October 15, 2006 Archives

The Strange Drive to Kayenta

on 10/15/06 3:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The guide books say 332 miles from Albuquerque to Kayenta, Arizona. What they fail to mention is the trip also crosses millions of years in scenery. At one point, Helaine asked me to look out for dinosaurs.

I'm getting ahead of myself.

I couldn't sleep last night. When I can't sleep, Helaine can't sleep. We were in the car and heading west by 5:50 AM MDT.

There were scattered showers overnight in Albuquerque. It was still dark and spitting as we merged onto I-40. The speed limit is 65 mph in urban areas, but as soon as we left civilization (in this case a perfectly apt characterization) it went to 75 mph.

I've got a lead foot, but since I found the majority of cars doing the speed limit, I set the cruise control at 80 mph and hoped for the best.

Other than an Indian casino and a few truck stops (one at the Indian casino) there was nothing - 130 miles of nothing - until we got to Gallup.

Gallup, New Mexico is one of those places you see and say, "Why?" It is a nondescript little outpost with the normal collection of gas stations and franchise food joints.

We slid into Denny's where everything I thought of Gallup was dashed. The staff couldn't have been nicer, friendlier or more attentive. Could I take a sip of coffee before the waitress came back to freshen it?

From Driving to Ka...

Denny's is located on US 491, though signs said it was formerly US 666! When you name a road 666, it says something about you. I'm thinking you don't want to screw with these people.

We cut across New Mexico on two and four lane roads, into Arizona and then north on US 191.

From Driving to Ka...

What began as rolling scrubby hills in Gallup, led to a pine forest and then a succession of rocky vistas.

From Driving to Ka...

Every once in a while we'd pass a small community, often with cows or horses lazing along the side of, or in the middle of, the road. What was surprising is, often the cattle were on the road side of a fence, not the other way around!

From Driving to Ka...

We continue north as the scenery turned weird. I'm not sure how to describe it, but some of what we saw looked prehistoric. Imagine rugged rock monoliths draped in a primordial soup of clouds.

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

From Driving to Ka...

After the Eagles game (priorities are priorities) we head to Monument Valley for sunset and more photos.

Comments (1)

On To Monument Valley

Geoff Fox

on 10/15/06 9:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Our base of operations is now Kayenta, Arizona. It's a quiet, dusty town with two traffic lights. Kayenta is entirely within the Navajo Nation and the statistics I saw show over 95% of the people who live here are Native American¹.

We left the hotel and drove north a bit over 20 miles. It didn't take long to see the monolithic rock formations that make Monument Valley what it is.

Before I left, when I mentioned I was going to Monument Valley, most folks shrugged. They recognize the pictures or remembered where all the Road Runner cartoons were set. They didn't know the name.

Monument Valley isn't a National Park. Being on Navajo land it is a Tribal Park and for that reason probably gets short shrift as far as publicity is concerned. That it's far away from everything doesn't help either.

From AZCentral:

Monument Valley's towers, which range in height from 400 to 1,000 feet, are made of De Chelly sandstone, which is 215 million years old, with a base of organ rock shale. The towers are the remnants of mesas, or flat-topped mountains. Mesas erode first into buttes like the Elephant, which typically are as high as they are wide, then into slender spires like the Three Sisters.

The valley's earlier inhabitants included the Anasazi who also built Mesa Verde, and archaeologists have recorded more than 100 ancient Anasazi sites and ruins in the valley dating before 1300, when the ancient tribe abandoned the area. Navajos have herded sheep and other livestock in the area for generations.

The valley was added to the Navajo Reservation in 1984, and the tribal park was established in 1958. Harry Goulding and his wife, Mike, founded the trading post in 1924.

It's possible to take guided tours. We decided to go it alone instead in our rented Impala. The 18 mile Valley Road is all dirt. It is rutted, puddled, potholed and jarring. Trust me - you've never been on a road like this.

It is not to be driven by the faint of heart.

I'll let the photos speak for themself.

¹ - Any public reference I have seen here has eschewed Native American for the less politically correct Indian. I'm really not sure which way to go.