Mel & Trinity

I was very happy to wake up and it wasn’t raining!

Given my detour to Blanding the night before I had a 75 mile ride to get to Monument Valley. In addition to this, I had hoped to stay in or near the south rim of the Grand Canyon but there was no accommodation available so I decided to head to Flagstaff, which is 75 miles south of the Grand Canyon. This meant that I had an extra 150 miles to ride that day.

The ride from Blanding down to Monument Valley is beautiful! As you get closer to Monument Valley the red soil and rock features become more apparent. I could feel the excitement welling up inside me. This is what I was getting excited about.

My first disappointment of my trip was however about to happen. In summary, the lady at the gate and I had a disagreement about how much money I gave her. I know I gave her $20 as I didn’t have any $10 notes on me but she insisted I gave her $10. I was not pleased to part with $10 under the circumstances. The incident put a huge dampener on my experience of Monument Valley.

I did however stay at the visitor centre long enough to have a cup of coffee on one of the terraces and take in the view. Part of the view is shown below and there is also a video clip on my Facebook page.

While enjoying the view I heard a South African accent next to me. The accent belonges to Mitch, a South African who lives in Melbourne and is out with a group of Harley riders for two weeks. They had been to Sturges and are on their way back to Las Vegas to finish their trip. As it turned out they were also heading to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Mitch invited me to join them, so I did.

I am very happy that I was able to share the following moment with Mitch in the Grand Canyon National Park, particularly as he is scared of heights and I convinced him that he would regret not climbing down to this viewpoint with me. Mitch was glad he did it. I’m certainly glad he did it. How could you miss this moment. It was perfect!

This is my favourite photo of my trip so far. Thanks for sharing it with me Mitch! I will not forget that I owe you a beer.