Sandblasted!

Friday, April 8, 2011

MONUMENT VALLEY, UT – A gust of wind that rocked our trailer this morning woke me up, somewhere around 6:30, and Val was already up. Howard, the camp owner, had told us last night that there would be strong winds today, so we wanted to get down from the heights in good time. We actually did it in record time; we were on the road by 7:30, our earliest departure yet!

I’m not sure what exactly we gained by this tactic. Through the entire day the wind has bellowed around us along every mile of highway, raising great clouds of dust that, at times, obliterated the most distant mountains completely, and made ghosts of the closer ones.

Val said he’s never seen the truck work harder than it did today, hauling our great heavy sail of a trailer against the blasts that swept unhindered across the wide plains. We headed north on Highway 191, past lots of small Navajo settlements. Next to the low buildings we often saw a hexagonal structure called a hogan, where family gatherings or spiritual ceremonies take place.

The plain we traveled across was desolate-looking, with only low sagebrush and tumbleweed dotting the dry, red soil. In the distance we started to see some of the wonderful rock formations that have been the backdrop of many movie westerns. Some rocks shot vertically from the plain as if they had been dropped there from outer space, while others were attached to larger mountain ranges that had been sculpted by time and wind into grooves and fingers of stone.

There seems to be a great fascination with naming the stone formations around here; in Sedona there was the coffeepot, sugarloaf, Snoopy, and others, and here in Monument Valley we see the mittens (formations that appear to have a mound with a thumb pointing up, one left and one right), bear and rabbit, and the king’s throne. Maybe the names helped people peg things a bit better than, say “meet you at the large rounded rock with the two-and-a-half columns next to it”.

Highway 191 came to a T intersection with 160, where we turned west. We turned north again at Kayenta, and a few miles later, crossed into the state of Utah. It was tantalizing to see glimpses, through the haze of dust, of huge monoliths of stone that would have made fantastic photos on a clear day.

Goulding’s Lodge, where we are now camped, is the name of the collection of buildings in a channel between two walls of sandstone. Harry Goulding and his wife Leone came to Monument Valley in the 1920s and built their home at this spot. Eight years later, they set up a trading post where Navajo natives could exchange pottery, jewelry, baskets and blankets for food and supplies.

Poverty and hardship related to the Great Depression prompted the Gouldings to find a way to help the community, and in 1938 they traveled to Hollywood to drum up interest in the beautiful and rugged setting of their home for a film location. They succeeded when they met with John Ford, who came here to make the film “Stagecoach” with John Wayne. He made nine more MV movie classics, and since then crews have shot hundreds of movies, commercials and TV shows here.

Tonight we went to see “The Searchers” with John Wayne, at the small theatre that is part of the Goulding’s complex. Tomorrow night they’re showing “Stagecoach”. The shows are included in our camping fee. It was fun to see the familiar story with a background that took on a whole new significance in relation to where we are!