After our lazy day of yesterday, we got going fairly quickly after breakfast and after a quick stop to pick up Subway Salads, headed south and west from Monticello.
We initially headed south down the US 191 through open plain and then canyons to Blanding and onward to Bluff. Here we turned southwest along the US 163 on a more scenic road to the town of Mexican Hat. This small town is named after a balancing rock just north of the town which resembles a mexcian hat. From here, the road entered the north part of Monument Valey and into the Navajo Indian Nation territory. The road slowly climbed through a wide desert valley to Monument pass (5209ft). Here the rock pillars were spectacular and we stopped several times to take photographs, some taken from the middle of the road to capture the road disappearing into the horizon miles away.
Downhill from the pass, we came to Goldings Trading Post, established in the 19th century as trading post with the India tribes in the area. Now, there is a large supermarket, two hotels and a petrol station. We stopped briefly and continued south, now in the state of Arizona down the US163. Apparently, all the best views of the valley lie on dirt roads only accesible by 4WD vehicles or with a local Navajo guide. The lower part of the valley wasn't as scenic as I had been expecting.
After 18 miles, we reached the town of Kayenta, still inside Navajo Nation territory, and joined the US 160. This proved to be a rather uninteresting road which ran through stony desert scenery, with little to see. Eventually, after more than 70 miles we came to the Indian town of Tuba City where we pulled over to eat our 'Subway' lunch in a local park.
We briefly stopped at a feature called 'Elephants Feet', quite a reasonable name I suppose
On the road again, we soon joined the US 89 and started heading south onward through Indian territory and desert. Finally, after the town of Cameron, the scenery started getting more interesting as we crossed a pass (7200ft) in the Wupatki mountains. Once over the pass, we quickly headed down into Flagstaff, a sprawling railway town with a historic centre.
We managed to find our hotel, the Knights Inn, fairly easily and after waiting for them to finish cleaning the rooms, settled in. I went for a quick walk to find out how far it was to the old town and discovered it was just over 200yds away through residencial streets. When I returned to the hotel we decided to go for a walk in town! In the space of the 200yds, there were two micro-breweries and several other eating places. After discovering that the tourist office on the railway station was closed (because it was Sunday), we wandered back and found that one of the micro-breweries had a shaded back garden so we sat there and enjoyed a drink. As we were finishing, Ken and Lin were spotted on the street, so we dragged them in for a drink. We then looked at the time and grabbed a menu and decided that this was good place to eat!
We headed back to the hotel after agreeing that we'd leave at 8 the following morning.
Hotel - Knights Inn Flagstaff
Weather - Clear skies, sunny and warm.
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