Adventures by Disney Day 5 – Monument Valley Part 1

Saturday, August 18, 2007 – Part 1

t was time to move north and change hotels once again. Today would be the longest day on the bus. Two long trips of 3 hours each! We traveled from our lodging outside the Grand Canyon in Arizona, to the Red Rock Cliffs of Moab Utah!.

Luggage had to be ready to go by 6:30am.

We had breakfast buffet (basically scrambled egg, bacon, biscuits and gravy, coffee and juice. It was a “value” resort type breakfast.

We then left for Monument Valley. The bus ride was 3 hours, no rest stop break, but there is a restroom on the bus. There was water and snacks on the bus as well. The Disney movie Brother Bear played on the small monitors, but with everyone talking on the bus it was kind of heard to hear. I used my ipod with noise reduction headphones and took a nap!

There were lots of scenery changes along the way. We drove out of the Grand Canyon National Park, so got some glimpes of the canyon. Soon we were seeing buttes and all kinds of rock formations. A number of the formations we saw along our entire trip had names. On this drive, we saw Owl Rock:

We arrived at the Gouldings Lodge at Monument Valley for lunch and our off road trip.

The menu was basic, plenty of food. The only problem we had was the service was VERY slow. I’ll put the menu at the bottom of this blog entry with a couple food comments.

Soon we were off to our tour of the magnificant Monument Valley! Many movies have had scenes filmed here. In 1939, Director John Ford’s film Stage Coach, starring John Wayne was the first of many westerns shot here. Just a few of the other movies included Forrest Gump, Back to the Future 3, the Eiger Sanction with Clint Eastwood, Mission Impossible and Thelma and Louise!

Monument Valley comes under the jurisdiction of the Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation Department. The rock formations range from 400 – 1,000 feet tall. Only a limited number of the monuments are available for public viewing. The remainder are part of the Navajo sacred land. Some areas are only available to the public via a recognized tour operator.

Our group of 36 was split into 2 groups and each had their own off road vehicle. Our Navajo guide was very knowledgable, but it was often hard to hear her voice clearly. We were sitting in the open air portion of the vehicle and the driver is in a “cab” like a truck cab.

We drove into the valley and then had a photo stop at one of the famous buttes, “The Mittens”.

Here’s a group photo of our entire Adventures by Disney group at the Mittens!

Goulding’s Lodge Group Lunch Menu – Select one.

Chef Salad
Soup and Salad Bar (very basic salad bar, soup was good)
Beef Stew with Navajo Fry Bread
Navajo Taco (many folks had these and enjoyed them – very large! – pictured above)
Chicken Strips
Fry Bread and Honey
Ruben
Triple Decker Club
Tuna Salad
Hamburger
Patty Melt
Chicken Breast Sandwich – very good
Beverages

Stay tuned for more photos in Part 2.

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