57.0 Monumental

A photo taken on Monument Valley is a must for a motorcyclist. We did it in 2014 and there is nothing in the rules that says that you can't do it more than once. Much of Northern Arizona is Navajo tribal land and now goes under the name of Navajo Nation. There is something about only being allowed on the land if accompanied by a Navajo, but clearly we crossed it in 2014 and now, again, ten years later. But there are small fences next to the road. So we are not sure as to what the status of the Nation means. It wasn't clear to us either how the well-known fast food and petrol outlets functioned - but there weren't that many of them anyway. Maybe the fence goes round them too?

There are not that many recognisable towns in the area. There are odd congregations of prefabs that reminded us of parts of Aboriginal Northern Australia, but not much else. We are not sure whether this represents an improved lifestyle for the Navajo or not? One notable exception was the Cameron Trading Post which was very much an oasis in the desert. We happened to stop there by chance - in need of a drink. A lovely historic building with great picture windows, Tiffany stained glass panels and pressed-tin ceilings (something we had seen for the first time in Mexico). The Trading Post was a Navajo business, now - restaurant, shop, motel. Our waitress explained to us about the Navajo being driven off their land in a forced march in the past and then, with the creation of the reservation, being allowed back. And a picture of her grandmother could be found at the back of the book for sale next door in the shop. It's a place we made a mental note about returning to one day.

There are very few accommodation options available close to Monument Valley - this might be something to do with it being on Navajo land. We believe that land belongs to the Navajo community as a whole and not individuals, so individuals don't have anything to raise loans against to start businesses. It was also too far for us to travel from Sedona to the other side of Monument Valley. It's not that there isn't any cheap motel accommodation available. There is. At least six or seven motels. In nearly all aspects they are cheap. Except cost-wise. It was our most expensive accommodation to date...

The trip out of Sedona was beautiful. We also did a loop round the crater of an extinct volcano; it last blew nearly a thousand years ago but everything is still blackened. Otherwise, apart from the Cameron Trading Post the day was a bit drab, a bit like the 'cheap' motel we stayed in.

Monument Valley was cloudy but still very impressive. We just rode through taking photographs. And rode back to take some more. And then turned around again. Unlike Forrest Gump we didn't decide to stop because we were tired.

In 2014 when we rode through we had stopped between Mexican Hat and Bluff at what has now become some very expensive accommodation - not a cheap/expensive motel. When we set off that morning we almost immediately passed a great looking cafe and made a mental note to ourselves that should we ever return... Well, it being Thursday, it was closed. Perhaps next time.

Our destination after riding through Monument Valley was Moab which is even more rocky than Monument Valley and we got a foretaste of that on the approach. Firstly a massive sandstone arch and then a snowman, or is it a teapot?