Monument Valley From Moab

[Steven@147]

Tami and I are using Moab as a base camp to visit all the wonderful places in the area. We decided to take a road trip to Monument Valley, its only @ 140 miles from Moab down highway 191. We left the RV @ 0730 and got back to it @ 1700. We stopped once at Blanding to refuel, diesel $5.29.

We had planned to visit Valley of the Gods on the way but the East entrance road off 163 is a very small entrance, if you blink you'll miss it and a very narrow entrance and a sharp down hill right at the entrance, gravel, sand, red mud. It did not look very good to take a dually in so we bypassed it. Looking at a map, we thought we could go around to highway 261 and go in the West entrance road right before Moki Dugway, that turned out to be no good either. The gravel, sand, red dirt road was closed to big vehicles, there was a restriction of vehicles over 10,000# GVW, our dually is 14,000# and almost 22 feet long. Heavy road machinery and crew were busy remaking the road which looked to be washed out.

Oh well, the Trail Of The Ancients was great and is part of highway 163 and 261, see attached map, we went back to highway 163 and continued south into Arizona and the Navajo Indian Nation. Along the way on Utah 163 you'll pass through Bluff and Mexican Hat, there isn't much there but the basics. When you reach the round-a-bout on 163 in the Navajo Nation, if you turn right on 421 will take you to Gouldings Ranch. They have a nice inn, museum, gift shop, fuel station, restaurant and this is where John Wayne's cabin is located. It is really a re-make of Capitan Brittles quarters in the movie "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon", but It's really a good replication.

At the round-a-bout if you turn left on road 42 it will take you to the Navajo Visitors Center and entrance to Monument Valley. It costs $8 / person to enter but its well worth the $16 bucks to drive the valley road. The Visitors Center is very nice with a gift shop, food, picnic tables and such. We ate lunch at the shaded picnic area and shared a table with a family from France.

However when entering, you will not get a map of the valley road that winds down and around Monument Valley. We did not find a map of the road at the Visitors Center either. Now the road is a gravel, sand, red dirt and sometimes narrow rocky road. Its a long road winding down and around the area and the signage could be improved but we navigated our way through it. My advice is to use google and call up the Monument Valley web site, click on the map on that site and do a screen print of it, that is what we did and that will help you navigate the road. Our dually handled the road fine, sometimes we had to turn out to left traffic pass, but go SLOW, the speed limit is 15 but in places we crawled at 5 mph through the wash outs, deep ruts, rocks and such, it will give your suspension a work out. It's well worth it believe me.

[traveldawg]

..... Along the way on Utah 163 you'll pass through Bluff and Mexican Hat, there isn't much there but the basics.

Steve,
Actually there is a rather interesting museum in Bluff - called Fort Bluff (not such a unique name). Good story there about the early settlers and a lot of old buildings that have been restored. We've stayed in Bluff a few times for 3 to 6 days while exploring old ruins along Comb Ridge. They are pretty far out of the way and required a good bit of research and off road travel and hiking. But the many different ruins there are so nice; they have original pottery shards, petroglyphs, even corn cobs left from any centuries ago.

I'm just in love with the whole Cedar Mesa area.

Enjoy your travels.

[Steven@147]

Steve,
Actually there is a rather interesting museum in Bluff - called Fort Bluff (not such a unique name). Good story there about the early settlers and a lot of old buildings that have been restored. We've stayed in Bluff a few times for 3 to 6 days while exploring old ruins along Comb Ridge. They are pretty far out of the way and required a good bit of research and off road travel and hiking. But the many different ruins there are so nice; they have original pottery shards, petroglyphs, even corn cobs left from any centuries ago.

I'm just in love with the whole Cedar Mesa area.

Enjoy your travels.

Yes, I forgot about the Fort at Bluff, we passed by it on the way, we were just too tired to stop on the way back.

[dryfly]

For those planning a trip to this area, there are 2 small RV parks in Bluff. Nothing fancy but clean. Bluff is convenient to several of the must see areas.

[traveldawg]

Yes, I forgot about the Fort at Bluff, we passed by it on the way, we were just too tired to stop on the way back.

For those planning a trip to this area, there are 2 small RV parks in Bluff. Nothing fancy but clean. Bluff is convenient to several of the must see areas.

10-4 on being tired and not stopping.... How many times have I done that??? Too many! I suppose it is a good reason to spend a lot of time in and around an area if one has the time. The locals generally tell you about the hidden 'treasures'.

Another 10-4 on the small parks in Bluff. Nothing fancy, but a great jumping off point to many locations worth seeing.

[LMagelitz]

Tami and I are using Moab as a base camp to visit all the wonderful places in the area. We decided to take a road trip to Monument Valley, its only @ 140 miles from Moab down highway 191. We left the RV @ 0730 and got back to it @ 1700. We stopped once at Blanding to refuel, diesel $5.29.

If u are at Moab, we loved Canyonlands, and especially Dead Horse Point state park!

[FL-Guy]

Steve,
If you're going to Canyonlands and want to do a fairly easy hike with amazing scenery, look for Murphy Trail. It's 3 miles round trip to the lookout point. It's a flat trail on the mesa top. Very little shade so bring plenty of water.

If you are an early riser, leave Moab before the sun rises and try to get to Canyonlands to Mesa arch to watch the sun rise. Beautiful. Then on a little further to Murphy Trail

[stroguy]

Nice trip and great pics Steve. Are you saying the entrance(s) to Valley of the Gods are impassable? We were planning a boondocking there in October, second week.

[Redapple63]

Thanks folks this is awesome!

We will actually be passing through there tomorrow and Sunday! Going to incorporate as much of this information as possible.

Bill

[Steven@147]

Nice trip and great pics Steve. Are you saying the entrance(s) to Valley of the Gods are impassable? We were planning a boondocking there in October, second week.

No it would be passable for a smaller vehicle. Reference the map I attached, on the East side, the Valley of the Gods road takes off from highway 163. Now our map shows it to be a highway, but what we experienced it was anything but a highway.

The turn onto the VofG road looked barely wide enough for our dually. The turn onto the road is right on a curve on 163, it is a very, very small turn in, and right at the road entrance it goes straight down. This is not an improved road, it is a gravel red dirt road. Being unfamiliar with this road I did not want to chance getting our dually somewhere where I could not get it out. Also you are out in the middle of nowhere, I guess I'm not daring enough.

The West entrance to VofG road off 261, right before Moki Dugway, for @ 3 miles it was great, nice paved wide road. Just as the road starts up a mountain, there were warning signs, No vehicles over 10,000 # GVW. We are at 14,000# with our dually and its 8 foot wide with the mirrors folded in..

The warning sign also said No RVs or Trailers. Expect 10% grades, 5 miles per hour switchback curves.
Road crews were working on the road. I don't know if they had a rock slide or wash out or what ever, but again heeding the warning sign and not being familiar with the road, discretion being the better part of valor, and not wanting to be a stupid tourist, we turned around and started back out.
As we were turning around i watched a Newer GM Suburban go charging up the pot hole filled gravel red dirt road until he got halfway up the mountain and met another vehicle coming down. They both set there for awhile and I guess they got around each other.

That was our experience. Now maybe we were on the wrong road or lost but there were signs saying Valley of the Gods turn here. We did not want to end up like the people from Indianapolis who got themselves lost out in the middle of nowhere in the Desert of Nevada.