Tuesday, Oct 18 - The Valley of the Gods

 We went back to the Navajo Twin Rocks Cafe at 8 AM.  Hil and I had blue corn pancakes with pumpkin seeds and blueberries, and Bob had a whole Navajo fry bread under beans, pork carnitas, two eggs and topped with spicy  green chile Hollandaise!

 

We set off afterwards on Beehive 163 a short ways to the entrance of the Valley of the Gods, a BLM (now part of Bears Ears?) area with a 17 mile gravel road.  It has lots of primitive campsites which seemed to be surprisingly trash-free as we drove by, and were being well used by large camping vehicles.  We saw one free spirited woman with a pup tent playing a guitar on a large boulder which was a nice sight!

 

The area consists of a large sagebrush-filled valley with tall narrow stone columns similar to Monument Valley.  By the time we were halfway through, we had given structures various names, only to find out, when Bob looked at his Cedar Mesa map, that most of them already had been labeled with names cleverer than ours! 

"de Gaulle and His Troops"

Greek God

"Lady in the Bathtub", or as we call it, "Margaret in a Bathtub"

The King and His Guards became General de Gaulle and His Troops.  We eagerly awaited The Lady in Her Bath which did not disappoint!

 

The west wall of the valley is huge and imposing, but our route (Beehive 261) led right up it to the top. On the map the switchbacks of the Moki Dugway looked scary indeed. 

The wall the Moki Dugway traverses

Going up the Dugway

Hil bravely drove up the wall which turned out to be a well-engineered and not too narrow dirt road, with amazing views.  When we reached the top we were on the Cedar (Juniper) Mesa in a juniper/piñon pine forest and couldn’t see a bit of the huge valley we had just driven through.  After about 30 miles we turned onto Beehive 95 that we had driven two days ago on our way to Blanding and Monticello.  

 

We stopped at Mule Canyon Ruins, small remnants of a kiva and underground living quarters almost right on the road, and then at Butler Wash Ruins where we walked half a mile over slick rock to a lovely small canyon filled with cottonwood trees and several partially walled-in caves, one with a window.  A small seasonal stream ran over the lip of the largest overhang and down inside the cave and through it, providing a running water supply for the inhabitants!

Butler Wash Ruins

 

We returned to our Lodge at three, and Hil and I drove across the street to a large laundromat which was thankfully empty as only about 2-3 of the 20 or so machines worked!  We were back at our rooms by four with more than enough clean clothes for the rest of the trip.  

We tried Duke’s Restaurant, part of Desert Rose Inn, which was surprisingly good -  I think the chef is probably an escapee from Las Vegas or LA.  I had spicy cauliflower soup and Bob and I had wild mushroom raviolis which were pretty good, but very rich.

Only non-alcoholic beer to drink, so after dinner we stopped by a tiny market for ice cream and beer, in case we run into no wine or beer tomorrow.  Back for tea at our motel.