Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park

Today was a pretty exciting day.  We got to take a ride in an open "jeep" throughout Monument Valley Tribal Park.  This is actually Navajo land and not run by the National Park Service. The roads were red dirt and extremely rough, with big rocks and deep ruts.

It was really alot of fun and I'm afraid we all were acting like children on a school bus.  As usual the sights were astounding and I'm running out of adjectives to describe what we have seen.

Many of the formations have "cute" names ( I think they do that to stimulate our "Senior" brains).

We called this one "Puff the magic dragon"

This was a real Navajo cowboy who assumed the classic pose for the tourists.

A  female Hogan (yes, they have male and female houses)  where a native demonstrated weaving and corn grinding.  These Hogans are made with Juniper wood and a mixture of mud and red sand. They are cool in the summer and warm in the winter and they can stand for years.                       

One of us (That's Melodie way up there) climbed to the top of a sand dune, with about half the group, while several of us (me included) waited at the bottom, in the shade.

The entire trip lasted 3 1/2 hours and the weather was perfect but let me tell you about red dust!!!  It was everywhere, and I mean every crack and crevice available on the human body and then some.  In our hair, on our cameras and in our mouths.  The back of our legs looked like a bad spray-tan job.  We all couldn't wait to get in the shower but we couldn't figure out how to get into the motor homes without dragging in the dust!