Mexican Hat, Utah; Valley of the Gods

We drove from Happy Jack to Southern Utah. As per usual, a 6 hour ride turned into 12 hours. This is partly due to Bob’s incessant need to take photos, my frequent potty breaks, and lastly the scenery that is worth going slow for. Also, we stopped in Winslow, AZ for laundry and to buy a camera since Bob ruined ours. A fellow named Stan chatted us up about the Navajo reservation and informed us that we were in fact on the reservation. We had already noticed that. We did a little browsing at the Navajo trading posts along the way and waxed poetic about the Navajo Nation; our impressions of their community and how they might describe it. Good old fashion social work jibberish.

We crossed the Utah border and quickly came to the Valley of the Gods, which was an unexpected detour that we both agreed was the best thing since sliced bread. It’s a 17 mile loop drive through rock formations jutting out of flat ground that are precariously stacked. It looks totally fake and a mystery as to how they got there. Well, it’s not a mystery to scientists (wind and water over eons), but a wonder to us just the same. It’s so different from anything I’ve ever seen that I told Bob I was scared and wanted to go home.

The landscape here is so foreign that it’s alarming. You know how people say that expansive and exotic natural wonders make them realize they how insignificant they are? Well, I learned that I like to feel significant. So, here are the pics. Oh, and I’m not going home… yet.