Monument Valley State 3 & 4

Monument Valley is on the border of Utah & Arizona. Parts of it are in both states, so you never quite know which state you are in if you are not a local.

Robert has wanted to go here for years. You know, ever since seeing it in movies, the old westerns, Thelma & Louise....unfortunately when we arrived at the motel, it was dark, so we couldn't do the whole "drive through Monument Valley" thing, that we wanted to that day....but there was always tomorrow!

Now the Motel has only been there for 12 months, its called "The View Motel" for obvious reasons, every room overlooks the buttes in the valley, and let me tell you, waking up with the view is spectacular, and my photos don't do it justice.

This was 6am on our balcony, and all the balconies were a hive of activity. You could see people already out on tours with their Navijo tour guides. We chose to sleep in till 6am.....I was up till I don't know when uploading photo's to facebook for all our family at home to see :-)

The internet connection at The View Motel needs a little attention....you can only get it in the lobby. But the lobby is huge, has a lovely wood fire, lots of comfy sofas, Indian Decorations, and really gets you into the feel of beeing in whatever state we were actually in, Utah or Arizona. Some of the paperwork said Utah, some said Arizona...seems the locals don't even know!!

Those buttes are called mittens....see how they look like a pair of mittens?? Cool hey?

Okay, so I got draggged out of bed, was freezing cold, tired, & looking stunning. Now this photo was taken alittle after the last, but somehow Robert can get light in his photos, and I can't. Lol. And doesn't he rub it in, that he is a better photograher than me!!

So after We got organised and found our Navajo Indian tour guide off we wwnt on our private two hour tour through Monument Valley. Wow! It was amazing. I just loved it. I would go back here in a second. So peaceful and natural.

Now I am here sitting up on this rock, let me just tell, you I had to crawl to this position. It is a skinny rock on a cliff edge that has a massive drop on the front and behind. I might just add that I did not want to get up there at all, but Robert made me get up there as he said it makes a good photo. He wanted me to stand up as well. I just could not do the stand up thing. Robert and the guide were laughing their heads off at me, my hands and feet were sweating. It was terrible. The only reason I got this far was because, Robert, who is afraid of heights, just walked up there, and stood and posed for a photo before me!! So if he could do it, surely I could!! But no. This was it.

Getting off there was even funnier, but I won't go there.....

Now, after we left The View Motel, we started our journey through Monument Valley just like Thelma & Louise, (without the shooting, robberies and the ending obviously) and we searched out a scene from Forrest Gump. We knew it was around here somewhere, so we drove until we found it, looking back, sideways, left & right, until we found it. We thought it would be sign-posted....do you recognise it??

Of course we had to run it....

After we both had a run, got back in the car, drove just up the road 20 mtrs, there was a little sign, "Forrest Gump" Haha, hardly visible.

Heading through Colorado tomorrow.

Bearizona....in Arizona!! State 3

Driving on the freeway in Arizonia we came across this.....

...how could we just drive past??? Real bears!! Wow, How cool is that??

It is a drive through park, and they warn you, DO NOT GET OUT OF THE CAR. If the bears come over to the car , drive off slowly. How excited were we?? Just a little. A little bit scared, and a little bit excited.

First up we came across Bison. Ok, but where are the Bears?? We want bears!! Although the Bison were pretty cool, and big.....

Next, were the White wolfves. Now, none of these animals are in cages, they are in paddocks with large fences, and we drove over cattle grates into their yards to get to them. Its all pretty cool I must say. We could wind down our windows to take photos, but if they came up to us, up went the window. Yay, for power windows!!

This wolf looked cranky!
Next paddock had Black Bears!! Little ones though....this one was having a lay down. No fear he was gonna come bounding in our window, so down it went. We felt safe :-)

He was so cute, I could have just run up to him and cuddled him...he didn't look scary at all....unlike the wolf!

Then into the next paddock was the BIG Black Bears, and sitting in the middle of the road was this big fella. As relaxed as ever, basking in the sun. Now we had to drive off road to get around him. I was scared at first as we were right next to him on the road, I didn't want to wind the window down for Robert to take the photo as he was right next to the car!! That's how close he was to us. But Robert was saying, it's ok, he isn't moving. So, I figured, the travel insurance is all paid up...he's telling me to wind the window down, I have the master control of the windows, if all else fails, I can quickly wind them up, "just get the damn photo now, hurry!!"

As it turned out, the bear didn't care less, he see's tourists all day long, and was posing for us. Loved it. I reakon he wanted a tip for it....

Here I am posing with a Bear that won't bite, but he wasn't as cuddly as the other ones looked. Behind me you can see the huge timber fence that surrounded the rest of the park that housed some smaller Bears that were in some encosures similar to the ones at Western Plains Zoo, with a water moat along the edge separating them from us. It also included a gift shop, bbq area, toilets etc
In the gift shop was a little humidicrib which had a tiny 3moth old baby bear cub. The cub had been the runt of the litter had only just survived. He was doing really well now, and was ever so cute and fluffy, but was snoozing away in his little warm bed.

Bearizona was a great find, that we just stumbled upon. There is another on in Rapid City, near Mount Rushmore, but it was closed for the season. (We hadn't been there as this stage) Lucky for us, this one was open. It was one of the highlights of our trip.

Tomorrow, the amazing Monument Valley. Our favourite!!