Monument Valley (Arizona, Utah)

We left Cubero and got back on Route 66 for a while, where we visited Gallup for an hour and had coffee in a nice little café. Then we headed north into Arizona. The landscape changed and soon we were in wide valleys with huge rock formations all around.
An hour before sunset we reached our campground in Monument Valley. The National Monument is on the Arizona side of the state line, but the scenery doesn't end there. Our campground was less than a mile from the monument and already in Utah. We parked the car, talked to the grandfather of the Navajo family that owns and lives at the campground, and then followed a small trail to the rim of the canyon where we had an amazing view of parts of Monument Valley and the vast desert surrounding it.
The sunset was magnificent. The evening sun hit the big mountains next to us and we took a lot of pictures. But the sunset was nothing compared to the sunrise we saw the next morning. We had set the alarm for 6am, poured ourselves a cup of coffee and headed back to the canyon rim. We didn't know exactly what time the sun would rise, so we got up early and got the whole spectrum from dark blue night sky to pink morning sky to intense orange sunrise behind the massive rock towers of Monument Valley. Beautiful!

The valley can be explored on a scenic drive. The road was quite bumpy and at the entrance we were asked if we had driven the car off-road before. I guess they want to make sure that tourists don't get stuck halfway through. We stopped at several pullouts, took a picture at John Ford Point and ate Navajo fry bread. There were a lot of tourists, but the experience was still great. The landscape perfectly reflects what every child imagines the Wild West to be like from comic books like Lucky Luke or any Wild West movie. 🤠🦬🏇🏹

Before leaving the area, we drove to Forrest Gump Point, a piece of road where he is interviewed while running across the country, bearded and followed by a large group of imitators. We certainly weren't alone, but the view was truly exceptional.Read more