A Day in the Wild West

July 11, 2017

From Tuba City in the Navajo Nation, we head straight to the ultimate Western backdrop: Monument Valley on the border between Arizona and Utah. Behind every curve awaits the setting for a classic scene from 'Stagecoach' or 'Once Upon a Time in the West'. One of the film sets still has the original office of Captain Brittles alias John Wayne from 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon' by John Ford. Along the way, we also encounter wild horses in true Western style.

We continue driving to Page, a town that we chose based on the distance we thought we could make. Once again, we stumble upon a gem. Page is located on a huge reservoir surrounded by bizarre rock formations. We pull into the first campground, but it's full. We're about to turn around when the determined ranger in the gatehouse informs us. She asks if we have an annual pass for the national parks. Yes, we do, so she tells us to go to the next park in Utah. The overnight fee would be $14.

We keep driving. At the next booth, we encounter the exact opposite of the previous ranger. She charges us $14 and waves us in. When we give her a unsure look, she tells us that this is free camping, but we should be careful not to get stuck in the sand.

We almost manage to get stuck as we follow two women who suddenly start spinning wildly ahead of us. We get closer and shout for them to get out of the way or else we'll get stuck.

Then we arrive and once again, we're in awe! The Lonly Rock is in front of us in the water and we have a dream beach. While taking a walk, we encounter a young man who speaks good German and has a four-month-old Boxer puppy named 'Ruby'. He looks like the typical, friendly, upright American. In fact, 17 years ago, he was one of those well-dressed young men with a shoulder bag trying to convert people to Mormonism. His mission area was Frankfurt, and he had also been to Cologne.

For the grand finale, we have a campfire with the two women from the sand, and when we go to the toilet, we see the most beautiful starry sky you can imagine, with no ground light to interfere.