From The Canyon To The Valley
Sep. 19th, 2021 11:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waitingmanUSA Roadtrip 2012 - Day 11 (already?!)
Sept. 21 Friday – Kingman to Monument Valley
Thank god for our nearly new Nespresso machine, then out of the Super 8 by about 8.30am, then 200m up the road to yet another American fast-food experience. Jack In The Box does a limited breakfast range, but did it well enough for us. No time for a ‘proper’ sit-down breakfast, as we had a few hundred miles to cover before arriving at the south-eastern end of the Grand Canyon... the one that everyone seems to go to
We hit the freeway, then progressively smaller roads, including a short stint on Route 66 again through Williams, before finding the road to the Canyon & its procession of ever-slower cars all heading the same way as us. Steve the Great Escape proved up to the challenge though
Now, let us compare methodologies: Grand Canyon West, operated by the Hualapai Nation was a bit expensive ticket-wise, but well organised with shuttle buses & a meal included at any one of the four stops. There were few guard rails at the Canyon’s edge, but that just made the masses behave carefully &, by & large, more responsibly. Native guides were easily found & the whole park was pleasingly underdeveloped for such a major attraction. Grand Canyon South/East on the other hand, was an overdeveloped, overcrowded, underorganised chaotic sprawl. There are lodges, gift shops, cafés & sundry other ‘essential’ service buildings all over the place, all obscuring the views of the Canyon which, after all, is what you’re there for, not to sit in a combination café/gift shop feeding your face & buying postcards of a view you’re too stuffed to go & find for yourself. We elected to drive ourselves around the viewpoints instead of forking out for a bus tour & signposting was (possibly deliberately?) confusing. Parking at the ‘major’ sites was often a looong way from the place itself & before long, both of us were sick of being pushed past, pushed aside & obstructed by busloads of tourists who used their language barrier as an excuse to dispense with common manners. At one location, I was taking a photo at the end of a platform with a low rail over an extremely high drop & was pushed from behind twice. I was on the verge of announcing that the next person who pushed me while I was close to the edge would be thrown off it, when the crowd suddenly cleared & headed back to their bus. Maybe my facial expression said it all for me
So having reached our patience threshold, we headed off down the ‘Desert View’ road – twenty five miles of much less crowded views, out of the Park, out of the National Forest & into the Din’eh (Navajo) Nation, on our way to Monument Valley
At a particularly impressive view of the end of the canyon, we stopped for photos & had a twenty minute chat with three Navajo running a crafts stand. They’d heard my accent as we’d walked past to the canyon edge (Them: “Don’t jump off the edge!!” Me: “Not today!”) & one of them picked me as Australian, another bet him that I was French (that's a first!!). We started by comparing deadly animals, native peoples, Uluru vs the Grand Canyon, the proper name for the Navajo – Din’eh & we bought some of the wild pinon nuts they’d picked in the woods that morning. Nice people, very friendly & eager to talk. Unlike the Hualapai we’d seen at the western end, who had all looked mightily pissed off about having to stand around in ‘traditional’ native costume & deal with the great white unwashed. But then, I could totally sympathise - I’ve worked in sales... & in uniform more years than I care to remember. God knows what their conversations are like after work. Probably a lot like mine, but with generations of resentment to back them up
The eastern 'end' of the Canyon... still pretty deep though, hence the Navajo's warning!
We’d planned to get to Monument Valley in time for the sunset light on the rocks, but as the road stretched on & the cars in front became ever more intransigent, it was soon obvious that we weren’t going to make it. Especially after Jeeves the Navman (who'd undergone a gender change to a male voice) sent us down a ‘B’ road, just past a highway turnoff, that turned out to be about ten miles of red dust & some close encounters with even redder rock formations, before coming out onto the highway we’d not turned down on his advice
A great advertising photo for the 2013 Ford Escape. NOT a great advertising photo for NavMan guidance systems!!
Coming into Kayenta, the nearest town to the Valley, the land formations grew ever more impressive & the twilight gloom gave them a dim, ghostly atmosphere. As night fell, we stopped in town to find petrol, accommodation & dinner. A room was found at ‘The View’ Hotel, twenty-odd miles out of town, just over the Utah border & importantly, right at the entrance to the Valley. Dinner was found at the Kayenta Inn, where the food was Mexican –influenced & pretty good actually. There we learned that the Navajo Nation is ‘dry’ – no alcohol is sold or served. No huge problem... we should be in Boulder tomorrow night, sharing a wine with Flickr Friend Gary, who we’ll be staying with for a few days
After dinner we drove out to ‘The View’ & found that it’s quite a large place. Hard to tell any more about it in the dark... we’ll see how it compares to the local scenery tomorrow... at dawn
Well, we missed the sunset light, so let’s see what sunrise can do...
