I am not known for being a morning person and today started at 4:30am. Surprisingly I was out the door and loading up the Jeep before my husband who is a morning person. We started the day freezing our butts off in an open top Jeep while flying down the highway trying to make sure we got to Monument Valley before sunrise. We realized half way that we had spent what we thought was the last of our cash the previous day and with us being no where near an ATM thought we weren’t going to be able to scrape together the entrance fee. After scrounging around on the floor boards, through the depths of my purse and my husbands wallet we just managed to scrape together enough money to get into the park.

We were excited, there was a full moon that night and we could see the black outlines of the monuments and by the time we got there could see the glimmer of the sun threatening to rise up over the horizon. Everything was perfect, except the park was closed. I researched and researched this trip and everything said that the park opened at 6am, we are guessing the guy who opens the gate was late or the park actually opens after sunrise. Fortunately there was a great parking area and I managed to take some amazing photo’s of sunrise while we were waiting for the park to open. Eventually we got into the park and were the first ones in. We loved the drive around Monument Valley, the dirt road through it was poorly maintained and very bumpy, the scenery magnificent so to us it was perfect.

We had no plans for the rest of the day, we were going to our next destination of Page AZ and calling it quits for the day. We passed a brown tourist sign that said Navajo National Monument and decided to turn off and have a look. WOW!! It was a beautiful drive complete with horses walking down the road (no other humans in sight). We finally managed to find something free! The walk into the canyon was easy, walk up a different story. We were greeted at the end with great views over very well preserved cliff dwellings built in an alcove. I am still kicking myself over not taking the camera bag and not having my zoom lens to get a better shot.

It was then on to Page with one stop at a scenic viewing area with American Natives selling jewelry. We rolled into Page with the intention of going out later to get some good photo’s, the city itself isn’t much but the surrounding area is gorgeous. Needless to say that after our early morning start we were done for the night.

Sunrise at Monument Valley, worth the early morning start

Monument Valley National Park

Finally a Jeep pic!

Long lonely road heading into Arizona

Navajo National Monument

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