Awesome Landscape

The Utah landscapes are really incredible. Yesterday we drove south, even spending a few minutes in Arizona. It's never boring around here. Several times an hour, the environment changed.

We drove through the town of Bluff. The sign on the way in says, "Established in 650 AD." Obviously, that date refers to the Ancestral Puebloans who lived here. Ruins of their villages are sprinkled all over the Four Corners area. In 1880, the first Mormon settlers came to the area to establish a farming community.

After Bluff, we came to Mexican Hat, another small town. This rock formation, which looks like an inverted sombrero, gave the community it's name.

As we approached Monument Valley, which extends into Arizona, we saw more distinctive rock formations.

We have been to Monument Valley twice before, in 1990 and 2005. We planned to drive through again. However, the road through the valley is now part of the Navajo Tribal Park and there is an entry fee. We didn't want to pay it since we had already been there. But just like our National Parks, the Navajo Nation has every right to charge people to explore their land.

There was more to this day. We visited Goosenecks State Park. But that will be covered in another post.