Sedona & Monument Valley — #meadadventures

May 24

May 24 Sedona & Monument Valley

This is a continuation of a previous post

Let me start off by discussing the previous night's sleep...or lack there of. Apparently, a full moon + Halloween approaching = late night outdoor viewing of a werewolf movie in the desert. Any other time I would think that is an awesome idea, but when you're sleeping outside in an unknown area it's rather unnerving. As the night went on we were exposed to howling, actual loud canons, and heavy metal music...I was convinced that I was inside of a Rob Zombie movie, and I wasn't going to live through the night. When morning finally came I was a little ready to pack up and move on. Sedona was our next stop and because we didn't have any camp reservations for that night, that put an urgency for us to get moving as well. When we reached Sedona the first thing that we noticed was that it was as beautiful as advertised...followed closely by the observation that if Sedona was ever considered a "best kept secret", I assure you that it is not a secret anymore. It could have been the timing of our visit, but there were so many people lining the roads at the trail heads, walking to the shops, and (as we so greatly feared) camping. We didn't exactly have a back-up plan for lodging and the future continued to look bleak as we passed campgrounds with "FULL" signs displayed at the road. Thankfully we reached a campground that had a few spots remaining and could now relax and explore! #meadadventures tip: We had lunch at the most amazing spot called Indian Gardens Oak Creek Market , and it is very high up on my recommendations list of places we've eaten. With full bellies we were ready to hike!! We headed to the Sedona View Trail to catch a glimpse of a panoramic view of the town...and to find an infamous vortex. The views from the top were amazing and as far as the vortex goes, I'll leave that up to personal experience. At this point of the day we were getting hungry and traffic was bumming us out so we grabbed things at the grocery store that could be eaten at camp for dinner and headed back to make a giant fire to end the night.

Monument Valley has been on our list for a long time, and for this trip it was going to be the big bow to tie it all together. If I'm going to be honest with myself, I'm pretty sure the whole time on this trip I was really just wanting to get to this part. Our campsite was reserved and I knew it was going to be E.P.I.C, and also Monument Valley is full of wild horses and dogs...see why I was so excited??! We set up our campsite and then headed to drive the Valley View road. #meadadventures tip: If you attempt this drive make sure you go with an all terrain vehicle! The road is just dirt the entire length and has some deep gulches in places. There are so many awesome views to stop at and admire along the drive, but if you are wanting to explore the park deeper you have to reserve a guide to take you further. As we drove along the bumpy dirt road, it felt like it took an eternity to finally reach a spot that I had been excited about since we started planning this trip....Ford's Point:

Seriously how awesome is that?! I was definitely contemplating just riding off into the desert and never looking back. (Spoiler Alert: I reluctantly gave the man back his horse and got back into the car.) As we continued on the drive the wind started to pick up drastically. By the time we had finished getting out and seeing everything on, we felt pretty beaten up (literally for me...I actually got struck by a fairly large tumbleweed haha!). We made sure to get to dinner really early so that we had time to prepare for the sunset, and it was a good thing that we did because the dining room filled up quick. Afterwards, we enjoyed the sunset from our campsite and had the added bonus of the "super moon" rising between two of the buttes.

The winds that we experienced during the drive the day before worsened during the night, and when we woke up the next morning everything inside the tent was coated in red sand...including us. The wind and thrown sand didn't make for a great night's sleep, but it ensured that we were up before the sun to watch a pretty amazing sunrise.

After taking in all that Monument Valley had left to offer us, we started the long drive back to New Mexico for a shower (the first in 6 days)...and a night in an actual bed. (I should note that we did have to walk around the University of New Mexico's campus after dinner)