The RV Travels & Camping of Linda & Robin: Monument Valley and Natural Bridges

We are spending the week at Gouldings' campground overlooking Monument Valley. The views from the campground are amazing.

One of the things we were surprised by was that our Geezer Pass was not accepted at the Monument Valley National Monument. It is run by the Navajo nation and cost $20.00 per car to get into the park and is good for three days. We made our payment and headed for the seventeen mile scenic drive. First clue that the road would be rough was the sign indicating not fit for RV's or buses.

Our poor car sure has taken a beating since we have been full-timing. It took us most of the day to see everything, but well worth it. You can take a pickup tour and sit in the back of the truck and get bounced around a lot. We saw some of them and it was pretty chilly to be sitting in the back of one of those trucks for more than two hours. Brrr.......as we enjoyed our heater in the car.

One of the places we stopped had Navajo Fry Bread so we had to give it a try....it was okay but kind of boring. Gladys (MIL) made much better Fry Bread....of course all the melted butter and brown sugar she put on top didn't hurt either. They also had saddled horses that you could sit on and have your picture taken ($5.00) with the valley in the background.

You notice than neither one of us is sitting on the horse. It has been forty years since I have been on a horse. Would have needed a ladder. Robin has never been on a horse and passed on the idea.

There were several areas where you could have rented a horse and went on some of the trails.

Around every turn there was something new to see.

What a beautiful area and well worth the week we spent here.

Here are a few more pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Monument Valley

Our next day trip was to head out to Mexican Hat (small town and rock formation).

Not much of a town but the rock formation was cool.
We then noticed a sign for a national monument called Natural Bridges, only 42 miles. Yeah well...they didn't mention that three of those miles was a gravel road with a 10% grade with 5 mph switchbacks..... These pictures were taken from the top of the grade.

You can see the road we started on at the bottom.

Finally reached the top and were exposed to a very different landscape. More forest and greenery.
The Natural Bridges National Monument did accept our Geezer Pass and we were good to go.
Here is a good definition of the area.

Natural Bridges

The scenic drive was nine miles on a paved road, what a relief.

On the way back we could see over the Colorado border and the mountains.

A few more pictures can be seen here.

Natural Bridges

One morning we headed just down the hill from the campground to where the lodge is located.
There is a museum and John Wayne's cabin used to film the movie Stagecoach.

I knew there were several John Wayne movies shot in the area but I didn't realize just how many different movies were shot out here.

Here are a list of a few of them

Monument Valley movies.

They also had a museum showing some of the history of the Goulding's family, the original owners of the Camp park and lodge.