The Grand Circle

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So what’s ‘The Grand Circle’? That’s all the state and national parks, canyons and monuments surrounding Lake Powell.  It includes wonders such as Bryce and Zion National Parks (Utah), Mesa Verde National Park (Colorado), Canyon de Chelly (New Mexico) Grand Canyon (Arizona), Monument Valley (Utah / Arizona), Lake Powell and surroundings (Utah / Arizona). Probably worth a 9-month tour by itself so we needed to make tough choices!!!

To keep the mileage down, and to avoid hitting snow further north, we decide to leave Colorado and Utah for another time :-(, and mainly focus on Arizona.

STOP 1: MONUMENT VALLEY - 25/11/12

The John Ford version

 The Vermenouze version

I’m sure you all know Lucky Luke… remember the picture at the end, with the ‘poor lonesome cow-boy’ riding at sunset. Well that’s it, that is THE PLACE.

If lucky Luke was lonesome, it’s pretty much the same thing for us! We have the hall of Monument Valley just for us. What pictures don’t tell you is how damn freezing it can be when you have the late November breeze coming in… Gla, Gla, Gla. Temperatures at night are in the 20s Fahrenheit (-7 degrees Celcius)!

We headed-off early morning, in the back of an open 4 wheels drive… if the sun was warm, it didn’t prevent all of us to catch the cold :-)

The site is just exceptional and stands-up to its legend!!!  When going through these red canyons, it’s just impossible not to have in mind John Wayne, the cavalries, the Indians…

The Navajo's Hogan (traditional houses)

Actually, we stayed at the Goulding’s campground. Harry & Mike Goulding settled in Monument Valley in the 1920s. They opened a small Post and Trade Office, serving the Navajo’s, and eventually bringing in a few tourists. As all Americans, they suffered of the Big Depression, and to boost the business, Harry had the smart idea to go and sell Monument Valley to Hollywood Producer John Ford. And the legend started with Stage Coast 1939 (La Chevauche Fantastique) and so many after…

 CATMobile and the view from the campground at sunset

STOP 2: PAGE, LAKE POWELL - 29/11/12

Hey, we broke our record! We staid 4 nights in a row in one place; our record was 3. Tells you how much there is to see around Page and Lake Powell. Now there is also a special reason to that, we had a big event to prepare, the 3^rd birthday of our America Tour, Malory’s birthday!!! And WHAT a party it was... No one in the campground could sleep that night... set a side the fact there was no one else then us. 

See  how romantic an RV can be!!! 

We have a few more CLASSIFIED pictures we are sorry we can't share

But first things first, and following Bob’s advice (Friends we met in New Orleans) we started by a visit of Lower Antelope Canyon: such a wonder! This is a 0.5 miles walk that took us at least 2 hours such each step in the Canyon is a pleasure for the eyes! And with the climbing, the kids loved it.

Ready for the deep dive underground? 

Our Navajo guide seemed to be the nominated guide for professional photographs: he new exactly where to take the best pictures, the ones that would sell 50,000$. That deserved a good tip Ah, Ah, Ah. Nevertheless, I must say the guy had a good feeling and really knew how to best capture light effects. Hope you guys will enjoy!

 The Shark

The King Lion 

            The Half Pipe, perfect for free ski                                        The Wave, for surfers

 Seems we were not the first one around here... a dinosaur footprint! 

After lunch, we prolonged the day with a hike to the Colorado River, on what they call the ‘Horseshoe Bend’. The Colorado is quite a river (As we will continue to experience in Grand Canyon), and we can better understand the challenge it represented to the early pioneers heading to the west coast.

STOP 3: GRAND CANYON

This is just HUGE, SPECTACULAR, AMAZING. You can just sit there for hours staring at this immensity, this splendor. This is one of the few ‘monument’s on earth that you can actually see from space!!!

We enjoyed a ride on the west rim, all the way to Hopi and Mohave point where you have a nice view on the Colorado River. And we hiked down the South Kaibab Trailhead for a few miles… Gosh, too bad it wasn’t a bit warmer. We would have staid a few days and camped in a tent down by the river.

 Couche de soleil au campground!!!!!!

THE END