We pulled out of camp at 9:00 this morning with a comfortable temperature of 67 degrees. We talked about going into Mesa Verde, but did not for a couple of reasons. The first is that we were here either two or three years ago and did a very good tour at that time. The other was that the weather forecast was for thunderstorms and we thought that being on the highest point in many miles was probably NOT the best plan!

Therefore we continued onwards to Cortez, CO which is a very prosperous looking town ...most inviting. We had stopped there for lunch a couple of years ago when we made the big loop from Durango, Silverton, Telluride, Dolores, and Cortez. We did stop at Mickey D's today for a chocolate chip frappe! Just couldn't resist.

As we traveled westward, we could see the Ute's sacred mountain, "Sleeping Ute", very well. I think this was actually the most time we have ever spent looking at it, as we were driving towards it as we traveled. Our intention was to stop at the Ute Casino which has a campground and stay there for perhaps two nights and possibly miss the heavy rain in the forecast. This is monsoon season in this area, by the way, which usually means nice mornings and afternoon thunder showers. We did pull into the casino campground but it was only 10:00 and we sort of looked at each other and said, "Nah." The campground was nice enough but it was very early to stop and we figured we could stay dry in Mufasa and maybe we would by-pass the worst of it...Stay tuned! This was the equivalent of asking, "How bad can it be?"

As we drove towards the Four Corners area, the landscape became larger and more "western" looking . You could imagine you were in an old John Wayne movie riding along on your horse with wild Indians on the horizon on one of the mesas! Beautiful. The mesas and buttes just became more and more numerous, and it was hard to see everything as we were looking in all directions in order that we not miss anything. Some of the area looked like the Badlands in the Dakotas...melted land in so many different colors. Amazing! At 10:50 we saw a dust storm in the distance and at 11:00 we crossed from Colorado into Arizona.

Our intentions had been to stop at the geological marker for the four corners of Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. We stopped at it before when traveling there, but this time the whole area looked like a major "got cha" stop so we just rolled on.

We stopped in Kayenta, AZ for lunch. We pulled into a shopping center and ate in Mufasa which turned out to be a great plan, albeit accidental. About the time we were getting parked, the skies opened up and we had a deluge . Water was running at least 6 inches deep in the indented portions of the parking lot. It was very unusual for us to see this kind of rain in such very arid desert land. The local people have been blessed. We just relaxed, had lunch, and waited it out for awhile. Before we left Kayenta we stopped for fuel (believe it or not Mike C., it was actually a Shell station!!). We paid $3.69/GAL and got a tad more that 10 MPG on the last tank.

The rain was still coming down as we headed towards Monument Valley, so that was the bitter end of the great wash job John gave Mufasa while we were in South Fork with Laura and Tom. Oh well, tomorrow is another day! One good thing about the rain was that it lowered the temperature to 63 degrees. When we rolled into Utah at 2:30 it was back up to 76. We stopped for the night (and for tomorrow night probably) shortly after coming into Utah at Goulding's Camp Park right across from the entrance to Monument Valley. Actually, the views here in the campground would make the A list of any book listing natural beauty spots to stop and see . We have reservations to take a guided tour into Monument Valley at 8:45 in the morning, and we may take a trolley back out of the canyon we are in (Rock Door Canyon) to the main building to see a movie on the monuments this evening.

The founders of this trading post/motel/campground/etc, Harry and Leone (Mike) Goulding came to Monument Valley in the early 1920's and set up a Trading Post. They conducted business with the local Navajo people and traded hand crafted items such as rugs and jewelry in exchange for food and other goods. Later on they were able to make a connection with Hollywood, and John Wayne ended up making the John Ford movie, "Stagecoach" here. There are now lodge rooms and dining rooms as well as our campground. In 1962, Knox College of Illinois took over the property. In 1981 the LaFont family bought it. This is a very interesting area in and of itself, and we plan to get out and about shortly to check things out.

The scenery we traveled through today was beyond description, or at least it is beyond mine . Barbara D. is the only one I know who could have made you see it without seeing it yourself. I took many pictures and we took several videos but the WIFI here is going to be problematic to say the least, and my Verizon is not the greatest, so I suspect the hotspot isn't going to be up to uploading any pictures. If that doesn't work (and I am not even sure I can get the written part of this out yet) I will try again either tomorrow or the day after if and when I get a strong enough signal to get them out. If I have to wait, I may send out another notice for this same day so that you will know that there are pictures added to today's post. Remember, we are now in Western Wilds, and the only conveniences you have are the ones you carry with you!

We drove 152 miles today.