The beauty that is Monument Valley

Last night wasn’t the best night on our adventure. We had some very inconsiderate neighbours who talked very loudly way past midnight (quiet time in the hotel is 10pm to 7am). I’m not one to normally take action but as we had to be up early for our horse ride I had to do the old knock on the wall so they got the hint. They were very gracious and stopped talking but then went for a long shower and the water pipes in the hotel are very noisy 😂

Anyway long story short, Dave and I didn’t get much sleep last night. I think I got about 2 hours and Dave about 4!

We were up, showered, dressed and down at the breakfast room at 7.00am for the complimentary breakfast. Unfortunately, I am finding the further we go into the ‘outback’ on our trip, the less and less gluten free food I can find. I am quickly running out of things to eat. Breakfast this morning only had tinned peaches and yoghurt that I could eat, Dave on the other hand had a great breakfast. I should have enough food until Saturday when we move onto Moab. I have already checked their grocery store out and it seems to have a lot of gluten free goods.

The more we sat at breakfast and watched the wind and the dusk, we knew that horse riding would not be very pleasant today so when we got back to our room, I telephoned the company and they were happy to reschedule until Friday at 11am.

As there was a winter storm warning in place and warnings to say don’t drive unless necessary due to high winds, we decided to have a slow day. I read and slept and Dave slept and took in the view.

After lunch we thought the wind had dropped a little and got ready to go for a short drive. We went outside to see what the temperature was like and I said to Dave ‘look snowflakes’. So, being Aussies who never get to see snow fall, went about filming and standing in the snow. Though it was only flurries, it still snowed for us!

About an hour later, it started to clear so we went down to the Trading Post as we had $80 worth of gift vouchers to spend on Native Indian artwork. Each night you stay, you get a $20 voucher. Well we got 3 amazing sand paintings framed. They will look absolutely beautiful on our travel wall at home. We also got a mug, shot glass, sticker and magnet of Monument Valley.

Back to the room to drop these purchases off before braving the high winds and -9 degree temps to go for a walk to look around. It was all worth it as we got some amazing photos. Our faces and hands took a while to get feeling back in them after we got back though.

Tomorrow we are hoping the wind has dropped and we can do some driving around.Read more