Day 138 - More Arches and Navajo Nation

After packing all our kit away into the trailer we re-entered the Arches NP to go and complete a short hike to Landscape Arch. This shorter hike came about because none of us really wanted to get up at 04:15 and attempt a long sunrise hike through the park – we were all wanting a break from big walks! This walk wasn’t bad at all and, though she’d started it in walking boots, Corrie completed the walking in her flip flops.

The first stop on this walk was the very famous Landscape Arch which was yet another arch but an impressive one nonetheless! This one should probably be called delicate arch as it looks to be on the verge of collapsing. We took some shots then moved on to tunnel arch – a deeper arch but not really as impressive as Landscape or Delicate. We then plodded on until we reached Pine Tree Arch though none of us could fathom why it was called this. This one had a nice view through it and so we decided to take a group photo.

Then we were off again, continuing on the days 150 mile journey, and we were soon pulling into a strange little place for lunch called the Hole n’ The Rock. It was a quirky little stop offering a few things such as: a mini zoo, a 12 minute tour of a home inside the massive rock, a little general store, and lots of oddly interesting sculptures and doo-dads in the parking lot. The two of us just looked around at the sculptures whilst eating lunch and before long it was time to dash again.

A little way further along Damian pulled over, after asking us to close our eyes for a few minutes, and upon opening our eyes we were greeted with an impressive view of Monument Valley in the distance at the end of a very long road cutting through this desert land. Damian informed us all that this is the point in the film Forrest Gump where Forrest stops running! We all tumbled out of the van and got to pictures taking in between stints of traffic.

We arrived at camp and had to set up the site in record time in order to be away and make our appointment in the Navajo Nation. This apt was where we all hopped aboard a truck and were driven deep into the Navajo sacred lands. The drive was unbelievably bumpy and they could certainly do with a Hummer or, better yet, a proper road. Funnily enough the US government did offer to pave a nice new road for them but the Navajo turned the offer down so as to preserve their lands and not pave over the past. This tour was a couple of hours long and took us to some of the viewpoints available to paying members of the public, before heading deeper into the more sacred and private parts of the lands. We also stopped a few times, once at John Ford Point where there were Navajo nik-naks for sale and also an opportunity to have your picture taken atop a close-to-death horse at this point for $2-5. This point is where the old western director John Ford used to set up cameras and film shots miles away from this point due to the great backdrop this point offers. We eventually neared the end of this trip after: laying in a Hogan-like rock where we were treated to some flute music from our Indian guide, more glimpses of huge butes and mesas (rock formations), and a walk up followed by a sprint down one of the sand dunes by The Ear of the Wind. Then we had tea nearby cooked by the Navajos which was tacos with all the fillings, though their tacos very closely resembled our Yorkshire puddings!

Then it was back to camp. The Navajo guided tour was good though I think the group was expecting a little more of the traditional ways of the families etc and not just a tour of their sacred lands – though this was a nice trip.