Four Corners and Monument Valley

From Cortez, CO, we drove south and west to the Four Corners area.  This is the spot where four states come together - Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. It is located within the Navajo reservation.

Matthew was happy to be in four places at once!

There's not much else to do there, although we did some shopping from the various Navajo vendors, and we had Indian fry bread.  Yum.

Next stop was Monument Valley.  This is not a national park, but it is a special park within the Navajo reservation. Many movies, TV shows, and ads have been filmed here.  It has the iconic look of "the American west."

 We stayed in a place called Gouldings.  This is a lodge, RV park, trading post, and gas station named after Harry Goulding.  He and his wife had a trading post there in the 20s and 30s.  They convinced John Ford to make some John Wayne movies in Monument Valley, and as they say, the rest is history.

We took a tour with a Navajo guide.  We saw a traditional Navajo house called a Hogan.

The tour was in an open truck, over some pretty rough roads.  We all felt very dirty at the end of the tour, but it was worth it!

 We got to pretend to be cowboys!

We also saw arches and petroglyphs.

This last one is known as "Eagle's Eye."  Our guide had us lie down to get the full effect.

 One last image before we ride off into the sunset.  This was a beautiful place.