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.