In March we found out about
Jeep Expeditions and the
Monument Valley trip that was planned. Dave and Kathy signed up and we soon decided we wanted to go too. A September 8/9 off-road tour was organized through Harold Simpson with
Trailhandler Tours. After months of waiting, the weekend arrived.
Marcia and I both were able to get off work early on Friday and left our house around 2:30pm. We stopped in Flagstaff for supper and made it to the
Goulding's Campground across the highway from Monument Valley around 9pm. We set up our tent and went to bed. Here you can see a photo of our camp site the next morning.
The next morning we broke camp and headed for the visitor's center at Monument Valley to meet up with the rest of the group. From there you can see the mittens.
Once all 14 Jeeps arrived, we headed out. The first day, the planned route was through Mystery Valley to the west of Monument Valley. We started out by heading through some sandy washes that hadn't been traveled on for some time. Not too far in, we came upon a big washout. The guide Jeep and Dave made it through in front of me, but I didn't have as much luck. I was soon spinning tires in the soft sand. Dave got out to help spot for me, but got a dirt shower as I made an attempt to get out.
A quick hookup of the tow strap yanked me out of the hole and the group was on their way again. Here are some photos of a few stops along the way.
Here is an arch that is cut out of the rock. Standing at the bottom, you can look right up and see the sky through it.
The next stop along the way had some ruins at the base. This location was named many hands as you could see from the petroglyphs on the walls.
Here is Marcia and her Jeep.
Towards the end of the route, we climbed a hill to a viewpoint looking north over Mystery Valley.
After exiting Mystery Valley we circled back around and entered Monument Valley. The guides took us to the campground under Rain God Mesa. Everyone setup their tents and prepared supper. As it got dark, Harold played the flute, told stories, and played the drum while singing. Jamie dressed in traditional attire and danced for the group. He also included the group and everyone got up and danced with him. I didn't get any photos of this, but I'll provide links to others who did.
The next series of photos are from our campground Saturday night in the heart of Monument Valley. We could see many of the monuments including Three Sisters.
Saturday morning we had to get up really early. That wasn't a problem for everyone because at 5am, Harold started banging on his drum and sang a Navajo song. He followed this 3-4 minute alarm clock, by two simple English words, "Good Morning".
Everyone followed Harold and Bah-hi out of Monument Valley and towards Kayenta 20 miles to approach Hunt's Mesa from the south. Here is a photo as we turned off the pavement and began heading back north.
After a few miles of easily graded road, we dropped off onto a harder trail that started as a 1/2 mile of sandy river bottom. Everyone was rolling right along and the end was fast approaching as the guide Jeep hit a really deep spot of sand and got stuck. Dave, following them, had to slam on his brakes to stop. He then tried to pull around them to pull them out, but was soon buried himself. George was able to get around and pull the guide Jeep out forwards. We hooked our Jeep up to Dave and pulled him out backwards.
Once everyone was out, we were able to make a run for it and get to harder ground. Immediatly after, there was a steep climb up a rock hill. Here you can see Dave speeding away and everyone else soon following.
The road contined from there on narrow mountain roads that varied in difficulty.
We finally arrived at the Hunt's Mesa overlook and stopped for lunch.
After lunch, we contined on to another magnificent overlook. We spent some time there and then backtracked the same way we came in. After following the same path out approximately 1/2 of the way, we took a different fork in the road to exit by another trail.
On this route off of Hunt's Mesa, we decended into a narrow canyon to view Spider Arch.
Where's Marcia? Can you spot her in this photo?
Bah-hi, the driver of the guide Jeep, encouraged me to climb up into the arch. This was very steep with poor footing, but he helped me climb all the way up approximately 100 feet to look straight up and see the openings. After a few photos, we slid down on our butts.
The rest of the trail out was very sandy, just as it had begun. We drove in a wash for some time and then climbed a sandy hill. On the back side of this hill was a huge descent down into another wash. You can see one of the photos Marcia took as we went down and then the rest of the group following. Harold mentioned that this is a one way hill and it is impossible to drive up. Many people have tried, but it has never been conquered.
Soon after, we came back to where we entered the trail and after one last stop, everyone headed on their way.
I'll add more to this later as more people post their photos, but here are
George and Diane's Photos
