Utah - Valley of the Gods

After leaving Bridges National Monument, we decided to take a scenic drive down Highway 261 on the Trail of the Ancients Scenic Drive towards the Valley of the Gods.

The highway started as a nice paved road, but shortly turned to gravel. The road took us to the edge of Cedar Mesa. Then we got to drive the Moki Dugway Road. This road is a three mile unpaved road that drops 1200 feet with multiple hairpin turns. Sandy wanted to drive for awhile, so I let her drive the gravel switchbacks from the top of the mesa to the Valley of the Gods. We were happy that we did not encounter any others cars while doing this part of the drive. It was narrow with no guard rails, a lot of switchbacks and the switchbacks were gravel. Fun to drive!

Moki Dugway Road

Moki Dugway Road

The Valley of the Gods was huge! This part of the country seems to go forever!

Valley of the Gods

We had a quick stop at Mexican Hat rock formation. The Mexican Hat rock formation is a striking balanced rock with a distinctive sombrero-shaped cap perched atop a narrow pedestal, formed over 250 million years ago through differential erosion.

Mexican Hat

Then we headed to Monument Valley. Our park passes did not get us in, so we did a quick drive by.

Next we tried to stop at Four Corners. Once again our park passes did not work. Hmmm. Today we were in Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado!

Four Corners