Mar 12, 2012 - Monument Valley ,Utah - March 12-14

Nothing can describe the feeling you have when you come over a ridge and Monument Valley is the total view from east to West and all around. Perhaps the only camera to catch it would be an IMAX camera. We are staying at Gouldings Lodge & RV Resort because of their location and the many tours offered . Ed says being here just for a couple of hours has brought him complete calm and relaxation.It must be so because when we pulled in and had almost finished setting up he discovered the sewer connection in the ground was plugged .Found this by...

Oct 31, 2011 - Four Corners and Monument Valley, Sedona and Home

On our way from Cortez, Co. to Monument Valley we took a short side trip to the Four Corners of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. 3 dollars each to see the monument. The drive through Navaho Reservation was littered with bear bottles for miles and miles. We stayed at Gouldings Rv Park, it was really nice and we had a great view again. Visited the original home of the Gouldings, now a museum to them and the movies John's Wayne and Ford made in the area. We took a guided tour of the Navaho Tribal Lands with our knowledged Navaho guide....

Sep 28, 2011 - Monument Valley, UT

September 25, 26, 27, 2011 – Monument Valley, UT Goulding’s Camp Park We have been looking forward to seeing Monument Valley. It is like seeing the old west, at least the old west from the westerns of the 30’s and 40’s. Where oh where is John Wayne? Remember the old movie Stagecoach? It was the first of the westerns filmed here in the 30’s. Later, in addition to many other westerns, they filmed another John Wayne film here called She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. The “John Wayne” house from that movie is still here. The Goulding’s Lodge and Camp...

Sep 21, 2011 - Cortez to Monument Valley, UT

Leaving Cortez a little before 0900, in the middle of rush hour (well, not really), we drove southwest on US 160. We were barely out of Cortez when we entered the Ute Mountain Tribal Lands. We soon passed the Ute Casino with a service station offering fuel about $.20 less than in town, a nice looking RV Park and the casino. Not needing any of those services, we drove on. About 20 miles later, we took a right turn into the Four Corners Monument area. The Four Corners Monument is on Navajo Tribal Lands and is administered by the Navajo Parks...

Jun 22, 2011 - Touring Monument Valley

GOULDINGS RV PARK-MONUMENT VALLEY,UT 6/22/11 The action started today at 3:30 PM when we boarded a tour buggy...built on the back of a flat bed truck. School bus seats and open air. The driver is the tour guide and speaks to us with a PA system with speaker in our compartment. It was a 28 mile trip thru the back country of Monument Valley on dirt roads...red sand and rocks for a road bed. If I can get out of bed in the morning, I will know that my back surgery was a real success. It was a tough ride, but the only way to see some really...

Jun 21, 2011 - The Four Corners

GOULDINGS RV PARK- MONUMENT VALLEY, UT. 6/21/11 The first day of Summer is here. Seems like it started in May back in Georgia, with 100 degree days. The people out here think it is hot now..the temps are high, but the low humidity makes it feel cool in the shade. We took our side trip to the four corners today. I think we got out of bed about 0800 and were ready to leave at 10. It's a 103 mile trip over there on two good US highways, so it took less than 2 hours to drive it. The Four Corners Monument is the spot where the state lines of...

Jun 20, 2011 - Rest and Relaxation

GOULDINGS RV PARK-MONUMENT VALLEY,UT. 6/20/11 This was a rest up and relax day. This is the day we should have been driving down here, as the wind has been just a light breeze. I'm going to have to do more weather research after this before deciding when to hit the road. This morning I did the journal for yesterday. Also spent a couple hours on-line with AOL support trying to figure out why my AOL software won't connect to the internet here.. still don't know, but I'm getting by with Internet Explorer. Ah technology.. Edie got some time...

Jun 19, 2011 - Wild and windy ride to Monument Valley

GOULDINGS RESORT & RV PARK-MONUMENT VALLEY, UT 6/19/11 Today is moving day. We were both up by 0800. We weren't in a hurry to get going, so after breakfast, we did the stowing,unhooking and hooking the car at a leisurely pace. After a stop at a nearby station to top off fuel, we were on the road by 11AM for a 258 mile trip to the Arizona/Utah border. The only thing you know for sure about this area of the country, is there will be wind. What you don't know is how fast or from what direction it will be coming. Of course it normally is not...

Jun 16, 2011 - Monument Valley and the Navajo Indian Nation

Today we breakfast in the famous Rainbow room with sweeping views of Lake Powell. We then leave Arizona and enter Utah - thus loosing an hour of time in the process. We headed for the Navajo Indian Nation. We took a guided jeep tour of the restricted back country of Monument valley, a beautiful pristine area of buttes and arches accessible only with authorised Navajo guides. We take an extremely bumpy jeep trip into the monument valley itself so that we can see close up the various rock formations and colours. The area appears in countless...

Jun 5, 2011 - Monument Valley - Goulding's Camp Park

It was a leisurely 98 mile drive down to Monument Valley Friday. We had the usual grades up and down and more great scenery. We are staying at Goulding's RV Camp Park which is just outside the Navajo Tribal Park. We have 50 amp full hookups with good WiFi until the campground fills up at night. Amazingly, most of the sites empty every day and then fill up again that evening. We spent the rest of the day Friday getting our tour tickets for Saturday and watching the Lady Gators get kicked to the loser's bracket at the Women's College World...

May 19, 2011 - Monument Valley

We spent the day traveling around the Monument Valley area. Just down the road from where we are camping is Mexican Hat, Utah. I will attach a picture of the rock formation it is named after. The area is beautiful and breathtaking. Especially when you realize how many years it took to form these monuments. A fellow traveler said today "it made you feel like you were dropped here from another world". We drove up HWY 261 which takes you up out of the "Valley of the Gods'. It was 3-4 miles of switchback road. The road was well maintained and...

Apr 27, 2011 - Valley of the Gods / Monument Valley

We got up and did some research on what to see today in Monument Valley. We had talked the night before about taking a tour, but they were pretty pricey ($50 per person for 3 ½ hours). Most of the reviews said it was a very rough and dusty ride sitting in the back of a 4-wheel drive truck with seats bolted to the floor. We knew it was going to be cold and windy so we decided to go visit the Valley of the Gods instead. This is a self guided tour on a gravel road about 20 miles north of Monument Valley. It has the big monolithic rocks like...