Totem Pole and North Window - Monument Valley Utah Photos and Travelogue

Totem Pole and the Three Gossips - Monument Valley



A 'View from the Window' - North Window, Monument Valley


A 'View from the Window' - A dead tree at the North Window, Monument Valley


View from the floor of the Monument Valley


View from the floor of the Monument Valley

Mexican Hat and Goosenecks State park - Monument Valley Utah Photos and Travelogue

Leaving Monument Valley

It got pretty bright by mid afternoon and we were tempted to stay back for the sunset, but resisted the urge and went ahead towards Bluff, UT, onwards to Blanding, UT. Our aim was to reach Moab, where we had reserved a room for that night, if we can make it. We ate our ready to eat stuff in our car, stopped by at the Mexican Hat, the Goosenecks point, etc. on our way to Blanding.


Mexican Hat - a 60 feet rock - some 10-15 miles from the Monumnet Valley, near a town named Mexican Hat after the rock.

Mexican Hat is a rock formation with a large flat rock 60 feet in diameter balanced tentatively on a much smaller base at the top of a small red rock hill. At the Goosenecks point State Park, the San Juan river flows for 6 miles yet only covers a distance of one mile. It makes a series of three sharp hairpin turns, resembling goosenecks.


San Juan River, cutting through the rocks at the Goosenecks State park, meanders about 6 miles over a 1 mile distance here.

Valley of Gods, Mokee Dugway and Muley Point - Monument Valley Utah Photos and Travelogue

We went halfway through on the byroad to the Valley of Gods, but sensing that this is not going to come even close to the Monument Valley in terms of the spectacle value, we did a U-turn midway through the mud road to the Valley of the Gods. The road from this point up towards Blanding is called the Mokee Dugway (a Dugway is a trail that is cut out of a hillside, Mokee is a Mormon term for the native Anasazi Indians - literally translates to "enemy ancestors"). The Mokee/Moki Dugway is a rough unpaved gravel road with narrow and steep, tortuous switchbacks (hair pin bends) and a 1100ft. drop/ascent over 3 miles.


A road sign , upon approaching the Mokee Dugway from the valley of Gods.


One of the countlesshairpin bends on the Mokee Dugway, a 1100 ft. ascent up to the top of the Cedar Mesa.


Looking back at the Mokee Dugway, from the Muley Point, almost near the top of the Cedar Mesa.