Today has been wonderful. We began early this morning by having a good breakfast of bacon, eggs, and sweet rolls. We made it to our rendezvous point with the Antelope Canyon tour company. The weather was in the fifties, so I was comfortable in a short sleeved t-shirt, and only took along a long sleeved flannel shirt in case the canyon was cold. It was a little amusing to see a lot of Southwestern people bundled up like there was snow on the ground. But it was not so amusing to have the shuttle’s heater on full blast against my leg.

The reason we needed to take a shuttle is that the canyon is on Navajo tribal land, and we would have to be accompanied by a member of the Navajo nation. The path to the canyon is very much off road, with the shuttles driving alongside each other to pack down the sand so that no one path created a rut. It was a very bumpy ride, but kind of awesome, because I would fly up out of my seat and get that funny thrill of momentary weightlessness.

I don’t think it’s possible to take a bad picture in Antelope Canyon. Our guide told us the best spots for lots of color, and we found a lot of good shots on our own. The sandstone formations were otherworldly, as is most every natural feature here. I think they said the portion of the canyon on our tour was a half-mile in and a half-mile out, but it didn’t feel that long by any means. We kept stopping every few feet to take another picture or to hear another piece of history. One of the things our guide talked about was that the government would take Navajo children from their homes and place them either with white families or in government run boarding schools in an attempt to homogenize them and diminish cultural teaching. I knew that much, but what I didn’t know was that the practice didn’t stop until 1978. Today, boarding schools are run by the Navajo nation to teach their culture.

After the tour, we began the journey to Monument Valley, a place Jeff has wanted to visit for a very long time. It was kind of a haul, but not as long as yesterday’s drive. We stopped in Kayenta at Pizza Edge, where we had pizza and the cheesiest cheese bread I have ever experienced. I mean it was a prodigious amount of cheese. Further down the road was the Navajo Welcome Center, where we paid the $20 fee to drive into Monument Valley. This building was actually an office of the Navajo nation, and the visitor center for the tribal park was a little further, but our receipt got us in. We got some good pictures and some souvenir shopping done while there before going semi-off-road to tour the monuments. Now this road really was bouncy, and we felt knocked around a lot. The views were spectacular, and I could tell Jeff in particular was having a great time taking pictures.

After a couple of hours hanging around Monument Valley, we drove up to mile marker 13 on US 163, otherwise known as Forrest Gump Point. The sun was setting in the direction of Monument Valley so we couldn’t get really great pictures, and there were cars coming, so we couldn’t stay in the middle of the road, but we could tell what the shot was supposed to be, and that was good enough.

We are now staying at Wetherill Inn in Kayenta. I felt like a meat and three tonight, while Jeff felt like a calzone, so he went to two restaurants across the street from each other to satisfy us both, Amigo Cafe for country fried steak, and Pizza Edge for a calzone. Tomorrow, we can sleep in, and then drive to Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado.