To Monument Valley, Utah

We have left planet Earth and entered Monument Valley Zone. There is no other place on this world like this. Yesterday, as we headed west and crossed south western Colorado, the topography quickly changed. The plants became smaller, due to less water available, but no cactus appeared. Surface water disappeared and the rock formations evolved into structures I had never seen before. No longer were there mountain ranges. Instead jutting into the sky are jagged peaks and structures that are surrounded by plains and buttes. They are large, but not connected like the Rockies are – not in a continuous range of rocks. And it seems as if every time we crest another butte, the color and texture of the hills change – as does the vegetation, such as there is. Red mountains evolved into green mountains, and they evolve into striped mountains which change to yellow ocher mountains with red stripes waving through them – sideways.

I hung out the truck snapping pictures almost continuously, asking Mike to “pull over” whenever there was a chance. Mike is blaming my brother, Boyd, for this treeless trek (he’s been here and loved it!) I blame the geology gene that my family possesses. I love the vast, tree-void, rock-filled expanse that is South Eastern Utah.

The Navaho Nation own most of the land we have crossed today, and my first thought was “Leave it to the US government to ‘give’ the most worthless, non-productive land to the Indians.” There are a few oil wells visible, but I didn’t even see Antelope on the open range – nothing much lives well here. But there is something strangely appealing about the terrain. Hollywood recognized its potential, years ago and many classic westerns have been filmed here (without worry of fences or electric lines or jet planes appearing in the background). Many of John Wayne’s movies used Monument Valley as a background as did the Indiana Jones movies.