We woke up in the Grand Canyon, AZ, and went to bed in Monument Valley, Utah… that’s a pretty perfect Out West day!

In order to leave the Grand Canyon, we have to go back through the national Park.

We have discovered our problem with the Grand Canyon. We are North Rim people, but we visited the South Rim. The Grand Canyon gets 6.5 million people each year, and 6 million of those visit the South Rim. The North Rim is much less developed, and commercialized. You have to really want to see the North Rim. After the beauty and peacefulness of Zion and Bryce Canyon, we probably should have gone to the North Rim. Oh well, live and learn. Boys can mark Grand Canyon off their bucket list 😊

We had no where to be until Tuesday morning so we slept in, had breakfast and started making our way to Monument Valley. The WiFi in the Southwest is spotty at best, so we’ve learned to do anything online whenever you have WiFi. So we plotted a few stops on our way and off we went!

Talk about open spaces and long roads… they just go on and on and on!

Our first stop was in Tuba City, Arizona. Tuba City was home to some of the Navajo code talkers during World War II. These young men signed up and provided an unbreakable code based on the Navajo language. The amazing part was that they signed up to fight for a country that up until this point had done nothing but destroy their heritage, with actions like the Long Walk, internment at Fort Sumner, Mandatory Navajo Boarding Schools and federal programs that prevented anything beneficial to the Navajo. Tuba City is also home to one of the original Trading Posts on the reservation. We bought some Navajo spun-wool, Mike found a book on The Code Talkers, and we found an ornament for our travel tree – a hand carved wooden flying pig 🐖❤️

We spent some time in the Explore Najavo Museum. The Museum included a film on the beginnings of the Navajo culture, that bore a striking resemblance to the creation story in the Bible, including Noah and the flood.

The great part about being the only people in a museum is that you get some very personal touches from the guides. One young man spent time teaching us to speak Navajo:

Mother – Shima

Father – ShizheeOlder brother -shanii

Younger brother – shitsili (of course this name led to lots of giggles!)

We got to see real life Hogans – the homes of the Navajo Indians. The Boys thought it was particularly cool that the front door always faces east to get the first light of day.We also learned about the government/judicial system of the Navajo Nation.We left the museum and found the local grocery, Bashas- like a Food Lion out here – and restocked our cooler and snacks. This little $16 cooler has saved us hundreds in breakfasts, lunches and snacks! Speaking of lunch, Mama’s Restaurant on US Highway 89 is now open for lunch 😉The drive was so beautiful but again so different as you pass through different areasand these two enjoyed switching to the front seat some 😉

Well there’s something you don’t see everyday, a hitching post We said goodbye to Arizona and hello to Utah

We made it to our hotel for the evening, Goulding’s lodge. The Gouldings were a couple who lived in Monument Valley, Utah. They initially opened up rooms in their home for borders, which led to a hotel, which led to the lodge today. During the Great Depression as the Navajo nation was hard-hit, the Gouldings traveled to Hollywood with their last $60 and photographs of Monument Valley. They convinced movie producers to come to Monument Valley to shoot movies, and that began the Hollywood phase in Monument Valley. Hollywood and Monument Valley aren’t limited to John Wayne and Westerns – National Lampoon’s Vacation and Forest Gump’s loooooonnnnnggggg run 🏃 were filmed in Monument Valley thanks to the Goulding’s.

It’s easy to see why you would use this for a backdrop of a movie, especially with these two ❤️The boys spent some time swimming and then we had dinner at the Lodge Restaurant.Mike and I tried some traditional dishes, beef stew and green chili stew with Navajo Fry Bread The boys stuck with traditional dinners of cheeseburgers and corn dog bites 🤪We were too late to catch the showing of A John Wayne movie at the theater but it was a great day anyway.

Tomorrow we have a bright and early tour of monument Valley with a Navajo guide. I’m also going to try to get up for the sunrise because when am I going to be in Monument Valley again? ☀️