On Sunday the 24th, we drove from north of Durango to the Cottonwood RV Park in Bluff, UT.  Along the way we stopped off at the Four Corners.  This is where the corners of Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico intersect.  I saw this 11 years ago as a concrete slab with medallions embedded, a few flags, etc and little more.  Now the Navajo Nation has exercised its authority to surround it with a perimeter of stone booths for selling native American artifacts to a captive audience.  They also charge an entry fee, since the area is now fenced off from the public.  Betty bought some things, and I took some photos.  Getting there, as with all things in the Navajo Nation, is on a long bumpy and dusty road.  The roads are not maintained; they simply put up a sign saying "ROUGH ROAD."  The parking area was a large rough and rocky area not well suited for parking a motorhome pulling a car behind it.  Getting in and out was interesting.

Wide view of Four Corner grounds

Betty standing at intersection of four states

Sand paintings exhibit

Closeup of sand paintings

Arriving in Bluff was easy enough, with a simple but adequate RV park.  Our tour filled the park.  The area is very isolated, with few stores other than what caters to tourists.  And there are very many tourists.  At a trading post the man there told us that two filming crews were in town to shoot commercials.  One was a German company filming a car commercial.  The other was a Japanese company filming a cigarette commercial.  This demonstrates that you do not have to go to Monument Valley or Moab to film dramatic cliffs and other large rock formations.  The high country of the Southwest pretty much looks like that when you get to the cliff areas.  We also got a tour of Bluff Fort, a Mormon outpost established by determined pioneers who were willing to face the seemingly impossible task of crossing the territory full of extreme cliff ridges.  We watched a reenactment film showing horse-drawn wagons with ropes tied behind being eased down steep declines to form a rocky road through the ridges, often blasting through large rock faces using black powder.  As a non-Mormon, I cannot fathom what motivated them to have such a faithful missionary spirit under such dire conditions.  They have a museum maintained by direct descendants, with cabins built by these ancestors maintained by relatives here today.  It is almost a nationality here to be Mormon, much as being an Irish or Italian Catholic gives many a sense of identity.  By the way, it was NOT Ft Bluff; only military bases have the prefix "fort."

The next morning, Monday, at 7:30 am we boarded a bus for the trip to Monument Valley.  There we were in an area of the Navajo Nation (not a national park) where we could take photos of the much-photographed monuments of stone.  To see a quick overview video of Monument Valley, click here:  Quick Overview of Monument Valley.  It was a very dusty area.  How on earth did Hollywood film crews keep their 1930s equipment in working order with all that wind and dust?  For that matter, how do you do it now?  We then were loaded up into the backs of four trucks equipped with seats for a ride through the valley.  Again, driven by a Navajo driver who loves fast, dusty, and bouncy rides.  Try taking photos under those conditions.  I decided to use only a small video camera, which managed to produce surprisingly good movies of the experience.  We were let off a few times for photos, when we all made as much use as we could of existing light once the dust settled.  A video of the truck tour can be seen here:  Navajo Monument Valley Truck Tour.  It is only a few minutes long.

Betty poses with horse while on Navajo truck tour

After that we had lunch and visited the film museum, focusing mostly on John Wayne.  We saw the cabin that appeared in the film, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.  I had my photo taken sitting inside and in the driver seat of a stagecoach.  We then went to Goosenecks State Park and got good photos.  This was another example where many state parks are about as impressive as their famous national park counterparts.  I have mentioned goosenecks earlier, since these rock shapes appear in several areas, but this is a state park named for them.

Door of cabin John Wayne used in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

John Wayne Cabin, used in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

Inside the John Wayne Museum

Inside the John Wayne Cabin

Steven seated in stagecoach outside John Wayne Museum

Interior of old stagecoach.  Not much room.

Goosenecks State Park

The next morning, Tuesday, at 7:30 am we again boarded a bus, this time for Natural Bridges National Monument.  We took a long hike into this area for some good photo opps.  Then we returned to the RV park to get lunch.  We then went to nearby Bluff Fort (this is when we saw the film and got a tour of the fort site).

Example of one Natural Bridges National Monument formation

Wednesday morning early we departed for the Grand Canyon Camper Village, south of the South Entrance Station of the south rim of the Grand Canyon.  It was a typical drive through the Navajo Nation, with  many rock formations that make you wonder if you should stop for yet another photo session.  The weather was windy with threatening rain.  We stopped for lunch in the town of Cameron, east of the park on Rt 64.  It was nice to find a place in the middle of nowhere that had gas stations and places to eat.  We re-fueled and ate at a Burger King.  We then continued on our way west on Rt 64 to the south rim.  As we entered the park, we saw a sign reading "First View of the Grand Canyon."  There was no place to pull over, so all you could do was glance to the right as the trees opened to see a fabulous sight.  The sun was out at that point and the visibility was good.

