Monument valley

Stan making a break for freedom
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We left Recapture Lodge and drove to Monument Valley in the Navajo Nation, a breathtaking desert landscape. It’s not a national park as it is administered by the Navajo people (they have separate police force and appear pretty well self contained), so disappointingly there wasn’t as much information on the place as we were used to (no Junior Ranger programme). However there were lots of shopping opportunities with stalls by the roadsides and a big shop in the visitor centre, I bought a turquoise bracelet from a Navajo woman who we had a nice chat with - traveling with kids makes all conversation so easy! Monument Valley is stunning, but at the same time it’s one of those places which you’ve seen so many times on film that you have a strange deja-vu reaction to. Loads of people stopped off on the road in to take a photo of the strip of road that Forest Gump runs up - 15 years ago Jont was snapped running up this very road!

We continued to the Grand Canyon after an hour or so, stopping off at a roadside cafe for the worst lunch in humanity. Jont had tamales, which were suet pillowcases stuffed with meat and tasting like a desert doormat (I tried it). Charlie had a chimichanga which was just a plateful of different shades of brown something. We don’t know what and neither did he. Like a trooper he ate it but lived to regret it. The only winners in that meal were Archie and Stan who got (the relatively benign) Kraft packet-made macaroni cheese, which at least we all recognised.

Charlie-chimi-Chan-ga

On to the Grand Canyon which we got a brief, glorious look at before we checked in to our hotel and went to bed.