MEMORIES OF MONUMENT VALLEY AND MEXICAN HAT

Monument Valley in Utah has got to be one of my favourite places which i visited in the US when i holidayed there in 1999. There's something very mystique about the place, Anasazi Indians inhabited the region for centuries before white man made it to the 'wild west' and eventually drove them from their land. Of course, images of John Wayne coming face to face with Indians in Monument Valley in the classic western movie STAGECOACH probaly had a lot to do with any pre-concieved expectations of the place before i went there 13 years ago. But once i got there, the sheer rugged beauty of the spectacular rock formations which rise up from the desert landscape below them made me realise you couldn't appreciate Monument Valley fully if you never went there in person, no offence to those who think watching Stagecoach is good enough. Me and my family really were rushing on this holiday, only had 5 weeks to cross america and cross back again, not nearly enough time, so instead of staying at a motel for the night before we bolted through Monument Valley, we rather stupidly decided to only give Monument Valley a few hours of our time and not a day and stay the night at Mexican Hat, which is a deserted outpost town right on the edge of the valley. We were mentally shagged from driving hundreds of miles on that day, we had a great night in though, drunk quite a bit of booze and it felt like we were staying right in the heart of Monument Valley. Utah has the best scenery on earth.