Summer Vacation Trip - Day 7

I realized this morning that I’d stayed in the same hotel when I was in Chambers in 2011 (it had a different name but was previously a Route 66 icon, “The Chieftain”).  Our day started early (whatever time zone we were in!) and we ate a nice (free!) breakfast at the hotel.  We then (0630) headed north on US-191, traveling deeper into the Navajo Nation.  We stopped for gas in the little “town” of Klagetoh (0840).  Mollie was a great help (again) with GPS directions and researching fuel prices before we needed the fill-up.  We continued north through the Reservation until we reached the larger town of Ganado, where we stopped to visit Hubbell Trading Post NPS site.  The weather was great again (60s/70s and no clouds).  All morning, we’d struggled with telling the actual time (the cell phones, bank signs and watches all said something different).  When we got confirmation, we discovered we’d “lost” an hour along the way.  The post, which flourished in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, was operated by the Hubbell family, who were very respected by the Navajo, for several generations and the place was still active during our visit.  Mollie got a NPS Passport stamp and we watched native weavers working and saw some churro sheep, the source of the wool needed for the beautiful Navajo rugs and blankets.  I bought Mollie a pretty Navajo winter hat (0925).  Nearby, there was also a group of young students there who were being trained to make native art and ranching maintenance.  It was great to visit such an interesting place but we then hurried on our way.  We drove a short distance north across the Painted Desert and soon reached the town of Chinle.  Just to the east, we found the Canyon de Chelly (pronounced “Shay”) Visitor Center.  After we got the NPS Passport stamp, we stopped to tour a “Hogan”, a traditional Navajo home, and learned a lot about the building and culture from teenage volunteers.  The rangers inside were also assisted by these young ambassadors of their nation and we got good advice about navigating the Reservation.  We spent the next 90 minutes driving along the canyon rim, stopping often to take short walks on the edge and peer through our binoculars.  We spotted horses grazing along the river deep in the valley (Mollie was happy).  The trees along the water (which apparently hadn’t been visible for almost 13 years due to a severe drought) were very green and a stark contrast to the reddish rock walls.  Our favorite stop was at the Spider Rocks, tall spires in the middle of the canyon.  We bought a Navajo bracelet from a native vendor (it was made of juniper berries and had a horse charm).  We also bought some souvenirs at the Visitor Center on our way out of the park (1320) and then headed into Chinle for lunch (chicken parmigiana sandwiches and chicken fries) at Burger King (1345).  As we were leaving, Mollie went out to the car without me.  When I saw her again, she explained that she’d decided to purchase lunch for a lady and her daughter.  After getting the food in the line, Mollie came out to the car with a pretty arrowhead necklace...  We headed north and then west (further into the Navajo Reservation) and we stopped at Navajo National Monument.  Not only did Mollie get a third NPS Passport stamp, but we learned a bit of the Navajo language (the ubiquitous term Tsegi means “in between the rocks” and is pronounced the same way as the word “Chelly”, which is related).  We got to take a walk on a paved path (Sandal Trail) along the edge of another canyon where the Ancestral Puebloan people built cliff dwellings.  The 135 room town (named Betatakin) was quite impressive.  On the way back to the Visitor Center, I detoured (solo hike) on the Aspen Trail, which had a huge descent into a relict forest of glacial era trees.  The temps had reached the mid-80s but there was almost no humidity, so the steep climb back to the car didn’t seem too bad.  After about an hour at the NPS site, we headed back to the east until we reached Kayenta.  There, at a different Burger King, we got milkshakes (1750) inside the restaurant and I posted about our trip on Facebook.  Mollie was having trouble getting in touch (via text) with her mother and this frustrated her.  By 1830, we left Kayenta, headed towards Utah (northeast).  Before we left Arizona, we got to see lots of horses and dogs roaming around on the northern edges of the Reservation.  We also watched as the terrain prepared itself to host the iconic landmarks that lay near the border.  The first monument in the Olijato-Monument Valley soon presented itself, and Mollie insisted that I stop at a pullout to get some photos.  From there, Mollie asked to stop at almost every pullout on the road.  At one of them, she encountered a large group of people (presumably family) from Omaha, Nebraska, who actually flagged her down (from another pullout that was about fifty feet down the road) to ask if she could take their picture.  She obliged them and I got out of the car to get a few more photos of ourselves.  Then the happy travelers piled into their van, which a teen girl in the group had dubbed the "Swag Wagon", and sped off down the road.  Before we parted ways, the driver of the caravan jokingly requested, "if you see us broken down on the road, please stop by and help!" Then it was time to get back to our pullout hopping.  Mollie wanted to stop to visit the Olijato-Monument Valley park but I asked her if we could skip the attraction.  The Native owned location charged $20 for entry, it was already 1900 and we had been on the move throughout several time zones for about twelve hours.  I tried to reason with her, saying that the views were enough to give her a bit of a photography high but that I was rapidly running out of steam from all of the driving we had done to get three NPS Passport stamps in one day.  Mollie made it clear that she REALLY wanted to go to the Monument Valley Visitor Center (Navajo land).  I’d been in the area in 2011 and knew that the view of the landmarks from US-163 was just fine for photos and I continued to stop at pullouts.  Mollie eventually acknowledged that she’d been able to get plenty of great photos and good views.  Before long, the Monument Valley was nothing more than a small irregularity in the horizon in our rear-view mirror.  However, the Red Canyon didn't stop there and, during our drive into Utah, we were treated to some more breathtaking views.  The sun was quickly making its way down to the horizon and soon its light only touched the plateaus of the canyon.  We passed through the town of Mexican Hat, a sleepy little town located along the San Juan River.  We spotted a bizarre balancing rock formation at the top of the hill, and soon realized that it was related to the name of the town.  The rocks looked like an upside down sombrero.  Clouds that had appeared in the sky while we were appreciating the canyon helped to see the sun off as we approached the end of our drive.  It was late and we weren't anywhere near a place to get a quick bite to eat, so we ate dinner (snacks) in the car.  Our adventure today ended in Blanding, Utah, a place that I’d discovered (from my pre-trip research) was a great headquarters for several days in the area near the Four Corners.  We checked into the homey little Prospector Motor Lodge (2055). After we got into the room, Mollie logged online and posted about our trip through Monument Valley.  For several days, I’d asked Mollie if she wanted to make the daily Facebook post.  She’d mentioned (both on this trip and the Spring Break in April) that she needed to write a Travel Blog for a school project (a graduation requirement).  With all the effort she took to make her write-up "perfect" (it was VERY good!), we had very little time to relax and unwind before going to bed (2245).