BY DENNIS BEGIN


Monument Valley in Winter


My NOW. AND THEN.


wife Patricia and I have been snowbirds for the past fi ve years.


We have experienced all the usual snowbird activities from the Arizona- Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson to boondocking at Quartzsite and shopping in Algodones, Mexico. We stayed in the south avoiding the northern part of Arizona as other snowbirds warned us about the cold weather in the north. By the third year, throwing caution to the wind, we headed north towards the end of February. Our fi rst destination was the


Take a giant leap into the 1890’s and


experience the resorted pioneer boomtown of Fort Steele! A family favourite for decades, Fort Steele is a must! Open daily.


Call for current schedules and special events or visit us online.


Red Rock Country of Sedona. We experienced beautiful spring weather, doing some golfi ng, hiking, sightseeing and wondering why people had misled us. Sedona is centrally located to other interesting places such as: Jerome, Fort Verde, Montezuma Castle/Well and Tuzigoot. Our visit to the Grand Canyon was on a perfect spring day, although snow did line the southern rim of the canyon. Our goal, however, was further north to Monument Valley. Traveling through Flagstaff , Arizona, which is at 7,100-ſt in elevation, felt like a cold Canadian prairie winter. Turning our motorhome north onto


www.FortSteele.ca / 250-417-6000 Recorded info line 250-426-7352 info@FortSteele.bc.ca


9851 Hwy 93/95 Fort Steele BC V0B 1N0 (located just 16 kms northeast of Cranbrook)


20 RVT 140 • MARCH/APRIL 2011


Highway 89, we were not going to let a little snow deter us. From Flagstaff , the elevation drops down to 4,200-ſt and spring returned. A visit to the Cameron Trading Post, 54 miles from Flagstaff , is a must! Established in 1916 on the Little


Colorado River, the store is an authentic Native Indian Trading Post, including an art gallery. T e slogan of the store should be: ‘If we do not have it, you do not need it’. It is one of the most incredibly well- stocked stores in Arizona and a defi nite stop. Turning onto Highway 160 towards Tuba, we entered the northern end of the Painted Desert that stretches south to Winslow on Highway 40. In addition to the reddish-purple landscape, we stopped at the Tuba Dinosaur site, fi ve miles west of Tuba. T e correct name for this location is Moen-avi and is located 100 yards off the highway. Look for a handmade sign. Although Moen-avi is a minor Jurassic archaeological site, the footprints, rib cage, partial head and dinosaur eggs are over 200 million years old. Members of the local Navajo tribe provide a guided tour, for a small donation. It felt cool to walk among the dinosaurs. On arriving in Kayenta, Arizona, we


turned onto Highway 163 and drove 24 miles NE to Gouldings. Gouldings is named aſt er Harry and Leone [he called her Mike] Goulding, who built a trading post in the valley in 1924. Today this little Navajo village has a grocery store, fast food restaurants, hotel, museum, theatre, church, school, medical centre and a landing strip. T ere is a excellent RV Camp [Park] that has all the amenities from cable TV, laundry facilities, store and Internet connection. Located in a little pass called the Big Rock Door, the RV Camp has a view of Monument Valley. If a full service park is not needed, there are boondocking facilities at Mitten View Campground, equipped with a million dollar view. Monument Valley is not a National Park [called National Monuments in the States], but a working Navajo Reservation called Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. Approximately 3,000 Navajo Indians make a living in the park largely from sheep ranching and tourism. Annually, 400,000 people visit Monument Valley. Monument Valley is not really a valley,


but an outcropping of sedimentary rock dating back 200 million years. T e valley fl oor is the Colorado Plateau, dotted with 1,000-ſt monoliths, buttes, mesas, arches and spires called monuments. T e rock is largely sandstone, coloured with red


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