Sept. 21 Friday – Kingman to Monument Valley
Thank god for our nearly new Nespresso machine, then out of the Super 8 by about 8.30am, then 200m up the road to yet another American fast-food experience. Jack In The Box does a limited breakfast range, but did it well enough for us. No time for a ‘proper’ sit-down breakfast, as we had a few hundred miles to cover before arriving at the south-eastern end of the Grand Canyon... the one that everyone seems to go to
We hit the freeway, then progressively smaller roads, including a short stint on Route 66 again through Williams, before finding the road to the Canyon & its procession of ever-slower cars all heading the same way as us. Steve the Great Escape proved up to the challenge though
Now, let us compare methodologies: Grand Canyon West, operated by the Hualapai Nation was a bit expensive ticket-wise, but well organised with shuttle buses & a meal included at any one of the four stops. There were few guard rails at the Canyon’s edge, but that just made the masses behave carefully &, by & large, more responsibly. Native guides were easily found & the whole park was pleasingly underdeveloped for such a major attraction. Grand Canyon South/East on the other hand, was an overdeveloped, overcrowded, underorganised chaotic sprawl. There are lodges, gift shops, cafés & sundry other ‘essential’ service buildings all over the place, all obscuring the views of the Canyon which, after all, is what you’re there for, not to sit in a combination café/gift shop feeding your face & buying postcards of a view you’re too stuffed to go & find for yourself. We elected to drive ourselves around the viewpoints instead of forking out for a bus tour & signposting was (possibly deliberately?) confusing. Parking at the ‘major’ sites was often a looong way from the place itself & before long, both of us were sick of being pushed past, pushed aside & obstructed by busloads of tourists who used their language barrier as an excuse to dispense with common manners. At one location, I was taking a photo at the end of a platform with a low rail over an extremely high drop & was pushed from behind twice. I was on the verge of announcing that the next person who pushed me while I was close to the edge would be thrown off it, when the crowd suddenly cleared & headed back to their bus. Maybe my facial expression said it all for me
So having reached our patience threshold, we headed off down the ‘Desert View’ road – twenty five miles of much less crowded views, out of the Park, out of the National Forest & into the Din’eh (Navajo) Nation, on our way to Monument Valley
At a particularly impressive view of the end of the canyon, we stopped for photos & had a twenty minute chat with three Navajo running a crafts stand. They’d heard my accent as we’d walked past to the canyon edge (Them: “Don’t jump off the edge!!” Me: “Not today!”) & one of them picked me as Australian, another bet him that I was French (that's a first!!). We started by comparing deadly animals, native peoples, Uluru vs the Grand Canyon, the proper name for the Navajo – Din’eh & we bought some of the wild pinon nuts they’d picked in the woods that morning. Nice people, very friendly & eager to talk. Unlike the Hualapai we’d seen at the western end, who had all looked mightily pissed off about having to stand around in ‘traditional’ native costume & deal with the great white unwashed. But then, I could totally sympathise - I’ve worked in sales... & in uniform more years than I care to remember. God knows what their conversations are like after work. Probably a lot like mine, but with generations of resentment to back them up
The eastern 'end' of the Canyon... still pretty deep though, hence the Navajo's warning!
We’d planned to get to Monument Valley in time for the sunset light on the rocks, but as the road stretched on & the cars in front became ever more intransigent, it was soon obvious that we weren’t going to make it. Especially after Jeeves the Navman (who'd undergone a gender change to a male voice) sent us down a ‘B’ road, just past a highway turnoff, that turned out to be about ten miles of red dust & some close encounters with even redder rock formations, before coming out onto the highway we’d not turned down on his advice
A great advertising photo for the 2013 Ford Escape. NOT a great advertising photo for NavMan guidance systems!!
Coming into Kayenta, the nearest town to the Valley, the land formations grew ever more impressive & the twilight gloom gave them a dim, ghostly atmosphere. As night fell, we stopped in town to find petrol, accommodation & dinner. A room was found at ‘The View’ Hotel, twenty-odd miles out of town, just over the Utah border & importantly, right at the entrance to the Valley. Dinner was found at the Kayenta Inn, where the food was Mexican –influenced & pretty good actually. There we learned that the Navajo Nation is ‘dry’ – no alcohol is sold or served. No huge problem... we should be in Boulder tomorrow night, sharing a wine with Flickr Friend Gary, who we’ll be staying with for a few days
After dinner we drove out to ‘The View’ & found that it’s quite a large place. Hard to tell any more about it in the dark... we’ll see how it compares to the local scenery tomorrow... at dawn
Well, we missed the sunset light, so let’s see what sunrise can do...
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Date: 2021-09-19 03:16 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-19 06:57 am (UTC)