Valley of the Gods: Easter 2017

This ain’t the Walmart in Hurricane Utah, like Easter 2014!

With the advent of social media nothing is a secret anymore. The days of a friend telling a friend about a secret spot, you feeling special because you are now in the know, and holding the secret, are over. Now someone blabs and the whole world knows. The blogosphere is going nuts about Valley of the Gods. One can only hope it doesn’t get too popular. Yet here I am blabbing about it, posting it on the blog, where it will rattle around in cyberspace for all to see.

Being on the road you run into strangers all the time, some folks are genuinely nice. Once we pulled on to the Valley of the Gods road we stopped, got out of the truck, and assessed the rutted creek crossing that every single blabber on social media is concerned about. Sometimes it’s really bad, sometimes it isn’t. As we were walking towards it, a guy pulling a Lance trailer was coming at us. He was solo, stopped, and started chatting us up.

“Don’t worry, you guys can easily cross it.”

I typically let Amelia do the talking since she’s a talker, “Great, we were slightly worried. How’s the road the rest of the way?”

“A little washboardy, but I’ve been on worse. Is your Airstream a 25 footer?”

“Yes, we love it!” says Amelia, all smiles.

“You two should take the site I just vacated. It’s elevated a little bit so it can be windy, but the views are gorgeous. Go 4 miles, and you’ll see it on the left. If you get to the little Casita you’ve gone too far.”

“Wow, thanks!”

“You know, every time I see a beauty like yours I kick myself in the head for not buying an Airstream.”

What a nice guy. And what a nice site.

Valley of the Gods, between Bluff and Mexican Hat. Monument Valley straddles Utah & Arizona.

Front door view.

Dining room view.

Boondock heaven. Free range Puggle.

As I was relaxing, thinking positive, and writing down my thoughts, Amelia went on a scouting mission to take a look at what looked like a wash from our vantage point.

It would be dead quiet, then we would hear the wind in the distance, a gust would come up, then absolute silence again. Occasionally a dust devil would blow through.

Amelia came back from her scouting trip and insisted we hike down to the water. Good, because I wanted a shot like this.

Lime Creek.

A majestic Cottonwood.

Droplets were falling from the cliffs. The water was amazingly clear.

Free ranging and hunting lizards is exhausting!

Billion dollar view for free. What a great swath of BLM land.

That’s the little white Casita trailer about a half mile away. Our closest neighbor.

Monument Valley in the distance.

Sunrise.

Sunrise on Battleship Rock.

Time to leave.

The morning light was just right for seeing all the Indian Paintbrush.

The worrisome creek crossing. I know, it looks like nothing, but you have to remember Airstreams have really low clearance and aren’t really designed for off roading.