Escaping the Arctic Blast @ Monument Valley

Sunrise at Monument Valley, taken from our hotel room's balcony

When we left San Diego last Saturday for a much needed week of R and R, Monument Valley was not in our itinerary at all. It was supposed to be San Diego- Zion National Park @ Kolob Canyon- Moab (Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park)-Zion-Las Vegas( for Cirque du Solei and Black Canyon of the Colorado River in Lake Mead)-San Diego. Tes, of The Craftista and also one of the authors of The Salitype Society, was supposed to join us in Moab for Monday and Tuesday, then, we separate when we go back to Zion, while they go to Bryce Canyon National Park. However, it seemed Mother Nature has another plan. 

Two days before we left for the trip, there was a forecast of snowstorm in North Zion. Instead of going to Kolob Canyon, we decided to take East Zion @ Mt. Carmel Junction to escape the wrath of the snowstorm while on the road. It turned out to be a good decision for us when we saw in the local news later that night the many cars which skidded on the road and therefore had been stranded in the middle of snow storm. That kind of stress was the last thing we wanted on a vacation. Thankfully, I was able to see from the weather map at weather.com a route that would escape the snow storm while on the road. That meant driving South East first before going North to Moab. This route brought us to Monument Valley. Also, because of snow storm  on Monday, Tes and Doods did not make it to Moab for safety. Instead, we decided to meet at Monument Valley on Tuesday, a place which is closer to the place of Tes' sister. It was such a joyful meeting.  

I (left) and Tes (right) at The View Hotel's Guest's Lobby

This was how the sky looked like when we started exploring Monument Valley.

The clouds promise a beautiful sunset, and I was hoping the sky will not frustrate us since I wanted to show off to Tes one of the spectacular desert sceneries of the Southwest at sunset. Thankfully, the sky cooperated and put on a show for us to have a blast taking photos at sunset at Monument Valley.

looking East at sunset, Monument Valley (notice it is the same landscape, only the colors of the sky changed)

still looking East, sunset

looking West @ sunset, Monument Valley

still looking West @ sunset, Monument Valley

The rooms at The View Hotel all had beautiful views. Here are some more pictures at sunrise from our room's balcony (in addition to the very first photo above).

Sunrise @ Monument Valley- view from hotel's room

sunrise, Monument Valley

Until of course, it was time for us to leave Monument Valley to escape again the path of snow storm which started to roll in when we left.

storm rolling in at Monument Valley

After a while, on our way to Page, Arizona to meet Ted and Doods again, the snow which we had been trying to escape for days caught on us.

snow poured in as we left  Monument Valley

snow covered road, thankfully, no thick accumulation yet when we passed this

Thankfully, when we reached Page, though overcast, but there was no snow. We felt successful again in escaping another snow storm. But have we escaped the Arctic blast because we escaped snow? Truth is, we woke up the next day at -5 Fahrenheit temperature, and we finished the two bottled water we brought inside our room, when we took bottled water to drink from our car, they were all FROZEN! The warm pictures of the desert at Monument Valley does not really tell the whole story behind the subfreezing temperatures.

♥♥