My new reality

Our southwest adventure continued as we left Moab on Saturday morning and headed south towards Page, AZ by way of Monument Valley. We noticed the car was leaking a little more fluid than we thought so we called Dollar Car Rental to see what could be done. They offered no help leaving us the only option to continue driving miles through remote deserts and mountains hoping for the best. So we did just that.

We headed to Monument Valley on the Utah/Arizona border driving 2.5 hours through desert, mountains, and canyons but mostly desert. We passed Mexican Hat where Forrest Gump stopped his cross country running. As the buttes and sandstone turned deep red Monument Valley appeared. We reserved a tour which took us on dusty open buses to remote areas of the Navajo owned park where our guide Sean shared stories of his Navajo and also ancient Anasazi culture and history. He showed us arches, ancient homesites, petroglyphs, and even played the flute for us in an open cave, echos bouncing off the sand and red cliffs. We passed isolated Navajo homes and occasional horseback riders scattered through the red sandy plains.

The iconic Monument Valley buttes and totems are famous for many John Ford movie scene backdrops (think John Wayne), the part where Clint Eastwood trains for mountain climbing in The Eiger Sanction, the Marlboro Man commercials (before he died from lung cancer), and even a heavy metal music video. According to Sean the Navajo or Dine originally emigrated across the Bering Strait although they are unrelated to Inuit people. “Navajo” means “left behind people”. Anasazi, an Ancestral Pueblan culture, preceded the Navajo and were from the south but had died out.

We drove on another 2 hours towards Page where we stayed overnight at a very nice Hyatt. Page is located on Lake Powell, a reservoir within the Colorado River very popular with boaters and vacationers.

The next morning in Page we breakfasted at a cute diner (Hot Sweet Donuts and Coffee) before taking another tour in the Navajo nation through Upper Antelope Canyon. Our quirky guide Henry was an older Navajo man and although it seemed as if he made up half the tour dialogue and repeated himself constantly and probably was deaf, he had us in stitches with laughter. Of course he was perfectly dressed in dusty denim with a Stetson cowboy hat, boots, and turquoise jewelry. The canyon itself was stunning, a narrow twisting, winding, curling ribbony walkway through red Navajo sandstone carved by water. The sunlight illuminating the canyon made for beautiful photos.

Annoying busloads of tourists detracted from it slightly. Back in the 90’s a group of tourists were ‘flushed’ through nearby Lower Antelope Canyon when surprised by a flash flood. We then stopped at Horseshoe Bend, also on Navajo land, to view the bend in the Colorado River thousands of feet below.

Afterwards we drove a further 2 hours to the south rim of the Grand Canyon, fingers crossed on the health of the car. The landscape changed throughout the trip, up, down, and through, and then we encountered flat land with lots more pine trees. To the right we caught a glimpse over the rim of the Grand Canyon. This amazing ‘hole in the ground’ has miles and miles of breathtaking, colorful canyons and plateaus and cliffs and views for days. And days.

We walked the rim, enjoying the vastness and also a grazing herd of elk and then headed to our hotel, a very nice Best Western just outside the park.

The next morning, Columbus Day, we entered the park early (7:30am) and headed to the Village on the rim. We hiked down the Bright Angel trail for about a mile, leapfrogging the mule train while avoiding the cliff edge on the narrow gravel and loose stone trail. Along the way we saw a family of big horned sheep on a ledge while Tina and I chatted up most of the other hikers we passed.

We then headed up and out by late morning but not before we spied a beautiful elk resting not 50 feet from the road.

We exited the park, driving past the 1 mile long lanes of traffic awaiting park entrance at the gate. The early bird does get easy entrance!

Out next destination was Sedona, AZ driving through Flagstaff and the Coconino National Forest. This was Bob and Tina’s last stop. Unfortunately, we arrived in Sedona 10 years too late. We expected charming. Instead the town was filled with jewelry, tee shirt, rock, and crystal shops and had a highway slow down briefly through the middle of town before opening up to the suburban sprawl of chain stores set amongst boutiquey hotels and restaurants. The surrounding scenery is outstanding so that was nice.

We hiked nearby Cathedral Rock with amazing views and visited the serene (except for the tourists) Chapel of the Holy Cross perched atop red Sedona sandstone outcroppings before checking into the Sedona Rouge hotel and spa.

The guys were finally rewarded with decent beer at dinner at the Oak Creek Brewery and Tina and I got a few tips on turquoise shopping. The next day Greg gallantly sacrificed his morning to take the car to the nearby Chevy dealer for repair (yay!) while Tina and I shopped uptown with Bob in patient attendance.

Turns out our 2019 Equinox (16,000 miles) had previous issues with a vacuum oil pump which they repaired correctly and we were good to go (a shout out to Larry Green Chevrolet). An afternoon spent relaxing at the pool and then a spa treatment was the perfect finale to our joint vacation. We dropped Tina and Bob off at the Phoenix airport the following morning.

But wait, Greg and I weren’t done. To be continued…

Some tips for visiting these areas:

We were told Moab is the best place for jeeping and off-roading. Indeed we saw many outfits and tours throughout. We’re not into that but lots of people said it was the highlight of their trip out here.

Monument Valley was a great stop but the tour includes a lot of driving through the desert and can be bumpy and chilly. There are many Navajo tour outfits to choose from. Of course they end at the tchatchke souvenir tent.

Page, AZ was a larger city than we’d seen in a while. There are multiple canyon tours here, again, Navajo organizations. The Antelope Canyon tour was good but they jammed so many of us through it was annoying. Horseshoe Bend was worthwhile but we were starting to feel the money grab i.e. $10.00 for parking. The Hyatt in Page was very nice and their restaurant is good.

Of course the Grand Canyon was amazing. Go early or late, the lines mid-morning on a holiday were insane. The rim walk is paved and just wonderful. As we’ve seen, there are plenty of tourists with a death wish for dangerous photo ops. 1 afternoon and 1 morning was plenty of time for us. We did not see the glass deck. The Best Western Squire Inn was very nice. As we’ve seen this whole trip, eat dinner before 6:00pm otherwise you’ll have to wait. Do not go to Plaza Bonita for breakfast buffet.

Sedona is quite pretty with lots of easy hikes. You can get hiking/parking permits at your hotel or at Safeway ($5.00 per day). We went straight to the strenuous Cathedral Rock hike for the view. There are lots of places to eat and stay. The Phoenix airport is 2-3 hours away.

Dollar Rental sucks.