that have been shot there. You can get your picture taken on horse at John Ford's Point where the "Marlboro man" sat on his horse. There are areas off limits to everyone but paid tours that take you back behind some of the mesas in the park. The views and vistas are amazing. We were a little disappointed in that the winter gloom hung in there all day and until the sun dropped down in the west the colors were not great but then they exploded. We went into Kayenta to see if there was anything there, nothing! Went back to the lodge had dinner and rested for our fast ride home Monday morning. Both on the way down and back we stopped and ate at the MoabDiner, highly recommended by locals and us very good food and service.

Ice Fishing with the Boys!

Went ice fishing with Jim and Parker last Saturday to Strawberry Reservoir. Fishing reports had said the fishing was hot! My friend was up there on Friday and caught 13 with one nice 23 inch Cutthroat trout. We arrived at the lake at 6:30 am and the temperature 16*. We got things together and unloaded the 4 wheeler and got on the trail. We were heading out to a spot we thought was good, along the way the ice started to give way and we quickly unloaded the 4 wheeler. I continued on with the 4 wheeler and the boys followed me. I stopped and we checked the ice thickness and it was 5 inches a little thin for the wheeler so we left it there and continued onto the spot we were going to fish. I bought a new tent over the week and we set it up. It worked great, fit all three of us comfortably with room to spare. We had lines in the water by 7:00 and started the waiting game. Nothing for a half hour so I got out and started drilling holes. I moved around for about an hour looking for anything on the flasher and trying to get hits. The air was still crisp and biting and my finger we getting numb so I went back to the tent to talk to Parker and Jim they hadn't gotten anything during this time. The fishing wasn't as hot as reported I talked to other anglers while out and about they were not getting anything either. We tried everything we had color combinations, scents, worms, jigs, rapalas you name it we threw it and nothing. We did finally get one to the hole but that was it. It was great outing for the new tent and we enjoyed the roominess of it and the protection it afforded from the wind with the heater running it was balmy in there. A good day of fishing, but catching was not so great!! Try it again next week.

Scofield Ice Fishing or Freezing!

Yes that is the correct temperature that we pulled into the parking lot at Scofield Reservoir at on New Year's Eve morning. Cold enough to freeze your nose hairs when you breathed in. We were after that elusive Tiger trout again today. We moved to a new location today where we have seen other fishers fishing and tried our luck. Today we brought the 4 wheeler to pull the sled onto the ice with. The sled with all the gear goes around 300 pounds and yesterday when we were pulling it up the ramp we truly wished we had the wheeler. With the wheeler though you must be extremely cautious to make sure the ice is thick enough to sustain the weight and load of you and your gear. The rule is six - eight inches is strong enough for a snowmobile or 4 wheeler and we were cutting through 10-12 inches of ice. New spot, deeper water but still very stained and murky water. Our camera being deeper was not picking up much unless the fish was right up to the lens. Our flasher however was working just fine and indicating fish for us. Chub was the fish of the day no Tiger trout or even cutthroat trout. We felt quite lucky that we had not been encountering the chub the previous days, other fisherman were catching numerous of the trash fish, and we hadn't caught one. Today was another story that is all we caught. We used paddle bugs of assorted colors, curly tails, rapalas, tipped them with meal worms, wax worms, power bait. Still we could not get away from the chubs. Oh well we caught fish, another day of lessons on the ice, next time a new location and different tactics to hunt the Tiger trout.

Scofield Ice Fishing day 4

We spent the morning on Scofield fishing for Tiger trout and Cutthroat trout. We caught a number of fish again today not quite as fast and furious as the first couple days but still we caught a number of cutthroat trout. Tiger trout were not to be found today. We pulled the big sled out today and set it up along with our electronics. We have worked hard on figuring out our flasher and camera and feel we have a good working understanding of them now. The flasher works very well to indicate when a fish is swimming around our bait and we use the camera to zero in on the exact time the fish is hitting our lure/bait.

Today we were using white tube jigs tipped with meal worms and white paddle bugs tipped with meal and wax worms. The paddle bug was more productive than the tube jig, it being the smaller of the two lures. Remember as the season goes along the smaller the lure/bait the better. You must also have strike indicators for the majority of your strikes, fish do not slam your lures in the winter like they will in the summer, and the strike indicator will show slightest of bumps from the fish. The camera is also handy for that purpose to show you how they act and react to your presentation. The camera also shows you how the fish hits the lure to feel if it is edible. We were in 12 feet of water today and the fish were suspended at about eight to ten feet of water. The cutthroat trout were not huge by any means and we returned every fish caught. We are searching for that monster tiger trout that is in Scofield Reservoir, there have been a few caught in the teen’s weight category and that is what we are searching for. So we will return again later to look in a different area.