18 October 2010
After leaving Mesa Verde we headed for “4 Corners”. We are constantly looking for new places and this would be one for us. We followed the “red” roads on our map (that’s all that was available) so we weren’t surprised when the roadway turned to CRAP !!! It was so bad that we tried to get through it by going slow (30-40mph), but that didn’t work, so we took it up to 70. It got a little better so we kept it there until we made it all the way to Bluff, Utah from 4 corners. Oh yes, we passed on “4 Corners”. It turned out to be a total rip-off in the desert… So after turning west from Bluff we headed to Mexican Hat, Utah. I had no idea of what we were going to find at “Mexican Hat” but that’s what we’re on the road for…
As it turned out we found this little campground for $20 (full hook-ups)
and they had a list of “MUST SEE” locations for this area. A couple of them we had heard about, but others… not so much. Well we’re always up to exploring so all we did was park the coach, plug in the power, and off we went with map in hand. Mexican Hat is deep in the red sandstone cliffs
and is named for the inverted sandstone sombrero just north of town. It also sits on the shores of the San Juan River. We started our “tour” by heading for the Moki Dugway. A “dugway” is a road that is dug out of a hillside and advances to the top at an 11% grade on a gravel base. (sorry, I tossed the photo away...) All this while driving through tight switchback and hanging on the edge of the cliffs for 3 miles while going straight UP !!! The views to The Valley of the Gods and Monument Valley were stunning, the smell from under my arms…not so. Once we got to the top we found the graded road to our next site, Moley Point. My God, what a view and what architecture !!! Amazing views into John’s Canyon…
Over the centuries the San Juan River has dug a “snake like” route through the canyon on its way to Lake Powell.
The San Juan covers more than 6 miles while advancing less than 2 toward Lake Powell. Well we went to the top and then we went back to the bottom to head off on another adventure…Valley of the Gods and Monument Valley. We found ourselves back on a graded red dirt pathway and heading out through the sagebrush.
This route took us through sandstone formations that have been named for their amazing shapes and sizes, but we took it upon ourselves to rename each and every one of them.
This drive was to take us about 3 hours, but with a stop (to play my flute)
or two it soon became a little more. Fortunately we had enough fuel, but I have to admit I kept looking at the gage anyway, we didn’t want to call AAA again while in the middle of the Valley.