The Ford Barn - Solo to Monument Valley

Wife and her sister went to a 3 day "How to change your life" retreat so Pepe and I decided to do a road trip to southern Utah and we did. Here's the story.

Production Note: This is by far the most ambitious (and maybe too ambitious) travelog I've ever undertaken, but, I had such a surprisingly favorable response to my two recent short videos of riding in Old Henry I decided to combine video with my still pictures for those interested. The music on the videos is whatever was playing (or not playing) on the radio speaker. Sometimes it matches well. Sometimes it doesn't. If you don't like it you know what to do (volume control). Also, because only 20 pictures can be included in a single post and I didn't want to do separate posts I created separate albums on PhotoBucket for some additional pictures at each site for those interested.

Our first stop was Arches National Park just two miles north of Moab, Utah where the first most identifiable feature was Balancing Rock.

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7a86d014.jpg

See other photos of Arches here: http://s1059.beta.photobucket.com/us...61181014946223

Drive through the park in Old Henry here (3:04): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvr4V3FT6Jk

That was pretty much at the end of the first day so we headed south toward Monument Valley not sure where we'd stay for the night. On the way we stopped at Wilson Arch on the highway south of Moab.

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...psff7eb889.jpg

As we hit Mexican Hat there was a motel sign so we pulled into the San Juan Inn perched right on the cliff of the San Juan River. We were given a suite for the price of a singe (low volume season) and went to settle in. As I scoped out the room I saw plumbing parts and a shower head sitting on the sink then looked into the shower and saw why - no shower head in the shower. Don't care much about showers on road trips with Pepe so no worries. Just another of the great "dive" motels I always search out.

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...ps64da797a.jpg

In the morning when we crossed the bridge over the San Juan River we entered the Navajo Nation, the largest Indian reservation in the country, covering 24,410 square miles in Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, home to 180,000 Navajos.

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...psf689bfd4.jpg

Monument Valley is a tribal park rather than national park because it is on the reservation and owned operated by the Navajos. Although we left the highway in Utah to get to the park, during the 4 mile drive to the park we crossed over into Arizona where the park is. The Navajos have quite a resort there that includes a hotel, museum, gift shop, restaurant, etc. As I inquired about how to get to the 17 mile loop down in the valley amongst the monuments the response was one of incredulity, "You gonna take that nice car down there?? You gonna get dirty - maybe hit your oil pan." They were surprised that I wasn't afraid of a little dirt and, of course, my oil pan is much higher off the ground than modern cars so away we went. Here's what we saw:

The Three Sisters
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...psa6bb2e18.jpg

One of the unnamed obelisks:
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6118e6fb.jpg

The Cube:
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...psc35e30d9.jpg

The Mittens
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...ps20a0c38b.jpg

Navajo hogans where the Navajos lived right in the park:
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...psb7f57dab.jpg

See more photos here: http://s1059.beta.photobucket.com/us...07753388354683

Ride to the park and through it in Old Henry here (4:24): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR8Xe_IvOmk

From Monument Valley we went back north through Mexican Hat and turned off the highway north of there to drive through Valley of the Gods, another interesting back road through different kinds of formations.

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...psa7a64e4c.jpg

See more photos here: http://s1059.beta.photobucket.com/us...38579411403907

Drive some roads through the valley in Old Henry here (1:33): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk3ESbbNf5A

Just as we hit the highway again we were at the foot of a 1000 foot rise to the plateau above us. The first time I ever drove this stretch of road approaching this "wall" I figured the road would veer off one way or the other to go around this plateau and was shocked to realize that we were going to go right up the side of that thing on a dirt road called the Mokee Dugway.

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0bba459e.jpg

And so we did. Here are some shots from the way up.

