Last weekend I joined my parents on a short trip they had both been looking forward to taking for some time.

Before COVID-19 hit, they were planning to return to Monument Valley for a stay- and then the world shut down for a year and some.

In recent weeks, the Navajo Nation and its national parks reopened, and on the heels of my dad’s birthday, the road trip weekend was set. I volunteered to go along in part to chauffeur, but in larger parts to just spend time with them and to see some sights as well, and the trip was an enjoyably busy one for its short duration.

We left on Friday morning and found our way west, out of New Mexico via Gallup and I-40, and were shortly in Window Rock. We found our way to the Navajo government complex there, but more importantly, we found our way to Window Rock itself, and also the Code Talker Memorial Statue beneath it- visits to the sites that were new to each of us.

After Window Rock, we headed for Ganado, AZ, where we made a stop at the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site, just to walk through the main store and the jewelry and rug rooms briefly. Unexpectedly, I left some money there in exchange for a souvenir- as did my mom.

After Ganado, we made for Chinle early in the afternoon, and then took a detour to visit one of our favorite places to visit- Canyon de Chelly, with its numerous canyon overlooks of impressive beauty.

We spent several hours wandering the south drive- mom enjoying the vendors at several of the stops along with the views, while I scrabbled around rocks a bit for some photos. The afternoon sky was checkered with a flotilla of fluffy white clouds, leaving the land beneath them under a scenic blanket of dark shadows and lit spots.

After Canyon de Chelly, we headed back to Chinle and then north to Many Farms, where we headed northwest for the wacky rocks surrounding Kayenta. We found dinner at a Burger King there, and then drove our last half an hour over to Monument Valley, where a low sun set the mesas and pedestals red for our arrival.

We were set to stay at The View there, adjacent to the Visitor Center facilities, where we could enjoy the monumental landscape of the area from the view out of our hotel room.

After unloading and settling into the room, I enjoyed a brief sit on the balcony taking in the shadows of the three near buttes in cool air under a canopy of emerging stars.

When we went to bed, I set my phone for 5:40, anticipating getting up before sunrise to try and photograph the morning starting off of the balcony. When I did get up and dress to go outside with the camera, I was surprised when I pulled the drapes in front of the balcony door back. The effects of the various fires in the West had found us overnight, and the morning’s limited light betrayed the valley before me was shrouded in smoke, and I was stunned.

Still, I made the balcony my perch for the next several hours, and toyed with photographing whatever I thought I needed to to capture some of the moment.

After my parents got up and my dad came and sat with me for a little bit, we ended up back in the room for a bit to dress and chat about the day, and then breakfast called for us. Normally, the hotel’s restaurant would have been our answer, but it was still closed, unopened yet from the COVID shutdown, so we drove 6 miles west of the park back to the Goulding’s monopoly megaplex where a solitary restaurant was open.

It worked out. We had some very good warm meals, and endless coffee that I and my mom enjoyed quite a bit. I went inside the locally advertised “John Wayne’s Cabin”, which was nothing more than a hut with two walls containing images and copy commemorating the filming of “She Wore A Yellow Ribbon” there in 1949.

Happy and full, we went back to the park, and my folks visited the visitor center store while I took some things to the room and then looked around the grounds a bit. My mom was a good shopper in the jewelry section of the shop. I tried to get info about driving the Monument Valley loop as a hotel visitor (when, how much, how). I met my folks. My mom’s hard work in the store complete, we went back to the room, and fell easily into short naps.

The haze over the valley made the 18-mile loop drive in the park less appealing, but we didn’t want to just laze in the room for the day, so I did a little research, and we learned a similar scenic drive through The Valley of the Gods was up the road in Utah past Medicine Hat.

Settled, we hopped back in the car and headed north, still under the haze of wildfire smokes that were more dense in some areas and less in others.

We found the Mexican Hat formation past the town with its namesake, and soon we were at a turn-off onto a gravel road that was marked as the Valley of the Gods drive. After some misgivings and hesitancy, the road proved itself maintained and friendly enough for us as we headed into the strange and remote area.

We drove slowly across the 17 mile route, taking in the remarkable mesas, buttes and formations- and would later relish the drive as one of the best activities of the trip.

Once we completed the road, we headed back towards Monument Valley, stopping briefly at the Forrest Gump Point, where the usually familiar rock landmarks in the distance down the road were largely hidden. Still, the drive was pretty.

Saturday night, we enjoyed sandwiches and chips from the food stuffs my folks brought on the trip. My mom and I played a hand of a favorite card game, 3 to 13, which I lost after a deceptively promising start, and then we turned in.

Sunday morning, the smoke was still thick in the valley, so I just slept in a bit, and when my folks stirred, my mom and I played two more hands of 3 to 13, which led me from defeat to weekend victor, a hard accomplishment to achieve against my mom. I celebrated it loudly in my heart.

And then it was time to head back to Albuquerque.

We go the car loaded and checked out, and we hit the road- but this time, our course took us east from Kayenta, above and past the Lukachukai Mountains in eastern Arizona towards Farmington, NM.

We made a stop in Teec Nos Pos, AZ, though, before entering New Mexico to visit another historic trading post there, which is famous for its rug room featuring Navajo arts and crafts. We enjoyed checking out this “Walmart before Walmarts existed” general store that sold food and home goods as well as Navajo-related books and souvenirs and colored wools, among other things.

And then we headed on to Four Corners for a brief stop at that park.

At lunchtime, we stopped at an outdoor park, complete with a skate park, on the edge of Shiprock where we ate some more sandwiches and chips. We ate “lightly” as to not undercut our dining goals for a few hours later. And then we made our way to Farmington and Bloomfield on US-64, where we hopped onto 550 for our final leg of the drive home.

Which would be interrupted with a necessary stop at El Bruno’s Restaurant in Cuba, NM.

We each gorged and coughed on chile-ladened enchiladas that both delighted us and scorched our gullets.

And we loved them as dinner for the day.

Early evening upon us, we enjoyed the last hour-and-some of the drive listening to my mom’s beloved Inca Gold South American tinged CD of various popular song covers, and we entered the Rio Grande Valley under the same haze we left behind us in Utah.

We were home, but we had an excellent collection of memories and souvenirs (and photos) collected together that came home with us as well.

Happy Birthday, Dad! Happy Escape, Mom! A happy weekend was enjoyed, indeed.