Beyond the Horizon: From Santa Fe to Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park

The Turquoise Highway - May 14

Busy day for sure. We began by dropping off the Berkshire at LaMesa RV, conveniently located within a mile of Enchanted Trails RV Park. Refrigerator not working as designed. Luckily the diagnosis and cure is relatively simple.

Heading to Santa Fe by way of the Turquoise Highway, Route 14. Funky little towns and New Mexico vistas made it a fun ride.

In Santa Fe, a self-guided walking tour saw our first stop at Loretto Chapel and the Miraculous Staircase. Imagine the nuns negotiating that staircase before the rails were added!

If you have been to Santa Fe, you know that visiting the many shops and displays could consume 4 days, not just the 4 hours we had allotted. From funky tee shirts to fabulous handcrafted jewelry, baskets, and rugs, we tried to see it all.

Santa Fe will not get rich if it relies on the spending habits of people like us. Great lunch at the Thunderbird Bar and Grill with a view of the Plaza, some t-shirts, and a small bundle of white sage was all we paid for.

We stopped at what is advertized as the oldest house in America before heading back to Albuquerque on I 25, nowhere near the great experience of route 14.

The Road from Albuquerque, NM to Bluff, UT

On the road early via I40 to Gallup, NM then north to Shiprock on NM 491 where we ate lunch. Two hours later we arrived at Cadillac Ranch RV Park after driving a rough NM 160W to Arizona then 191N another really rough road.

We encountered rain, hail, sleet, and snow. Quite the adventure. By the time we arrived at the RV park, the weather had changed for the better. After a bit of vehicle clean-up and planning the next 2 days, we headed directly across the street to Bluff Fort. The descendants of Mormon settlers have created a museum that details the rugged trip taken by the settlers on a planned 6 week trip that became a 6 months challenge.

Happy hour followed smartly and a delicious White Chicken Chili dinner at the Holder Rolling Home!

Canyon De Chelly

In Bluff, Utah, we are 98 miles north of Canyon De Chelly National Monument, a part of Navajo Nation. The drive is long but well worth the time. The Visitor Center, North Rim and South Rim are accessible to normal vehicles. To tour the Canyon itself you must pay for a Navajo guide to drive you through because it is private farm land and Navajo camps.

We stopped at all the accessible overlooks. We did not make the 3 mile hike (roundtrip) 600 ft drop/climb of the White House Trail! But we did venture to the edges of the vistas and were rewarded with spectacular views that will never be as spectacular in photos as they are in person and in our memories!

Valley of the Gods - Gooseneck State Park - Moki Dugway

Valley of the Gods, managed by the Bureau of Land Management, is a 17-mile loop gravel road with sharp turns and it crosses several washes. It takes a few hours drive to see the erosion sculpted formations. So we have crossed off one item on our bucket list.

From the Valley we drove to Gooseneck State Park where the San Juan River flows 1000ft below the overlook. What we saw took over 300 million years to carve the entrenched river meander! That's a fancy term for a slow flowing river that took forever to wear away.

Our final challenge was driving the Moki Dugway from the Valley to the top of the Mesa, a 1200 foot climb over 3 miles of gravel road at an 11% grade --- breathtaking! Charles Holder drove his Jeep, which was the perfect vehicle for the Valley of the Gods and the Moki Dugway which was built for ore trucks. Our pictures don't give it justice!

Monument Valley - Unparalleled

On Friday, May 19th, we drove less than 50 miles to our next stop, Goulding's Monument Valley Camp Park, situated among the rocks that provide an amazing backdrop for our little vehicles! After getting our rigs hooked up, we headed into the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park which is located in Arizona. . Twenty dollars gets a car of four people a four day pass, worth every penny.

May 20th began with an early morning visit to the Park. In 3 hours we covered the 17+ miles that brought us so close the the magnificent Monuments. As we ate lunch in The View restaurant, we all agreed that touring in the bed of an open pickup truck would have been unbearable with all the dust stirred up by other vehicles. We did our share of stirring up dust, as you can see!