Tuesday, November 25
Packed up and got a 9am or so start. Fog in the morning, but not nearly as dense as yesterday. Cool photos from the room. We had breakfast at the Blue Coffee Pot restaurant in Kayenta, good eats.
Drove through to Page, shopped at the Safeway for Thanksgiving and adult drink beverage supplies. Next stop was Kanab for a quick Mikey-Dees and a potty stop at Bee’s in Colorado City.
The drive was much more picturesque on the way back, nice to see what you are driving through!
About 650 miles or so, round trip.
Monday, November 24 – Happy Birthday!
Solid fog early in the morning. Our room package included a breakfast buffet, marginal at best. The fog wasn’t lifting. I though for sure, by 10am.
We headed over to the blue pickup point and Lorraine Bagay was ready to go. Off we went and we couldn’t see a thing, everything we knew was there, wasn’t. She recommended to the park superintendent that they close it, until the fog lifted.
By 10:30, Lorraine suggested we turn around and reschedule for later in the day, since we were staying one more night. I had thought of asking, but she volunteered first. We picked 2:00 pm. With a little time to kill, we drove back to Forest Gump to see the opportunities, not much better, so we headed back. The fog was still pretty stubborn in the park, but on highway 163, there were some cool photo ops.
Lunch back at Goulding’s, right before a tour bus arrived and then it was 2pm time. The fog was definitely burning off.
We had booked the extra loop, the 2.5 hour trip, and it was amazing. The colors and shadows were growing in places, but the views were amazing and Lorraine was a fount of knowledge. We were done by 4:30 or so. Pizza at the Goulding’s gas station was the birthday celebration, not so good but the fare is limited there in Monument Valley. A nice slow evening watching Apple TV.
Sunday, November 23
Wandered around and got ready to take off. Where is my wallet? Long story, short, at Fiesta Mexicana! After panicking around for a while, I drove over around 7:30 am to the restaurant, hoping someone would be there, but it was locked up. Cold and drizzly weather forecast too, groan.
I finally remembered that the Apple wallet tag was in my wallet, turned on Find My, Devices and there it was, beaconing at me from the restaurant.
Breakfast was at the Rustic Thistle, the chicken fried steak (we split it) was the best I’ve ever had, super light and yummy, highly recommended.
10:30 back to the restaurant (it opened at 11am) and a manager was just arriving. I asked about my wallet and he promptly brought it out. All was intact and we gave him/the worker who turned it it/ a small reward. Whew!
Drove highway 98 to highway 160 to 163. I had hoped to do Moki Dugway, Mexican Hat and then the Forest Gump Point, but the weather did not cooperate. We drove to the Hat Rock Inn on the San Juan river, stopped at Mexican Hat for photo ops and finally Forest Gump Point. Got the photo op, but the clouds were low and obscured part of the Monument Valley. Oh well.
Continued on to the View Hotel for our 2 night reservations. I remember a ‘obscured’ view room, but room 111 was great. It would have been better to be on the 3rd floor, but the hotel has no elevators. Nice clean room and great views.
After dumping off our stuff in the room, I headed over to scope out the tour situation for tomorrow. We can drive our own vehicle in or you can do a tour (much easier with a guide). I stumbled on ‘Sacred Monument‘ outfitters and booked us on the 10am tour. We chose a Suburban rather than the outside truck bench seating. Lorraine, our guide was there, we introduced ourselves and she mentioned that the food, in general, was better at Goulding’s Lodge across the valley (just about 5 miles to the west). The restaurant at The View is pretty limited, but Goulding’s wasn’t much better. There is NO alcohol on the reservation, I had a non-alcoholic Guinness, interesting.
During dinner, the sun started to break through and illuminate the buttes. Oh well, was able to get one photo op on the return back to the View.
Saturday, November 22
We decided to leave in the afternoon and overnight in Page, Az. The drive from home to Monument Valley/Mexican Hat/Moki Dugway would be a long Sunday, so we broke it up. In one long day trip, it wouldn’t give me much time to explore.
Room was at the Courtyard by Marriott, Lake Powell. It was a little tired, clean, but not up to the photos on the website. We were on the 4th floor and arrived about 4:30 pm. Checked in a headed out to dinner at the Fiesta Mexicana on the boulevard. It looked familiar, it is the same chain restaurant up in Moab, Utah. Good food and killer margaritas.