Jun 7 Monument Valley to Bryce Canyon National Park

June 7, 2009 Today Gerrit was the one who got us early, 5am, to get spectacular shots of the shunrise over Monument Valley.

We visited the brand new “View Hotel” built and operated in the Heart of Monument by the Navajo people. It does have the most spectacular view I have ever seen. Because of our experience with the first night of full moon we decide to head to Bryce Canyon for hopefully more great shots at this time of month. We head up thru the great Monument Valley outside the official park and seen more and more “monuments”! We wonder how this can get better as we get closer and closer to the Big Red Buttes and they get more and more majestic. Then as we run across the valley we see on the map “Valley of the Gods” and remember that Ron on Maui recommended this!! So we head down the unpaved road leading the a cute Bed and Breakfast by the same name. The view opens up to look down the Valley we had just come up and it is so peaceful. A wonderful place to relax and be. The road quickly turns to washboard and our van is not very happy so we turn around after having encountered the Valley of the Gods!
As we return to the main road we see a plateau of rock ahead and wonder how we are going to get around that! The answer is we are not! We are going on top of it! On the tight unpaved switchback roads we labor up this steep wall. Our Eurovan never fails even with its noise. We are very happy.

Then we start into the Glen Canyon Recreation area with wild wilderness and colorful mountains at every turn. And it keeps getting better and better. So glad we decide to take this way. We stop at Natural Bridges National Park and then at Canyon Reef National Park before heading to Bryce National Park in mid afternoon.

After finding an open campgrounds in Bryce by the rim (lucky at this time of year to find such, slow season for tourists it seems) we head down the scenic park road. We stop at the view areas. Some people say if you can only see one National Park in the US it should be Bryce. We have to say that at this point we a bit jaded or should I say rocked, in that we have seen sooo much in such a short time that we are less impressed than we would have been coming here first. Though we change our minds later at Inspiration Point in the Sunset! The 8800 ft. cliff drops off the reveal a standing army not unlike the Chinese General’s one he was buried with! These “hoodoos”, sculpted white, pink, and red sandstone figures carved by wind, ice, rain and water are amazing. We had seen pictures of this park before we arrived and it was not what we expected. We do enjoy the full moon finally rise over the distant mountains too! And we go to bed tired from the long driving days and car worries on our minds and vow to slow down, relax more and pray for guidance as to our next move.