Off We Go

 June 16

The day after we left Deming (June 15), we stopped at Chinle at Canyon de Chelly National Monument for lunch (they have a picnic area).  I sent Wyatt a text message telling him we were at Chinle.  The autocorrect on my iPhone changed it to Chinless AZ.  So much for autocorrect.

Got into Bluff UT this afternoon about 3:00 to a little gem of an RV park (Cadillac Ranch RV Park).  Only 14 spaces and we have space 13, farthest from the highway.  Below are a couple of photos of our views from here.  This is an historic area.  Drove through some of the old section of the town (town only has 320 people so it was a short drive).   It’s easy to see why it’s named Bluff.

Here are a couple of views from our space in the park:

Fort Bluff

We are in this area to see Monument Valley and the Valley of the Gods.  Monument Valley was the location for innumerable cowboy movies of the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s so some of this will look familiar.  Valley of the Gods is not as well known and we will go there on Saturday.  Our friend Nancy recommended Valley of the Gods.  Sometimes you take her recommendations with a grain of salt but this time, she appears to be spot on.

Today we drove the length of Monument Valley.  The Navajo tribe owns this land and they wanted $20 for up to 4 people per car to drive their 17 mile road through the most scenic section.  Being fundamentally cheap, I declined.  We have great photos anyway, so there.  We saw one side of the buttes and the people driving the Navajo toll road saw another view. 

Years ago, Mike traveled through here on a motorcycle and remembered a restaurant on a cliff above the San Juan River.  On our way back from Monument Valley, we stopped there for lunch.  As always, we did a coin toss to see who paid…I lost…again.  (Mike says he has lost every coin toss since January, so he was due.)  Mike seems to lose the cheap coin tosses; lunch at Palomas MX at the Pink Store is $15 maybe, including margaritas.  Lunch today was $21.20 cheeseburgers, onion rings, fries with no beers.  Ouch.

There is a walkway which overlooks the river outside the restaurant building  but it appears to have been closed for some time.  This sign is posted on the door:

The manager here at the RV park suggested we go to Muley Point.  She said she has been there on a clear day and could see Ship Rock AZ, 100 miles away.  It’s 1200 feet from the valley floor and a twisting, gravel road most of the way up. 

Moki Dugway and Muley Point

We got to a hairpin turn about halfway up and saw some poor guy pulled off at an overlook with the hood of his car up.  He was still there when we were coming back down, probably an hour later.  

All my photos are less crisp than I would like.  The park manager said there is a wildfire in western AZ and the smoke/particulates are blowing into this area as the prevailing wind is SW to NE. 


Native American rock art appears in a lot of places out here.  As we were coming back to the park in Bluff, we stopped at a state park which borders the San Juan River.  River was running deep and fast, as it's snow-melt.  Took a trail down into the park and saw this:

Valley of the Gods

Another nearly empty park and just stunning.  And it was free.  

Having seen the sights in and around Bluff UT, we headed out to Torrey UT to see Capitol Reef National Park. On the way, we passed the Natural Bridges National Monument entrance.  We had left early enough that we had time to stop.  If you are in the area, this is a DON'T MISS park.  Very few visitors (I think we saw five other vehicles).  

There is a forest of pygmy juniper trees at this park.  We came into the park while it was still cool but as the air warmed, I could smell the scent of the junipers.  It was lovely.

We kept running into a couple with another RPOD.  

We stopped for lunch at what we thought was a state park on Lake Powell.  The drought in the west has been so severe, the boat ramp is now yards short of the very shallow water.  The poor guy who has the bait/beer/groceries concession here is probably starving.

Found the park in Torrey easily and got settled.  Here is what we could see from our site:

Capitol Reef National Park

Arrived in Torrey UT to tour Capitol Reef National Park.  This park is quite busy and the scenery we had passed the day before made this park less impressive...until we came to the end of the paved road.  

This last section of the car-accessible park is simply spectacular.

In the past week or so we have encountered tourists from Holland, France, Northern Ireland, England, Switzerland and Germany.  I don't remember bumping into so many Europeans before anywhere except, of course, in Europe.  Wondering if these folks thought, "There's no safe place to go in Europe, so we'll go out to the wide open spaces."

Headed out from Torrey to Heber City UT, east of Salt Lake City, for a couple of days of down time.  You have to buy groceries and do laundry and it's tough to do when you are moving and touring.  This waterfall is on US189 going up the mountains into Heber City.

Heber City is a pleasant little burg.  Here's a photo from our campsite.  Still snow in the high country.

We leave tomorrow (Friday, June 24) for various destinations in Idaho, working our way over to the western part of the state to visit my long-time friends Kathy and Bosco.  More posts to come.