We left Page and headed for Monument Valley, this park is run by the Navajo Native Americans and is located within their reservation, mainly located in Arizona but the reserve does cross into Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.
We were going to camp at the Navajo Campground near their interpretation center, but after they told us it would be $43USD for a campsite whether we wanted power and water or not we decided to leave. We set off towards Utah continuing along HWY163 towards Natural Bridges National Park.
We detoured into Valley of the Gods where we found a wild camping spot for the night. These are the views from our campsite.
We had planned on just hanging around for a couple of days but the wind came up and rocked the camper most of the night. Next morning, we had breakfast then drove through the valley looking at the wind and water sculpted formations. This brought us out onto HWY261.
We headed north on HWY261, this turns into a narrow dirt road called Moki Dugway that winds up the Mesa face to the top. This road had restrictions towards the north end; Not recommended for vehicles with a Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) over 10,000lbs, as our GVW is 19,500lbs and we are sitting at approximately 15,500lbs we continued with caution.
Below, about halfway up looking south back down the road.
We made it to the top without an issue and continued to Natural Bridges National Park but as it was late in the afternoon therefore we just went to the Information Center to get the lay of the land before heading to our wild camping spot for the evening. Next morning, we went back to the park for our self guided tour and some hiking down to the canyon floor.
We hiked the ¾ mile/1.2km to the bottom to see this bridge close-up.
There was also some Petroglyphs high up on a ledge with not means of access, they could still be seen with the naked eye and a zoom lens.
It was quite the hike back up from the bottom.
Further along the 9 mile/15km loop there were some buildings that could be seen across the valley, located in shallow caves part way up the rock face.
These ruins were occupied by what was once called Anasazi but are now referred to as the Puebloan Ancestors.
We continued driving along the loop.
We left here mid afternoon, turned east and headed to Cortez, Colorado.
Next: Four Corners Area – Colorado