As I Walk Through the Valley

…of the shadow of Monuments?  Yes, Monument Valley, the final stop on our whirlwind Utah Mighty Five trip!  The cool thing about Monument Valley is that it is literally a valley of monumental rock formations, so you get to drive through it, and see it from many different distances and perspectives.

on our way into Monument Valley we spotted the Mexican Hat

entering Monument Valley

the Mittens

We spent the better part of our day driving through Monument Valley and stopping to take loads of pictures.  The local information center suggested that we enter the Navajo reservation (for a fee) and see the monuments more closely on a self-guided driving tour.  While we did enjoy this, we didn’t feel that it was crucial in order to see everything in Monument Valley.  You definitely get some great views just from driving on the highway.

After a relaxing day of driving, we were ready to set up camp.  We were lucky enough to be invited by Goulding’s to come and camp for the night.  Goulding’s is the only gig in town if you want to camp near Monument Valley, and luckily for us, it was great.

Compared to all of the other campgrounds we had been to, Goulding’s was the crème de la crème – full service bathrooms, hot showers, laundry services, a small market; Gouldings has all your camping needs.  (Except for beer, but I’ll get back to that later.)

After checking into the office, the woman working there gave us a heads up on a good camping spot (the sites are first come first serve), so we drove right over and nabbed spot number 9.  (Number 10 was actually her first choice, but she knew it had already been taken, so number 9 was the runner up.)

the views from our campsite were breathtaking

As the Mr. set up the tent, I offered to walk back to the market and buy some beers to go with our dinner.  No problem, right?  Nope.  What we hadn’t realized is that all of the land we were on was Navajo land, and it is illegal to sell alcohol on Navajo land (not illegal to drink, just to sell).  As I walked back to our campsite defeated, I figured that I would ask around to other campers to see if they knew where the closest market was to buy some beer.  Survey says?  Arizona.  Hahahaha!  Well, it was worth a shot, but we were definitely not driving to Arizona for a couple of cold ones.  We settled that at least we had the beautiful view to enjoy together.  We finished getting camp set up, and just as we started to prepare dinner, a kind camper came over and gave us 2 beers!  He said that he was happy to spare them, and he wanted us to enjoy our last night camping.

coors light never tasted so good

roasting some popcorn over the fire

After stuffing ourselves with roasted marshmallows, we happily resigned.  Our stay at Gouldings was wonderful; definitely a great place to stay in a beautiful environment.  We would have happily stayed longer, but alas it was time to go.  We were both ready to head home and also sad to leave, Utah had been a really great adventure.

our last glimpse of Monument Valley

goodbye Utah, thanks for the memories

~

Although Goulding’s gifted us our stay in Monument Valley, no financial compensation was received.  All opinions expressed here are my own.