Another Mother Earth theme park

Today was another breath-takingly stunning day courtesy of Mother Earth. We did a Guided Tour of Monument Valley with Bennett, a local Navajo who lives 8 miles away with no running water, no electricity, and one hell of a kick-arse cell-phone! Once again we received the benefit of travelling the USA in the off-season of late-fall: we were the only two on the tour. We opted for a tour rather than self-drive for two reasons: 1) Snowdrop would not have been covered on a dirt road by insurance and 2) Bennett was able to take us into areas not open to the general public, and what a stunning bonus that was.

For Mum the highlight was seeing the petroglyphs carved by the Anasazi over 1500 years ago. For me it was standing in Big Hogan, a natural amphitheatre, and being able to clearly hear Mum chatting with another tourist we came across who were standing about fifty feet away.

This morning we went through the Museum at Gouldings Lodge, and learnt about Harry and Mike Goulding (“Mike” being the nickname of Harry’s wife Leone) who founded the Lodge in the good old days. Fascinating stuff. We were also able to look through their home, which is now part of the Museum, and watched a video on a couple of cowboys who were caught stealing silver from a Navajo mine. They were let off with a warning never to steal again, and were allowed to take the silver they’d stolen with them! But true to white man’s form, they drank and gambled all their silver away, returned to the mine, and were never heard from again. They were killed, scalped, and had arrows inserted into their ears so they would, hopefully, learn to hear in the next life. The Navajo said the Utes killed them; the Utes said the Navajo killed them. Either way, they got what they deserved, silly greedy fools.

There was also a display of memorabilia from all the films that have used Monument Valley as a location over the years, from John Wayne, to Back to the Future III, and Thelma and Louise. About a hundred in total. Tonight we’re off to the theatre to see a John Wayne movie.