Looking down on the the dirt road through Valley of the Gods that we just drove:
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...psf02d4d91.jpg

Looking down at the paved highway that most people travel. Part of the road we drove is visible on the left. And, something I didn't even notice when I was there but saw in this picture when I was editing it - the rusted out corpse of a vehicled upside down below the road on the left. Made we wonder if someone drove off the edge or the vehicle was just pushed off for effect.
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...ps81184923.jpg

One other picture showing more of the road up: http://s1059.beta.photobucket.com/us...14592295672699

Drive the dugway in Old Henry (3:23): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6prqoZnhQVU

When we got to the top of the plateau the road was, again, pretty level and we headed for Natural Bridges National Monument. The difference between a bridge and an arch is this: Arches are carved by wind out of fins that stick up from the surrounding surface while bridges are carved by water down in the canyons carved by rivers and streams. The difference is that, while I could get some pictures of Old Henry in front of arches, I discovered that I couldn't in front of the bridges at this monument since they were all down below the rim of the canyon. So, although we went there - no pictures.

After Natural Bridges we continued west on the fairly scenic highway 95. Drive it in Old Henry here (1:42): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYc_b19sF88

We eventually went around the north end of Lake Powell at Hite crossing the bridge, going up a dugway carved into interesting layers of rock, ending up on a lookout west of the lake for a scenic view.
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...pse520a993.jpg

Drive it here (1:30) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swlDW9W89_c

That night we stayed in a little dive at Hanksville. In the morning we headed north to Goblin Valley State Park - my kids' very favorite place to go when they were young. (Can you find Old Henry in the pictures?)
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0729714f.jpg

A couple more pictures of the valley and other different formations nearby. Those geologists among you will notice stark contrasts in the various rock formations seen along this whole trip.
http://s1059.beta.photobucket.com/us...78205480149688

Rather than return to the paved highway after Goblin Valley we opted to take the "shorcut" to I-70 west over the San Rafael Swell. Another scenic back road. The biggest surprise of this 25 mile stretch of road was the mud. There had been a recent snow that turned some of the dirt to mud.
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...psc9c83ca4.jpg

I'd pick any snow or ice over mud any day. Blasting through the mud was the whitest my knuckles have been for some time. Of course, there was no way I was going to try to video that part of the drive. So, what you get is just the "nice" parts of the road.
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...pse2905d46.jpg

Drive it here (2:10): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXpZ894I8o0

We had spent so much time on bumpy roads I wondered if Old Henry would ever ride smooth again. I was so relieved when we finally got onto I-70 headed west that it was like Old Henry had lifted off of the ground and was just floating over the pavement he was so smooth. That stretch of I-70 has to be one of the most scenic freeways in the country.

More pictures of the swell and I-70: http://s1059.beta.photobucket.com/us...15577923092894

Finally, we decided to take another "shortcut" over the top of the mountain where the summit was 9655 feet, 55 feet higher than the one over Boulder mountain two weeks before, and a whole lot more snow.
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...psfed7ac49.jpg

And that was about it. Total miles driven in the three days - 824.

"But", you say, "What about the mechanical problems that always make the trip more interesting?" Well, we really didn't have any other than two rattles that developed I had to deal with.

The first was after the two bumpy roads in Monument Valley and Valley of the Gods. It sounded like it was the defroster flap in my heater under the dashboard so I stopped several times to mess with it and stuff rags up in it to get it to quit to no avail. Finally I opened my glove box and it went away. It turned out to be the mechanical temperature gauge I'd installed in there that had shaken loose a little and was tapping on the door.

The other developed just after I was remarking to myself while driving the bumpy road over San Rafael Swell about how Old Henry, in spite of his age, had no rattles nor squeeks whatsosever. Then I heard it back in the back end. At first I thought it was maybe the tail pipe that had come loose and was rattling. Finally stopped, opened the gas tank filler lid, grabbed the filler neck and wiggled it. That was it. The bracket holding it had shaken loose. No wonder since the bolt holding it was some old rusted out thing with the nut rusted to it and a larger nut there to take up space that wasn't taking it up. No way to tighten it. Rattles and squeaks don't seem to bother me so much if I know that they are. Fortunately just messing with it stopped it from rattling.
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/...ps07b68c8c.jpg

Hope you enjoyed the show. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

Prior road trips:

Bryce Canyon in February 2013: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=97822

Milford, Utah in December 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=93137

Nevada and Idaho in November 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=89080

Rocky Mountain National Park in September 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=83966

Yellowstone National Park in May 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72864

Death Valley in February 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62705

Pike's Peak in July 2011: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19141

Route 66 in April 2010: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57511