Thursday 26th May

We were all so grateful for the sleep-in this morning - as we weren’t leaving until 10am, as opposed to our normal 8am, it meant we could sleep past 6:30am for the first time on the trip. The sunlight had us up reasonably early though, and we all enjoyed the hot showers (the bathroom was in a saloon theme).


It was sad to say good-bye to the ranch – the cowboys were all so friendly! – but that’s the way of this life, and I was excited for the afternoon ahead at Monument Valley. First though, we had a stop at Horseshoe Canyon. After a brief hike down some sand dunes, we reached an amazing sight. It’s hard to explain, but it was basically a rock monolith surrounded by a horse-shoe shaped body of water, with red-rock canyons framing each side. We took some more amazing photos, including planking photos, which are the group’s focus! We also took a small detour via Lake Powell again, where Cassie told us the story about a Trek America camper who cliff-jumped here several years ago and died.

After lunch in the carpark (only a yoghurt for me – the heat eliminates hunger), we had another few hours in the van before a pit-stop at Burger King. Not to buy fast-food (although we all indulged a little), but to look at the Navajo Museum which is inside the restaurant. The museum told the story of the Navajo code-breakers – Native Indians who had joined the US military in WWII, whose language proved impossible for the Japanese to decipher.


We pulled up at our campground for the night, which was a bed of red dust. It was supposed to be my night by myself , but as Tamsyn wanted to sleep in the van, Lucy and I bunked in together. It was only a short rest though, and after putting up our tents we were off to the Monument Valley Visitor’s Centre, where we met Richard, our Navajo guide , who was taking us on a 4WD tour of the valley.


Monument Valley was the main reason why I’d signed up for the trip, so I was super excited. The Valley is quite well known thanks to the numerous movies, commercials and music videos shot here. It’s a red desert landscape (complete with cactus!), with large red sandstone formations dispersed across the area. The ‘rocks’ are of various sizes, and with some imagination they can take on various shapes, such as elephants or Indian chiefs.


Over the 2.5 hour jeep trip, we had numerous photo opportunities and, as befits our group, lots of fun. By ‘fun’ I mean planking photos; photos on top of rocks requiring massive run-ups; and sliding down sand dunes, thus depositing red sand in crevices we never knew existed! Whilst in an ‘open’ cave (if that makes sense), Richard sang us several Navajo songs an played a traditional Navajo flute.


At 8:40, and with the sun almost set, it was time to move onto dinner. The campfire set the ambience, and the stars shined brightly in the night sky, not impacted by pollution. Dinner was a large Navajo ‘taco’ (more like a burrito) and soft drink. As we were the last group to eat, as soon as we’d finished the pow-wow began. It was very touristy, starting with a couple of native dances, but then everyone joined in. Each female had to take a male, and the chief had us recite some lines (for the females, ‘I promise not to cook firebread for any other man, as long as I do shall live’). After then saying ‘I do’, he pronounced us husband and wife!! (Of course, just jokingly – if not, I am now married to a 40 year old Japanese guy!)


After some more ceremony, we were taken back to the visitor’s centre carpark and then drove back to our campsite for the night.