Arizona Supply Run
Back in May my wife was running a bunch of tenant improvement jobs for Wells Fargo in Arizona and her guys needed some carpet tiles ASAP to wrap one of the jobs. Rather than pay $700 to ship them overnight, she asked if I would want to drive them out. I had offered to do so in the past so I said yes, figuring it would be a good excuse to explore Arizona and shoot some photos. Sandwiched between jobs I only had two days to do this, so I really didn't have a whole lot of extra time, but it was a fun adventure anyhow.
On day 1 I needed to get to Window Rock, AZ to drop the carpet tiles. Window Rock is in Navajo Nation, basically on the border of Arizona and New Mexico and it is called as such because of this geological feature:
I barely arrived with any daylight left and it was already cloudy so as soon as I dropped the tiles I drove over to see the rock and hike around a bit.
I didn't really have a game plan beyond that. I brought my air mattress and sleeping bag to sleep in the back of my 4Runner, which freed me from needing to be somewhere with a motel. After hiking around a bit I decided that it was high-time I visit Monument Valley...
Window Rock isn't exactly a tourist destination so there really wasn't much open at this point, so I grabbed some good ole' American consistency at the golden arches and headed toward Monument Valley. In my online research of places to camp, I saw that there was a dispersed campground around the 'Mexican Hat' rock formation, so that's where I headed.
It was around midnight when I ran into a road closure somewhere off highway 12, I believe. There was a mudflow across the road and some cars had gotten stuck. When I got out of the car to investigate, I distinctly remember the air was filled with thousands of frogs non-stop croaking. We were halted for about an hour with really no other options other than to turn around. Eventually the tow truck was able to get the car out of the way and those of us who could pass through the mud, did (four wheel drive FTW!).
I finally made it to Monument Valley around 2 AM after being on the road almost non-stop since about 9 AM. I'm sure the views are amazing driving in during daylight, but it was a little surreal driving into a new place like that in the middle of the night. I found a nice spot to park my 4Runner in the Mexican Hat Rock dry camping area, got my bed setup, grabbed a beer from the cooler, and... got my camera out to take some long exposure photos of course!
Waking up to that view was pretty special. It's a site I would definitely come back to!
That morning I packed up early and hit the road, knowing I had a long day of driving ahead of me and not a lot of time to explore Monument Valley. I drove down 163, crossing over the San Juan river where there's a cool looking hotel (where I should have stopped for breakfast) and down to that section of road Forrest Gump ran across, and then into the valley.
As beautiful as everything was I was feeling pretty overwhelmed, photographically speaking. Coupled with the short-night sleep I had and knowing I had to be on the road all day again, I came to the realization that I wouldn't have much time to take photos. I told myself I would stop if anything caught my eye, but otherwise let go the idea of any sort of epic image making happening.
In addition to my digital Canon camera, I also brought a recently acquired Bronica S2A with a fresh roll of Portra 400. It was the first time I used that camera and was really having fun with it here—unfortunately I didn’t load the film correctly so I don’t think any shots are going to be viable… 😭
Still, it was worth the trip to see and get my bearings on the place a little. I would definitely come back, ideally if I could stay a few days and do a bunch of hiking around the park. With my camera.
