After we went to Tuba City, we wanted go to the Sunset View Campground. But unfortunately the bad weather seemed to follow us. Once we got close to the campground we were greeted by heavy rain. It didn’t make any sense to stay here. The night before we had checked the weather forecast. That’s how I knew that the next should be sunny again. So we decided to come back the next day and drive to the Monument Valley first. We had a reservation for the Monument Valley but only for the following day. Not knowing if we could change the date of our reservation or if we could get a site at all, we drove there. We had to at least try. (We couldn’t call them either cause we don’t have any cell reception in the Navajo area.)
The “the view” campground wasn’t on our way at all. But since I was a kid and after having seen the Marlboro ad, being there and seeing the valley in person became one of the things on my bucket list. First thing we did when we reached the entrance was pay the park fee. As it is a Navajo area they let you pay for it. And it was no problem at all to change our reservation day. Only 3 other RVs where there when we arrived. We got one of the last sites with a good view of the buttes. We were glad that we got there “so soon”. Within the next hour or two, the place filled up pretty fast. After having a quick lunch we wanted to explore the area a bit. There are only a few trails to choose from. We decided to do the shortest one. (The Mesa Trail) Unfortunately we didn’t bring our hiking poles, cause we didn’t expect the trail to be so steep. That’s why we couldn’t go all the way up but at least 3/4 of it and the view we had from there wasn’t to bad either.
Michael wanted to do a time lapse video of the sunset, but unfortunately lots of people got in the way. But as soon as the sun went down and the moon rose we saw that we had a full moon which was even more awesome. And no people around either cause it started to get cold outside. So this is the result, plus one from the sunrise the next day:
On the next day we finally went to the Sunset view campground. Just as the forecast had predicted, the sun was shining. And the best was: The Campground is free. Of course you have to deal with a couple of things: Like you can’t lock your bathroom doors and you don’t have showers. But apart from that everything else was nice. It was clean and quite. It’s probably because not a lot of people know about the campground. I think there are 30 sites and only 5 of the sites were taken.
On Friday we went to Page. (Back to civilization) But still no cell reception. On our way to Page we went to Horseshoe Bend. After a little hike we had quite a view.
Only the people with selfie sticks and tourists wearing flip flops and shoes with heels were really annoying. (Seriously who wears something like that on a 1.5 mile hike with uneven terrain and sand. After that we tried to find a place to sleep. If possible, with wifi. The first campground was already full. At the second one we only got a dry site. But at least they had a dump station so we could top of our fresh water and get rid of our greywater. Our plan was to stay for one night. Then we were heading to the Lower Antelope Canyon.
