Grand Circle Utah - Valley of the Gods

 Leaving Moab and heading towards Monument Valley, our next overnight stop, we passed by an area known as Valley of the Gods.  Writeups on the web tend to describe this area of sandstone format as a miniature Monument Valley but even more spectacular, plus it is free and has no crowds.  Not wanting to miss out, we decided to make this stop on our way to Monument Valley.  There were recommendations on best time to visit - early morning or late afternoon as always.  Unfortunately neither is possible for us due to a reluctance to get up early or drive in the dark.  Since it is two hours from Moab, our only option was to visit in the middle of the day - laughable time to be photographing anything but we did it anyway.  

The 17 mile loop through the valley is gravel road with some steep and bumpy sections but overall doable in our AWD SUV although by the end of the drive, the car was covered with thick red sandstone dust. It is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, has no fees but also no services.  The Visitor Centre in Blending provided a handdrawn map on a homemade flyer with a short introduction to the valley together with some handdrawn diagrams of a few of the named buttes.  It is not easy to identify all the landmarks because the buttes take on different shapes when you look at them from different angles.  After a while, we figured it is futile trying to figure out which is what as the map is not to scale or complete.  We just drove on along the road, stopped when we saw something interesting, with an eye on the time because we still have a couple of stops to make before getting to Monument Valley in time for our booked sunset tour.  It took us more than two hours to drive the loop with stopping for photos - what you see below is just a small portion of the sandstone formations.

Map handout of Valley of the Gods


Panorama shortly after we entered the valley



One of the first buttes we came across upon coming in from the East Entrance - Seven Sailors butte. 

The vehicles parked beside this one gives you a sense of scale.

A raven in the arid desert

I think this is Battleship Rock, one of the officially named buttes. It rises nearly 600 feet above the valley floor.The top layer is Cedar Mesa Sandstone, the remains of coastal sand dunes deposited about 300 million years ago.  

We came across a couple of cyclists doing this track on their bikes

This one looks like hand - a similar structure that we subsequently saw at Monument Valley is called the Mitten.



Another "mitten"

This one is named Lady in the bathtub

As we approached the western side of the valley, the buttes are closer to together, in clusters almost like a walled city.  It reminded me of the temple structures in Angkor Wat, of all places.
I can see why people coming in from the west entrance would have a totally different perspective from what we saw.   It is amazing how timing can totally change one's experience of a landmark. 

The rock fromations changed as we drove towards the west exit, which took us onto U-261.

  Gooseneck State Park is just a 15 minute drive from the west entrance.  




What a spectacle awaited us at Gooseneck State Park from 1000 feet above the river!   This gooseneck of the San Juan River originating in Colorado is considered one of the finest examples of "entrenched meanders" in the world (an impressive mouthful that I had to ask the ranger at the entrance to repeat for me!).  This natural phenomenon is jaw-dropping awesome - no image can really do it justice.




This is definitely reminiscent of Horseshoe Bend (x3) in Arizona. 

Our last stop before heading to Monument Valley is the famous "Forest Gump Point" on Hwy 163.  Crowds of young people were already gathered to get their shots - most of them likely not even born when the movie came out in 1994.  But not many of us who had actually watched the movie when it came out would brave standing in the middle of the highway for the shot.  It took 3 people to get it - one to pose, second one to take the shot and a third one to act as traffic watcher to make sure we didn't get run over.  All Instagram hype but it was fun doing it! 

Photo credit:  MN

With all those stops, we managed to make it to the hotel at Monument Valley with barely enough time to checkin and clean up to be ready for the sunset tour of the valley we booked.  More on this in the next post.