Woke up in darkness today - had to push ourselves to get out of bed for the prospect of sunrise in Monument Valley. Although it has to be said we didn't really have to go far, the view from our balcony was pretty spectacular already.
We wandered down however to photographers point where famous photographers like Ansel Adams captured the same thing we were about to.
The sun came up and did so quickly - it's amazing how fast it appears to move at sunrise and sunset! Was a great time of day to capture the valley.
We headed inside for a buffet brekkie, was really good, one of the better ones we've had at our hotels! Simi ate more than me by double - astonishing! She even wrapped a few muffins in napkins and put them in her purse for later - I gave her the Indian chief name of 'Chief Stealing Muffin'
We checked out and hit the road, but backtracked a little. After telling simi i found the Forrest Gump scene she wanted to go. So we headed back out into Utah and took a few shots and videos.
We were then back on the way down to Flagstaff Arizona, back through Tuba City. We made pretty good time and by midday we were driving through Oak Creek Canyon.
This canyon was part of the 'red rock country' of wider Sedona. Was similar but different again to the things we'd seen. I'm still amazed at the diversity of landscapes Arizona has to offer; in just one morning we've gone from desert, sandy rock outcrops to desert grassy plains, up into the snow capped forest mountains of the San Francisco Peaks to red rock canyons!
Amazing!
We then stopped in at Sedona town centre for some lunch, well ice cream really! Was a weird little town, desert in character but very touristy now, a bit fake almost. The real stars of this area were the natural landscapes.
We continued driving about half an hour more and got to Montezumas Castle. Was a really intriguing national monument, dating back almost 900years. The people of the time had built stone/mud houses right up high into the sides of the rock face cliffs. Was quite spectacular, even for today's construction levels. The beauty of these structures were how they morphed into the cliff face and become a part of it.
We continued south on the highway on our way to Phoenix, but not before stopping one more time to check out Paolo Soleri's Urban Laboratory Workshop called 'Arcosanti'. I had studied this place and his principles a bit in Uni and was keen to check it out in person. Basically the place is a testing ground for a sustainable urban density; way of life and urban community. The buildings here are built by the people who stay or live in the community, and are done so in accordance with Soleri's visions and plans for his Arcologies for relatively little cost.
Whilst I'm a big fan of his principles and ideas, the reality for me was a little disappointing. The whole concept of Soleri's arcolgies is built around them functioning as dense urban neighbourhoods full of life, people and vitality. The reality here however is that there is barely 5% of the total urban structure built and less than 100 people reside here at any one time. So the experiment isn't really a true one and hence doesn't really function or work. It's sad in a way, because his ideas are really good, but in practice cannot really be delivered without the grand scale, grand budgets and grand input of people and construction. What you experience here is something like an alternative, hippie community - removed and detached from the main society. This is kinda the antithesis of what he intended i think. Thus I was left feeling disappointed from our visit but at the same time revitalized with new ideas and passionate thoughts for things to do when I return.
In saying that, the buildings here were quite cool and the tour itself was really insightful!
We finally drove into Phoenix around 6ish; once again the landscape here was different, more pebbly rocky hills with lots and lots of cactii. We checked into our funky Hotel Clarendon just in time to catch the sunset from the roof deck of our building!
We then drove around town for a bit, looking for some interesting sites as well as a laundry drop off place. To be honest though, there ain't much here; just a lot of people living in a lot of suburban houses. It's so expansive here, the urban sprawl is so crazy that the numbered streets here go up into the 400's (and that's not an exaggeration).
The crazy thing is the lack of city centre though - for the 5th largest city in the US it's CBD is like Chatswood!
When we got back to our hotel we headed for dinner and a drink at the privately owned bar and restaurant in the ground floor of the hotel. It had a pumping Friday afternoon crowd there. It was going off, which was weird again. But we though it looked good.
The food here was amazing - really good mexican. Actually probably the best tortillas and burritos I've ever had. The Mexican/Spanish culture is everywhere here. Which is great if you like that kinda food!
For dessert we had a Mexican crepe with honey and bananas as well as a glass of Horchata. I've always wanted to try this drink; it's not bad too; rice based milky kinda drink with cinnamon and nutmeg!
Again, we were out in a flash after another hectic day in the wild, wild west!
- Blog from iMat
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