American Southwest 2: Monument Valley to Arches NP

American Southwest 2: Monument Valley to Arches NP

Monument Valley / Mexican Hat / Valley of the Gods

We saw Monument Valley from the main road as Big Bertha was too big for the track that threaded through the buttes (flat topped isolated hills) on reservation land. It was very atmospheric and reminded us of the countless times we have seen it on the TV. Further along the main road we came to the famous ‘Forrest Gump’ point – the place where he decides to end his run. Next was Mexican Hat – a rock formation looking like, yes you guessed it! We then entered the Valley of the Gods to camp for the night. The rock formations here were impressive and we didn’t feel too disappointed about having to miss Monument Valley itself. The formations have been creatively named (“locomotive” , “seven sailors”, “rooster”, etc) and the next day Francine was happy to find ‘The Lady in the Bath’ rock formation. We continued up the Moki Dugway switchbacks to the Natural Bridges National Monument.

Natural Bridges National Monument

Natural Bridges is one of the less popular parks, and is quite small. Nonetheless, we really enjoyed our visit on New Years Eve day. It was quite cold, but the sun was out and we hiked down to one of the beautiful bridges. We camped in a forest just outside the park, ignoring the ‘Impassable When Wet’ sign and not checking the weather forecast. It rained lightly overnight and we had major problems getting out the next day! We needed to deflate tyres, use our sand ladders and engage 4×4! It took most of the morning! We decided to cut the day short after that and went to a laundromat followed by an early night. An interesting start to 2026!

Canyon Lands National Park (South)

We ended up here by accident; Francine wanted to take a diversion to see the ‘newspaper rock’ and this happened to be the road into Canyon Lands. It is one of our favourite parks to date! It helped that we had sunshine all day. We hiked the Slickrock trail (4km) and the rock formations were truly awesome (we are already speaking American)!

Moab /Arches National Park / Potash Road

Moab is a pleasant desert town that is solely geared up for tourism. We stopped for an inaugural breakfast at an American 50’s style diner and then visited Arches National Park over the next two days. The weather had unfortunately turned and the park was overcast and misty, but was impressive nonetheless (and a little bit spooky!). We hiked Park Avenue (3.2km), Balanced Rock (0.5km), Double Arch (1.6km) and Sand Dune Arch / Broken Arch (5km). Leaving the park, we drove the first part of Potash Road which runs along the base of a very tall cliff next to a river, and stopped to look at some dinosaur footprints.