Today we ventured off Route 66 and headed up to Monument Valley in Utah, Our destination was Bluff, UT. A ride of 388 km (241 miles), mostly through barren countryside.
Surprisingly it was a mild 16°C in Flagstaff, cool enough on the bike for me to don the thermal shirt as a cover layer. Being summer in the USA we never brought jackets with us. It was much easier to roll up a thermal shirt for the “just in case” days.
We hit the road early to beat the heat, we would also ‘gain’ an hour when we crossed into Utah.
Riding into Monument Valley from Arizona I was rather underwhelmed. It wasn’t until we stopped and looked back towards Arizona that the amazing vista was realised. The splendour of Monument Valley is hard to put into words and photos don’t really do it justice.
With the heat we were looking forawrd to getting to our accommodation in the Desert Rose Inn and Cabins. We planned to spend time in the bar drink adult beverges only to find they don’t have a bar. I guess if you want to have a few ales in a bar the Desert Rose isn’t the place to do it.
Luckily the local servos (garages) do sell cold beer, with the temperature hitting 40.5C (104.9°F) We were glad to sit back and have a few cold drinks. We wandered up the road to Cottonwood Steakhouse for dinner, great meal and friendly staff.
