Standing on the corner...

Time to get out of Utah and make the trek towards Quartzsite, so we can get some doo-dads added to the motorhome before I have to head back to Alberta for the cataract surgery.  It's been quite warm down there which is part of the reason we've been dawdling in the higher country.  On the way, though, we have to pass right through Winslow so I get to cross one more thing off the bucket list.

Fortunately Winslow has the song, because they don't seem to have much else going for them.  Some other high points downtown: 

Good try, but the motel was in similar shape to the sign.  

Perhaps he was also selling some golf clubs.  I should have stopped to ask.  

Huh.  

We stayed over a few days at McHood Park (34.97221 -110.64347).  This is a little campsite and day use area operated by Winslow and about 6 miles south of town.  Kudos to the town for operating it, as well as for making it no charge camping, although they could maybe put a little gravel in some of the deeper potholes.  Still I can't complain too much at that price - it's certainly nicer than the truck stop we were going to overnight at.  We stayed for two nights rather than just one as planned, and we'd definitely stay here again on my way through.  

I got in a few hours of fishing as well, and... better sit down for this one... managed to catch my first ever Arizona fish.  Remember they all eluded me last winter.  So I'll now have TWO great Winslow memories.   

I apologized to the little guy for laying him on the rock for the pic.  Bass are pretty tough though (so I hear) and he seemed happy enough swimming away.  He must have spread the word to his buddies though as they all ignored me after that.  

Blanding day 4 - Monument Valley, Goosenecks State Park, and Valley of the Gods (again)

For our final tour from Devil's Canyon, we headed down to Monument Valley which is a Navajo tribal park just on the Arizona side of the border.  $20 entry and you get to drive around a gravel loop and look at the rocks along with a few thousand other people.  To be fair, it was also a Saturday.  Was impressive but our preference is for Valley of the Gods... which is why we drove that loop again on the way back (but from east to west this time, to keep it different).  In between we stopped at Goosenecks State Park which we'd missed last time by cutting off on the Valley of the Gods loop.  Tried to talk the boss into going up and down the Mobi Dugway again but she wasn't having any of that.

Why do people do this?  Are they trying to copy the spires or something?  Or just prove that they're co-ordinated enough to balance a rock on another?  

If you do this, please stop because it looks stupid.  Or pile your rocks in your own yard where the rest of us don't have to see them.  

Unless you're legitimately trying to mark something, or point a direction.  Or keep the coyotes from digging up a body.  

Just north of Monument Valley is the town of Mexican Hat.  Just north of the town of Mexican Hat is this balanced rock.  Not sure how any of this relates, but thought it was interesting.  

OK, my pictures of Goosenecks aren't that impressive, so just a couple here.  Google up some images to be really impressed.  

Monument Valley pic out of order?  Nope, Valley of the Gods where you can drive where you want at your own pace and only meet 1 or 2 other vehicles... 

Blanding Day 3 - Hovenweep National Monument and Cortez Colorado

Not many people realize that the place where Gandalf met the elves is right around here, but when we found out we had to go see.  Kind of surprised us as we thought the Elves lived in the forest and these houses look more like something Dwarves would build, but I guess if this is the way the government archaeologists say it was then that's that.

Miles and miles of flat ground around, and these guys liked to build on the edge of the cliffs.  

Ah!  This must be the tower where the princess lived.  

The map showed a few ruins off to the northeast of the main site, some accessible by 'high clearance 4WD' only.  You KNOW we're gonna go see those... 

Oh come on. Now they're just being silly.  

Unless there were a lot of bad kids in this group and carrying rocks up a cliff kept them out of trouble...

If this rock shifted while they were still living here I bet there were a few quick sacrifices...

There's a pattern here... the buildings that are hardest for us modern-type people to get to seem to be the most intact... curious... 

A tower with a walk-out basement suite... 

After listening to ads from the Cortez marijuana grow op on the radio all week (my favourite:  "Hunters! Show us your license and get a free joint!") we had to go see the town.  Sadly no debauchery or wasted pot heads laying around the streets that we could find.  We did park by this cool mural though.  And got a couple nice Sonic milkshakes for the drive home.  

Blanding day 2

Day two from the Blanding base was a loop out to Natural Bridges National Monument, then south through the Mobi Dugway, loop through Valley of the Gods, and finally through the town of Bluff before heading back to Blanding.  All those places are pretty Google-friendly so no need for me to describe.

All our bridges pics are from the highway overlooks - neither of us felt like clambering down the trail into the canyon.  I'm sure you can Google some great pics though.  Also we started taking some video which probably won't get posted, and that cut into the # of snapshots we've been taking.  

My gosh what an exhausting day!