2024 Monument Valley – Run Forrest Run!

Monument Valley! This was on our bucket list to get our iconic pictures at Forrest Gump Point! I was so excited to get the picture without any vehicles or people, but now it was time to get pictures of us.

I didn’t want to hold my phone while Jeff took my picture, so I put it on the back bumper of the jeep instead of taking 2 extra steps and putting inside the jeep. After a couple pictures of me, I took a few of Jeff then off we went. A few miles down the road I panicked! Where’s my phone? Yep, right where we left it…in the road…and it had gotten run over. My 4-month-old iPhone 15 Pro was broken with no repair shops for miles and hours away because we’re in the middle of nowhere Utah! Luckily the case I bought had a camera protector, so at least that didn’t get destroyed. The phone and camera were still in working order, but I had to wait 10 days until we were near Salt Lake City to get the screen fixed. I’m almost sure I won’t do that again! I would hope that Jeff wouldn’t do anything like that either!

After picking up my phone, we did a quick stop to snag a picture of the Mexican Hat Rock. It’s crazy that this sombrero shaped rock is perfectly balanced.

Next was an off-road ride through the Valley of the Gods. There were many unique rock formations to be seen along the way.

The road eventually took us to the base of the Moki Dugway. The drive up is 1200 feet at an 11% grade and has many switchbacks along an edge which for me was pretty scary. At the top of Moki Dugway, we could see the road below that we had been on. We were at the top of the world with no one else around.

Here’s the view from our campsite. I wish all of our stays could have such a fantastic view as this!

The next day we rode the 17-mile loop trail through the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park where there are several named sandstone formations. As we rode through the park it felt as though we were on the set of an old western movie!  We took so many pictures; it was hard to only select these.

We stopped at a turnoff where the locals were selling beautiful beaded jewelry, baskets, pottery and more. There was also a food truck. We got the fry bread with sugar and cinnamon which was delicious. We found a seat that overlooked some of the monuments in the distance. A few chickens came to visit and cleanup crumbs that we dropped. What a great place to reflect.

Another one of our stops worth mentioning was the Navajo Code Talker Outpost. This place is a beautiful tribute to the men who served.

While there we took pictures and selfies. Jeff was also using the GoPro. He wanted to take a picture of me with the jeep, so he put the GoPro on the front passenger side fender.

Off we went to the next stop when he realized “WHERE IS THE GOPRO?”. Hmmmm…I mentioned that I would hope Jeff wouldn’t do something like I had done just the day before and after our lengthy discussion on the need to focus. But here we were. We rushed back to the Navajo Code Talker stop hoping to find it. It wasn’t there and he just knew it was gone forever! I did learn a few words strung together that I never knew could be put together in a single sentence. As we headed back, we kept looking at the sandy road in hopes to find it. Yes! There it was! And no one had run over it like what happened to my phone! The GoPro still works. Yes, he’s lucky! And I took this golden opportunity to remind him he must pay more attention and focus (LOL - I was really thinking (almost out loud) what part of yesterday did you fail to remember?) I still wonder if we’ll get wrapped up again in our surroundings and do it again. Maybe but I hope not!