The
panorama and mountainside photos here say it all - this place is WEIRD! The
earth is folded in thick layers that produce the colorful waves in the
hillsides and the tight curves in the San Juan River's path.
Nearby
was the Valley of the Gods. The most interesting features were furthest from
the main road, on a smooth but dangerous dirt road - tight rises in the
narrow road prevented visibility of oncoming traffic (the road should have
been one-way). Near the beginning we passed the bed and breakfast which had
been booked the night we wanted to stay, but a message we later found on our
answering machine told us it had become available. It looked nice, and
interestingly situated. Ah well…
Near
here was also Monument Valley. For having the standard rock formation symbol
of the southwest, we found this area surprisingly the most disappointing of
the trip. The formations are widely spaced, with poor access, and with
buildings near them.
A
surprise and treat was next to and within the ordinary-looking Burger King
that was next to our motel. Between the motel and Burger King was a
collection of sample small Navajo structures. Inside the Burger King and
occupying a fairly large proportion of the interior was a museum-quality
display on the Navajo code talkers of WWII. It was riveting reading, finding
out how important these people had been to our success in the war against
Japan. There are a couple of links below, but these leave out some of the
stupidity related in the Navajo version - like the code talkers being used
as plain soldiers and simple message runners early on, before it finally
became very obvious that their training, skills, and language provided a
swift and unbreakable method of transferring coded messages for the US
marines. For more, see these sites:
http://bingaman.senate.gov/code_talkers/call/call.html
www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq61-2.htm
