May 24, 2019
We woke up to a spectacular, sparklingly clear day. We got a late start for various reasons. Made two stops on the way out of town – walked again by the Anima River which has multiple bridges crossing it, including the train trestle for the narrow gauge railroad running up to Silverton. We also stopped by White Rabbit Books, a miniscule (less than 100 SF) but cool shop along the trail with a mix of used and new books.
Once on the road to Cortez via Route 160, we saw some of the most beautiful mountain meadows framed by snow-capped peaks.
We stopped at Mesa Verde, the home of cliff-dwellers over seven hundred years ago. It was spooky in a way to think about the people who lived and built their homes in a very inaccessible area, beginning in 550 AD. I could not imagine the process for transporting or capturing water. For reasons still unknown, the native peoples left their cliff homes in 12-1300 AD and disappeared. Archaeologists and anthropologists speculate that drought may have driven them out – but where did they go?
From Cortez we decided to go north to Monticello – more scenic. And the countryside was surprisingly gorgeous – rolling and green beneath what my Mother would have called a “buttermilk sky.” Snowy peaks still rose up from the horizon in three distinct clusters to the north, west and southeast. We stopped in the small town of Blandings, UT, for road advice at the local visitor center. An older gentleman in a coat and tie spent several minutes giving us much needed information regarding touring Monument Valley. “You will see most of Monument Valley from the highway. But when you get to the turn-off, turn right. Go to Goulding’s. Have dinner with a beautiful view. Don’t turn left. The roads are like washboards…” And we did just that. But first we stopped at Goosenecks State Park.
Goosenecks really was quite remarkable. The river has carved three goosenecks in a row, bigger and wider than can be taken in by a single wide angle lens (I have not mastered the panoramic function in my phone yet). We pressed on to Monument Valley, the background scenery of many iconic westerns. We even turned right at Goulding’s and had dinner, enjoying the red rock view from our table. We were back on the road by 8pm… and watched a long, lovely dusk before pulling into Page, AZ sometime after 10pm (MT). Despite the scenery, it had been quite a long day.
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