As we struggled to get set up in the tiny and primitive RV park south of the national park entrance, the wind picked up and the rain began.  We were dressed in layers of clothes to keep warm and dry, with the top layer being a yellow rain slicker with hood.  As we drove back into the national park that afternoon to see as much as we could before supper, the sun came out beautifully, and we wished we had brought more than just our phones for taking photos.  As we were driving down Desert View Drive, a herd of female elk crossed the road in front of the car in front of us.  A short video of it can be seen here:  Herd of female elk crossing Desert View Drive.  The sun in this part of the country continues to be very warm and blindingly bright.  We took a few photos with our phone near the east rim, then hurried on back to the RV Park for a group pizza dinner at a nearby restaurant.

Thursday morning early we boarded a bus (sound familiar?) for the east rim and Desert View (including the Watchtower).  The Watchtower was sealed off at the top for construction work, so we could only go to the patio area over the second floor level.  The views were still very good since the weather cooperated. Once again most of the people there spoke foreign languages, but they behave as though this is their park, not ours.  We are the foreigners to them, and we are in their way.  Very many Italians were there.  Also Germans and French.  And everywhere Asians of several nationalities.  The bus guide joked that it is a requirement to graduate from high school in Japan that you visit the Grand Canyon.  He also said that about 5 years ago a young Asian girl was posing for a photo at the edge of the rim when one of the sporadic wind gusts blew her over the edge to her death.  Seeing how they carelessly dance around the edge taking selfies, and the unpredictability of the strong winds here, I am surprised that there are not more fatalities.  After that we went to the IMAX theater to watch the film on the Grand Canyon.  We had seen it 7 years ago, but this time it appeared fuzzy and there was a large object on the lens that spoiled the view.  The man who took our tickets said that he had complained to the projectionist over and over but nothing is done.

South Rim of Grand Canyon

Sunlight on opening that mule rides pass through

Today, Friday, we are resting.  We plan to drive into Williams to get some groceries, since nothing closer has much to buy except tourist souvenirs.  They truly have a captive audience and monopolistic control of everything around here.  Williams is a town on the old Route 66.  Most of that route was replaced by I-40, but whatever remains of it that goes through towns is trumpeted as being on Route 66.  Those old remnants for decades nearly went out of sight (and bankrupt) until they were bought fairly recently and re-labeled largely as being on Route 66.  Now they are mobbed; mobbed by foreigners mostly.  Americans have a passing fancy for the old route, but foreigner flock to it as if it were a shrine.  Go figure.

Tonight at 6 pm we have our farewell dinner for the Fantasy RV Tour.  It has been like taking your neighborhood with you (for better or worse) to each stop.  There were always people there with whom you were acquainted.  Notice I did not say that you actually knew them very well.  It has been mostly a guarded relationship where people did not open up very much.  As with other tours, bus tours instead of RV tours, we have found the people to be there to be alone, not with others.  There were exceptions here, even some who knew each other before coming, but mostly the people were there to impress others rather than to get to know them.  Very competitive.  With some, it was a matter of dominating others with their very large and powerful RV machines.  I gave many our card with the address of our web site and our blog site; they have never looked at either, and I even saw one appear to toss the card away.  Tomorrow morning will be our farewell breakfast.  Seems repetitive following the farewell dinner.  Maybe they will soon add a farewell lunch ...  Perhaps a bag lunch to go?

P.S.:  We have returned from the surprisingly good farewell dinner.  The food was good and in huge servings.  There was also great camaraderie among nearly all who attended.  Each one was given a humorous award (we got the "Let's Get It Right" award due to our insistence that the daily driving instructions be accurate).  It was illuminating to see how the group (for the most part) had warmed up to one another over the course of the trip.  Though there were still virtual partitions into subgroups, the evening was a sort of unified celebration of what had been achieved over the course of 34 days together.

Our farewell breakfast tomorrow will be a cold "continental" breakfast served outdoors on a cold morning outside the wagonmaster's motorhome.  Not what I had expected, but I suppose it is the best one could do, given that everyone will be using that time also to unhook their rigs from the RV park, then hook up their dinghies, and depart for their new adventures.