Today started without any sleep. I had some issues uploading the first video to Youtube last night and by the time I finally got it uploaded it was late. Since I was uploading it from the truck I needed to stay awake until it was finished. As it finally finished it was early morning, about an hour before the sun started to come up. Since I heard about an area called North Window that you can see the monuments in Monument Valley from the North and catch the rising Eastern sun break upon them I tried to cash in on the fact that I was awake already. This proved to be futile as even after googling the location of this special area I wasn’t able to find any directions to it. I ended up racing back and forth along 163 first from Kayenta North. I didn’t see any roads heading in behind the monuments form there, so then went back to Kayenta and out along the 160. Again, nothing that looked like a backdoor to the monuments. The sun was coming up by this time and I was on my last thread of sleepless energy. I went through Kayenta again and back towards the Visitor Center but I found myself starting to do the sleepy head bob so I pulled over at the next pull-out spot and called a night, so to speak.
I woke up a few hours later and made my way into the park and had a great time doing the loop drive that takes you down along the Valley floor amongst the monumental stone towers. The road isn’t much better than an extra wide goat trail in parts but Betty handled it well and (knock on wood) no flats today.
As the sun started to descend I made my way back along the last part of the loop up to the visitors center getting shots along the way. I managed more than 10GB of RAW photos in the last two days. Looks like I need another stint in a library since I’m still behind on my edits from the Arches National Park visit and stuff after that.
Tonight I’m just chilling as I’m physically spent. Listened to the last half of the Vancouver Canucks game on streaming internet radio and now I’m just going to find a quiet spot to turn out the lights. Not sure where I’m off to tomorrow but I know I’m still heading South/Southwest. Another new day and I should be well rested.
