From The Valley To The Mountains
Sep. 20th, 2021 02:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waitingmanIt's day 12...
Sept. 22 Saturday – Monument Valley to Boulder
5am in Monument Valley is still pitch black. Groggily & maybe a tad grumpily, we gathered cameras, tripods & went down to the lobby to ask the night-clerk about sunrise times & the best place to shoot from. He recommended the upstairs balcony, where we met a few other early risers with their cameras already set up & as the pre-dawn light gradually crept in, we found the desk clerk was absolutely right. Julia was almost speechlessly impressed by the sheer size of the three ‘main’ features that emerged from the dark directly in front of us & rightly so... they’re huge! Not to mention extremely photogenic in any light...
... from dim pre-dawn to morning sun.
The Monument Valley View Hotel, with a name like that, must be used to hungry photographers about half an hour after sunrise, because the dining room was opening as we were packing up. After a decent buffet breakfast where we were asked if we’d like bacon or sausage with our meal (Answer: Yes!!), we took Steve McQueen down the dirt trail in front of the Hotel & out onto the Valley floor for a three hour drive around this incredible place
Many stops & photos later we pulled up at the horse corral at John Ford Point, where tourists can hire mounts for a longer guided tour. A bunch of people were photographing a young foal, which attracted the attention of other, larger horses which began crowding around us – especially when someone started feeding them apple slices. As I was lining up a shot of the young horse, a mottled grey hairy chest appeared in my viewfinder. It was a large horse who had been spooked by something & was headed right for/over/through me. For a split second I thought I was in serious trouble, but I was knocked on my backside & shunted aside as the grey trotted away, followed by a few other skittish mounts. Nothing hurt but my pride... & at least we didn’t have the problem of Steve being surrounded by horses all looking for more tourist treats, like the car that belonged to the ones who’d been offering apples was, meaning they weren’t going anywhere for a little while
On the drive back up to the Hotel, we encountered a black dog wandering along the trail. We’d seen him on the balcony at dawn, playfully attacking a Japanese tourist’s leather moccasin. He seemed rather pleased that we stopped & even happier when I opened a bottle of water & poured it out into a plastic bag that served as a crude water bowl. He drank the whole bottle, but wasn’t interested in being patted, nor overly co-operative about getting in the car so we could take him back to the Hotel. Another car came down the trail & he trotted over to them, which we took as a sign he was just out inspecting his territory & now that he wasn’t thirsty, we were free to go. So we did. I’m sure one of the many open-top tourist wagons would pick him up at some stage...
Leaving Monument Valley was hard. It's a beautiful place that seemed to have a kind of spiritual effect on us, even in the short time we were there. If our schedule had really allowed it, we'd have stayed at least another day - & in hindsight, we possibly could have (2021 update: We returned in 2016 for 2 & a bit days & it still wasn't long enough!!). It's a given that next time we come here, we'll book a room with a view for maybe about a week... maybe more? But for now,the long road beckoned & we left, heading vaguely north-east, stopping at the famous Mile Marker 13 for some photos of the now distant Valley & the obligatory Forrest Gump moment
"I'm pretty tired..."
... & a drive-by photo shooting of Mexican Hat...
... & Church Rock...
Then began the marathon drive through Utah, into Colorado & across the Rocky Mountains to Boulder. Our only other main stop was a drive through Arches National Park. This place is like a Giant Kid’s playpen – the rock formations look like mounds of clay or play-dough that have been slapped down on the ground in crude formations that make Monument Valley look like high art
Still kind of appealing though, which explained the people all over the park, all over the formations & mostly all over fifty years old – the number of RVs getting around the roads was remarkable... & on occasion those remarks were slightly derogatory about their driving skills, or lack thereof. A few stops for proper photos, but more drive-bys with the point’n’shoots as our patience with the masses wore thin. A place to come back to another time... on a weekday (2021 update: As with Monument Valley, we returned in 2016 for a longer visit, saw a lot more of the park, then discovered Canyonlands up the road... One for next time!!)
Late afternoon/early evening, we crossed the border into Colorado, grabbed a fast-food dinner to eat on the go & reached the Rocky foothills by dusk. As the light faded, we lost sight of the increasingly large peaks & driving became a bit more intense. what with winding roads, tunnels, more winding roads & sleepy ski resort towns. We hit the outskirts of Denver/Boulder at about 10pm & after a newly British-sounding Navman-guided, zigzag run around town, we arrived at Gary’s place at 10.30. My eyes by this time were extremely light-sensitive – even the green lights on the road were painful to me, not something I’ve ever said before, or ever thought I would. The odometer on the Escape now stood at 2100 miles since we’d left San Francisco, with many more to come
Gary, his wife Kathy & their three dogs were all still up & excited to see us... especially the dogs (small, medium & large), who took a shine to me almost immediately. Gary & Kathy had many questions & chicken noodle soup for us & we did our best to deal with all of it, before gratefully hitting the guest bed at around midnight. A long day, but a really good one
Sept. 22 Saturday – Monument Valley to Boulder
5am in Monument Valley is still pitch black. Groggily & maybe a tad grumpily, we gathered cameras, tripods & went down to the lobby to ask the night-clerk about sunrise times & the best place to shoot from. He recommended the upstairs balcony, where we met a few other early risers with their cameras already set up & as the pre-dawn light gradually crept in, we found the desk clerk was absolutely right. Julia was almost speechlessly impressed by the sheer size of the three ‘main’ features that emerged from the dark directly in front of us & rightly so... they’re huge! Not to mention extremely photogenic in any light...
