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Monumental Adventures

By Ellie Pritts

March 18^th, 2018

at the top of my bucket list

Exploring the vast, martian terrains of Utah and Arizona has long been on my list of things to do sooner rather than later. When the news broke that President Trump was planning on cutting the 1.88-million acre Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument nearly in half, I realized my time to see it may be running out. So I set out on a road trip to visit it, and the equally stunning Monument Valley on the border of Arizona/Utah.

10 HOURS TO GO...

It's a 10 hour drive from L.A. to Monument Valley, which seems perfectly manageable until you're about 3 hours in to your drive and realize you're barely out of Los Angeles. And then you think, hey isn't Vegas sort of on the way?

It turns out Vegas IS sort of on the way, so after 4 or so rough hours on the road we decided to spend the night in Vegas, taking in the sights and sounds (and smells) of Fremont Street. I'll save those photos for another post.

Another perk to staying in Vegas the first night was that it was a quick 3.5 hour drive from there to our first stop, Grand Staircase.

Devil's Garden

Did I mention that Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument is 188 million acres of land? That's a whole lot of land. And it turns out, all the many amazing areas to see aren't really very close to each other. So I made an executive decision; we'd go to Devil's Garden.

166 Millions years

The rock formations in the Devil's Garden were created by weather and erosion over the last 166 million years. That's an unfathomable amount of time to me. The area is filled with hoodos and arches made from these natural forces and I found them all to be truly otherworldly.

pit stops

Sandwiched between these glorious national parks were plenty of quick stops in tiny towns. I'm a sucker for old motels and abandoned houses, so anytime there was a chance to explore these things I just had to stop and do it.

There were also tons of cattle roaming free range all throughout Arizona and Utah, and they provided many a photo op.

"Should we pull over?"

You know when you're going on a road trip and you pass something cool and wonder, "is it worth stopping to check out?"

This happened constantly.

But this time was so compelling that we just HAD to stop and investigate, even though we were only about an hour away from our final destination in Monument Valley. As we rounded a particularly beautiful bend in the road, I swore I spied water off to our right. A bit further ahead and we were fully in a canyon where we could see a massive lake sitting silent and still in the midst of these huge red rocks.

no signal, no clue

At this point, neither of us had any phone service for hours. I have no idea what this lake is or how it ended up here, but I'm guessing a glacier was involved. The water was beautiful and its deep green hue perfectly contrasted the rusty red terrain that surrounded it.

we made it!

After another 2.5 hours driving from Grand Staircase, we finally arrived in Monument Valley. It was jaw dropping and words can't really do it justice so I'm going to stop trying.

the tour

After copious amounts of research on both of the parks we visited, I was still not very confident about where to even begin. I winged it at Grand Staircase, but this time I decided to go with the pros and book an actual tour. This was one of the best decisions I made on the whole trip.

Our guide showing us petroglyphs left by the first human settlers in the valley.

sights unseen

The tour I booked was with Monument Valley Safari and took place on a Navajo Reservation and the business is Navajo operated and owned, which was important to me. Our experience was incredible, offering us access to areas of the park only accessible to us. My favorite things were the many arches and caves we explored. The acoustics inside some of the formations were incredible, and I really enjoyed when our guide sang us a song inside the largest one.

"what did you do to your photos"

As you can tell, I got extremely funky with the photos I took on this trip. Many of the especially vibrant ones were done in the style of infrared photography. The one just below is layered from a photo of the petroglyphs we saw with a photo of the valley we found them in.

I've already had a few people ask about getting prints of some of these photos, which is great! Here is where you can order prints of my work.

Again, again!

I only got to spend one night in Monument Valley, which hardly satisfied my curiosity for the countless other wonders I knew the park had to offer. So yes, I am definitely coming back here and staying longer. My tour guide told me they do overnight camping tours, on the very tops of some of the largest mesas. Sounds like something I need to do, and soon!

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