Monument Valley

Oct 11 - 12....Just a few miles south of Moab we stopped at a place called "Hole n' the Rock" where a Danish couple carved their 5000 sq ft house inside the rock in the 1940's. It was pretty amazing! See the above picture for a glimpse at what it looked like. We continued on to our destination of Gouldings in Monument Valley. The RV park is nestled in red rock mountains. There was a great hike just out our door that took us to another arch that mother nature carved out of these phenomenal mountains. The view from this area was another awesome site. Today we toured the museum at the Gouldings Lodge that showed the Navajo way of life, many props from movies filmed in this area, and the life of the Gouldings. From there we drove the 4 miles to the Navajo Tribal Park were we drove a very ruff road to view this beautiful valley. We hiked to and around the circumference of the "West Mitten Butte". According to the brochure the hike was a 3.3 mile loop. According to my pedometer it was much further! The trail in many parts was like walking on a very sandy beach - the difference was this was red sand and it was up and down for a large part of the hike. Try walking up hill in deep sand in hiking boots - our legs are feeling it now! The trail was not really developed - many times we were walking through washes looking for the small stack of rocks that were put here and there to show where the trail is. All and all it was a great hike and of course the view was spectacular! Tomorrow we are off to the Grand Canyon's South Rim.