Down, down and away...We managed to drive the seventeen miles out of the Mesa Verde this morning, hurtling down the wild roller coaster road at 10-15 miles per hour until we reached the entrance. It is a beautiful place and we hope to return again.
The view from halfway down from Far View Lodge in the Mesa Verde
Forget the big Mac's Wi-Fi...
We normally don't do McDonald's in the morning, save for their coffee at the drive-thru. But they had publicized their having wi-fi available and we wanted to post yesterday's episode, so we stopped in Cortez, Colorado, bought a couple of their 11,000 calorie breakfasts, and set up shop. Except that McD's doesn't offer free internet, but a choice of becoming customers of ATT or Qwest, or having some incredible charge added to your phone bill. We decided to wait until we got to our hotel, which furnishes free wireless connection like most civilized places today, and that is what we did. And we won't make the Mickey D mistake again.
All those cow-crossing signs...
Sure enough, the cows cross the roads in New Mexico, Colorado and Utah, so the sign we showed yesterday makes a lot more sense to us now. This fellow insisted that it was important for him to get to the other side before we passed:
The Cow was anxious to get to the other side, which look a lot like this side.
A monument to geologic forces...
What an amazing place is Monument Valley, where an infinite variety of buttes and mesas rise from the red sand of Utah to form stone figures that are amazing in their shapes, majestic in their sizes.
Mary Frances before one of the amazing buttes
Amazing stone formations left over from the departure of the Great Inland Sea
The Three Sisters, Monument Valley Tribal Park, Utah
The Navajo Tribal Visitors Center is closed at the moment for reconstruction, but the restaurant and gift shop are open, and there are three ways to tour the valley: riding with a dozen or so other passengers in a jitney made from a large pickup with three or four rows of seats in the back, with a tram-like roof and open sides; touring with one of the many independent tour guides stationed outside the park; or taking your vehicle and your life in your hands by driving your own vehicle over the 17-mile Valley trail. Of course, we chose the last option, and for the next two hours saw some of the most majestic and fascinating geologic formations on earth. We couldn't help but imagine the pioneers who first saw these magic places and wondered first: How could all of this have come to be? And wondered second: how can we ever get out of here?
So many amazing buttes in Monument Valley
At last we had to leave, but we were surprised at how much more magnificent scenery was to be seen on Routes 160 and 98 across the northern part of Arizona. At last we rolled downward nearly 3000 feet into Page, Arizona, at the base of the very young Lake Powell, which fills the very old Glen Canyon. We dined at the Courtyard Inn, and prepared for tomorrow, on beautiful water nearby.
This little guy is a collared lizard, known locally as a "fatty"
Mary Frances drinks a toast to our friends in the east
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