... from dim pre-dawn to morning sun.
The Monument Valley View Hotel, with a name like that, must be used to hungry photographers about half an hour after sunrise, because the dining room was opening as we were packing up. After a decent buffet breakfast where we were asked if we’d like bacon or sausage with our meal (Answer: Yes!!), we took Steve McQueen down the dirt trail in front of the Hotel & out onto the Valley floor for a three hour drive around this incredible place
Many stops & photos later we pulled up at the horse corral at John Ford Point, where tourists can hire mounts for a longer guided tour. A bunch of people were photographing a young foal, which attracted the attention of other, larger horses which began crowding around us – especially when someone started feeding them apple slices. As I was lining up a shot of the young horse, a mottled grey hairy chest appeared in my viewfinder. It was a large horse who had been spooked by something & was headed right for/over/through me. For a split second I thought I was in serious trouble, but I was knocked on my backside & shunted aside as the grey trotted away, followed by a few other skittish mounts. Nothing hurt but my pride... & at least we didn’t have the problem of Steve being surrounded by horses all looking for more tourist treats, like the car that belonged to the ones who’d been offering apples was, meaning they weren’t going anywhere for a little while
On the drive back up to the Hotel, we encountered a black dog wandering along the trail. We’d seen him on the balcony at dawn, playfully attacking a Japanese tourist’s leather moccasin. He seemed rather pleased that we stopped & even happier when I opened a bottle of water & poured it out into a plastic bag that served as a crude water bowl. He drank the whole bottle, but wasn’t interested in being patted, nor overly co-operative about getting in the car so we could take him back to the Hotel. Another car came down the trail & he trotted over to them, which we took as a sign he was just out inspecting his territory & now that he wasn’t thirsty, we were free to go. So we did. I’m sure one of the many open-top tourist wagons would pick him up at some stage...
Leaving Monument Valley was hard. It's a beautiful place that seemed to have a kind of spiritual effect on us, even in the short time we were there. If our schedule had really allowed it, we'd have stayed at least another day - & in hindsight, we possibly could have (2021 update: We returned in 2016 for 2 & a bit days & it still wasn't long enough!!). It's a given that next time we come here, we'll book a room with a view for maybe about a week... maybe more? But for now,the long road beckoned & we left, heading vaguely north-east, stopping at the famous Mile Marker 13 for some photos of the now distant Valley & the obligatory Forrest Gump moment
"I'm pretty tired..."
... & a drive-by photo shooting of Mexican Hat...
... & Church Rock...
Then began the marathon drive through Utah, into Colorado & across the Rocky Mountains to Boulder. Our only other main stop was a drive through Arches National Park. This place is like a Giant Kid’s playpen – the rock formations look like mounds of clay or play-dough that have been slapped down on the ground in crude formations that make Monument Valley look like high art
Still kind of appealing though, which explained the people all over the park, all over the formations & mostly all over fifty years old – the number of RVs getting around the roads was remarkable... & on occasion those remarks were slightly derogatory about their driving skills, or lack thereof. A few stops for proper photos, but more drive-bys with the point’n’shoots as our patience with the masses wore thin. A place to come back to another time... on a weekday (2021 update: As with Monument Valley, we returned in 2016 for a longer visit, saw a lot more of the park, then discovered Canyonlands up the road... One for next time!!)
Late afternoon/early evening, we crossed the border into Colorado, grabbed a fast-food dinner to eat on the go & reached the Rocky foothills by dusk. As the light faded, we lost sight of the increasingly large peaks & driving became a bit more intense. what with winding roads, tunnels, more winding roads & sleepy ski resort towns. We hit the outskirts of Denver/Boulder at about 10pm & after a newly British-sounding Navman-guided, zigzag run around town, we arrived at Gary’s place at 10.30. My eyes by this time were extremely light-sensitive – even the green lights on the road were painful to me, not something I’ve ever said before, or ever thought I would. The odometer on the Escape now stood at 2100 miles since we’d left San Francisco, with many more to come
Gary, his wife Kathy & their three dogs were all still up & excited to see us... especially the dogs (small, medium & large), who took a shine to me almost immediately. Gary & Kathy had many questions & chicken noodle soup for us & we did our best to deal with all of it, before gratefully hitting the guest bed at around midnight. A long day, but a really good one
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Date: 2021-09-20 01:06 pm (UTC)