Blanding to Monument Valley

It’s only a 1-1/2 hour drive from Blanding to Monument Valley but there are plenty of things to see on this drive. Comb Ridge stretches 80 miles and is very distinctive.

Bluff Fort is rather amazing. It’s a museum with both artifacts and recreations that includes a movie (excellent and very professional), some indoor exhibits, and a gift shop. But the outdoor exhibits are amazing. And the whole thing is free!

Back in 1879-1880, a group of Mormons traveled a new path (now called the Hole in the Rock Trail) to settle a new town of Bluff. Unfortunately, they didn’t realize the difficulty of terrain with canyons, mountains, and rivers. The most difficult portion required blasting rocks with black powder plus plenty of hard labor. One of the original wagons is on display.

 

Bluff Fort has all kinds of exhibits including Navaho  and Ute homes, lots of wagons, a water wheel, and a camp set-up.

The biggest thing is the homes of the settlers (~11 of the homes). Each of them had period artifacts decorated by descendants of the actual family. 

Plus, there were plenty of stories about life back then. For instance, the co-op store/dance hall had a safe. A bank robber used dynamite to break the safe but instead took down the building and he died in the blast. Another story involved a trade deal that almost caused a battle with the local Native Americans. I liked the simple picture of Sarah Perkins with her 9 daughters and her only son sitting forlornly in the background. It would be easy to spend hours here.

Our next stop was the Sand Island Petroglyphs. The panel isn’t very far off the road. We were lucky to be able to look at the petroglyphs before a bus full of tourists stopped. A quick comment about petroglyph porn, at least two of the figures in this picture were well-endowed.

There are popular Native American art figures like Kokopelli or a Hopi flute player that you see everywhere in the west. They are particularly popular in gift shops to decorate all kinds of items. However, they are always cleaned up for current tastes while the actual depictions in petroglyphs varied in being well-endowed or not. The Edge of the Cedars has a statue of the Hopi flute player “fully endowed”. It became a major controversy where outraged citizens wanted it gone while others were fine with it. The park decided to compromise by moving it from the front of the park building to the back so it couldn’t be seen from the road. Interesting point, the statue was in front for 19 years before this became controversial.

 

Valley of the Gods is a 17-mile very rough road with some spectacular scenery. Since we only had a sedan, we drove a mile of it to an observation point. Even that mile pushed our poor car.

Goosenecks State Park doesn’t take long to see. It’s a parking lot with an immense view. This is an entrenched river meander and pretty cool! It is too big for a regular shot. Hey, this is the first panoramic picture I’ve taken!

 

 

Mexican Hat Rock is supposed to look like an upside down sombrero. The nearby town is named after it.

The Forrest Gump Point is just dangerous. In the movie, Forrest Gump decides to stop running at this gorgeous spot. There are several pull overs on both sides of the road for people to take pictures here. However, EVERYONE is stupid. We first parked in a larger parking lot. Another car pulled in and blocked the exit for everyone so they could take a picture without walking a few extra feet and then was surprised when people were upset. People walk into the road to take the perfect shot and then are surprised when cars want to drive on the road. Plus drivers come through here driving way too fast and are surprised that people are on the road. Anyhow, we survived.