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Returned to Salina after spending quality amount of time at Canyonlands National Park. There are many scenic stops on the road which connects Canyonlands with US-191:




















The various scenic rest areas of I-70:





The beautiful I-70:

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Day 3:

We had an initial plan to visit Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend near Page, Arizona. Just a few days before the trip, I came across an article about the Indian reservation at Navajo Nation. I got more curious about it and checked if it fits in our plan. I glanced the map and found it very much feasible. Hence canceled the Antelope and Horseshoe Bend plan and decided to visit the Oljato-Monument Valley at Navajo Nation in the border of Utah and Arizona.

I came to know that the scenic loop inside the Monument Valley is an unpaved road and some areas required 4x4 vehicles. I didn't want to risk taking the C300 in such roads. Moreover rental insurance does not cover any incident that occurs on an unpaved road. Checked few websites and booked a 2.5 hour safari with MonumentValleySafari.com. It was $75 per person.

Started from Salina, UT at 5 AM and the plan was to reach the Monument Valley at around 10 AM. Our safari was scheduled at 12 PM. Even though Navajo Nation is in Arizona, they do follow the Daylight Savings and hence it was the same time as that of Utah. Keeping track of timezone was a big issue for us. It was like this:
Nevada - Pacific Standard Time
Utah - Mountain Time
Navajo Nation - Mountain Time with Daylight savings
Arizona - Mountain Time without Daylight savings

I somehow completely missed to take timezone information into account during the planning stages. I got to know that Utah follows different timezone from Nevada only after seeing the board at Utah border on US-50. Since our plan included lot of driving, it was critical for us to reach our hotels early so that we could get enough sleep.

We started the drive on the scenic I-70 towards Crescent Junction. The initial plan was to take the inner roads of Utah which pass between Canyonlands National Park and Capitol Reef National Park to reach Monument Valley but we were not sure of rest area availability on that route. Hence, we took the more famous route through Moab i.e., US-191. I realized while passing Moab that it was a good decision to stay at Salina. All the hotels at Moab had scores of cars in their parking lots and the town was pretty busy early in the morning. But it was a pleasant and scenic drive after crossing Moab.

US-191 and US-163 between Moab and Monument Valley:

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Oljato-Monument Valley:

While the drive was smooth until the junction of US-163, we came across two road construction zones near San Juan river crossing. Only one lane of road was open and they made us wait for almost 30 minutes in each construction zone for the vehicles from the other direction to pass. It was a poor management. There were hardly any vehicles on both the sides but still they look lot of time to manage the traffic. This easily added an extra hour to our plan. We were unsure of reaching before 12 PM but somehow made it to the Monument Valley at 11:45 AM.

Glimpses of the Monument valley from US-163 and entrance of the tribal park. The scenes were straight out of the Road Runner Show but couldn't spot Wile E. Coyote with his Acme devices anywhere :

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We were asked by the safari company to wait in a hotel lobby inside the tribal park. The safari guide promptly arrived at 12 PM, introduced himself, explained the itinerary and we set off to the safari. Being a weekday, there was not much crowd and our safari vehicle just had another couple from Germany along with us.

The safari starts on an unpaved road from the tribal park. Since the safari tours are conducted by Native Americans, they take us to the restricted areas which is otherwise blocked for private vehicles. It was a wise decision to leave the C300 safely at parking lot as the conditions of the scenic loop road was worst at the beginning of the drive. Some folks were taking their low clearance sedans but I have no idea how they managed it to make it without scraping the under body. The road condition was decent after 0.5 miles.

The scenic views inside the tribal park were amazing. Let the pictures do the talking for next few posts.

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After driving around the tribal park, the guide took us to their traditional houses and a lady explained all about their culture and history.


Even though the heat was scorching outside, it was very cool inside the mud hut.

















Some arches in the tribal park:

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The guide then took us to the restricted area. This was the most beautiful part of the safari. He jokingly said that it's their version of Area-51

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More pics of desert landscapes and arches:

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Ancient drawings on the wall:

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After 3.5 hours of roaming inside the wonderful tribal park, we returned to the visitor center. It was not just a sight-seeing activity but was an extremely wonderful experience learning about their culture and history. The last minute change in our plan of going on a tour to the Navajo reservation at Oljato-Monument Valley, resulted in one of the most beautiful memories of our lifetime. It was heartening to see the natives alienated in their own land but it was equally humbling to see them so closely knitted with the nature



The safari vehicle:








Parting shots of the Monument Valley captured from US-163:








We had booked the hotel at Flagstaff, Arizona. It was a beautiful drive through the deserts and the Kaibab National Forest.





Reached Baymont Inn in Flagstaff at 6:30 PM. Filled up our supplies at supermarkets around the hotel and retired for the day. It was a pleasant staying experience at Baymont Inn.

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Day 4:

Grand Canyon:

Our plan for this day was to visit Grand Canyon South Rim. We started from our hotel at Flagstaff early in the morning. It's just an hour drive from Flagstaff. We reached the visitor center at 6 AM. While the temperature was very hot at all the places we visited, it was quite opposite here. It was around 10C. We weren't equipped with any warm clothes and hence decided to roam around the Grand Canyon village until the temperature rises a bit. Our plan was to walk for 12 miles along the Rim Trail until Hermit's rest. We started the walk at around 7 AM.

AZ-64 towards Grand Canyon:


There was just another car at the park entrance:


Deserted roads in the Grand Canyon village:


Parked the car near the visitor center and started the walk on the Rim Trail at around 7 AM:

















The Rim Trail and all the view points were deserted. There were hardly any visitors that day:

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We took sufficient rest at each of the deserted view points. Next few posts are just the pictures of grand views of the grand canyon:

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It was almost noon by the time we reached hermit's point. We took the shuttle bus to come back to the Grand Canyon village.








From the village, we drove to the Desert View:





After spending some time at Desert view, we drove to Las Vegas. It was around 7:30 PM by the time we reached the Hotel - Downtown Grand Hotel & Casino. I missed the turn to get inside the self-parking garage of the hotel and had to take a detour through the colorful downtown:














Our next two days stay was at this hotel. The only grouse with this hotel was that the self-parking garage was located quite a distance from the main tower:

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Day 5:

We wanted to take it easy on the 5th day. Since we had driven a lot on the first four days, we wanted to relax a bit on this day. Hence I had planned to visit few places surrounding Las Vegas.

Red Rock Canyon:
We started from our hotel at 9 AM and drove towards Red Rock Canyon which was just a 20 minutes drive. The temperature was very high in the morning and hence we did not plan to try any of the numerous trails in the park. We just drove around the scenic loop stopping at various view points. We hardly found any people there.

Both of us enjoyed the drive through the scenic loop:

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More photos of the Red Rock Canyon: