Monument Valley – Mini Vacation

The last couple of times that I ran in the Monument Valley Veterans 1/2 Marathon (2019 & 2021,) Joel was unable to join me as he was hunting. This time, his luck was not good and the MN Whitetails eluded him, so he ended up coming along.

We had a cabin on the edge of the mesa in the Monument Valley Tribal Park that looks down into the valley. I was able to get one of the few, unobstructed view cabins as I thought Joel might enjoy a photo op from the deck of the cabin.

Our cabin was the one on the far left – we had unobstructed views of the West Mitten, East Mitten and Merrick Butte.

We had the cabin for two nights and had an extra day to spend before the race. We got up to an amazing sunrise, and a resident “rez” dog that was looking for handouts.

We decided to take a 4 mile hike on the Wildcat Trail which wraps all the way around Merrick Butte.

After the hike I did a little reading and Joel pretended to read! There are no tvs and spotty WiFi so I was glad to have a book along. Joel’s book on precision shooting must not have been that interesting!

Nice holes in the socks.

Then we ate dinner at the restaurant in the adjacent hotel and watched the moon come up as we ate.

The entire event is a huge weekend gathering and the NavajoYES (Navajo Youth Empowerment Services) organization gets hundreds of kudos from me – it is very well organized and a lot of fun! At the start, the Women’s Veteran Color Guard posted the flags and a local Navajo recording artist sang the Star-Spangled Banner in Navajo (photos courtesy NavajoYES.) Pretty special and impactful.

In the past, they had one of the last remaining Navajo Code Talkers as a guest of honor. Unfortunately there are only two remaining Navajo Code Talkers as John Kinsel passed away October 21, 2024 at 107 years old. The two remaining are Former Navajo Chairman Peter MacDonald and Thomas H. Begay and I imagine that their health is not good enough to be out and about.

The pre-race meeting was held and then off we ran (or jogged, in my case!)

At every Aid Station and at the start of the race there were bands playing all sorts of inspirational Rock n Roll songs – great atmosphere!

I felt good for the run but started to get a bit tired at about mile 12 so I sort of walked/jogged for the last mile. The course is rutted, sandy and the last 2 miles are a climb back up from the valley floor. Come to find out, if I would have been just a little bit more “SERIOUS” about the entire race, I would have placed first in the 60 – 69 Women’s Age Group. Instead because I fiddle-farted around, I got 2nd place by a mere 19 seconds … OOPS! No big deal, I think the 2nd Place prize was better anyways!

Plugging up the last hill out of the valley – I am the farthest on the right in a white shirt. I had to start running as I knew Joel was taking pictures – HAHA!
Second place – fleece beanie – NICE!

Aside from the run, Joel had an excellent couple of days and nights with photography!

First photo at sunrise
Next part of the series where the sun has just popped over the horizon
Just a few minutes later and most of the purples and oranges have now faded to blues and yellows.
Believe it or not, this is a timed exposure (somewhere between 8 and 16 seconds?) taken at 3:00am and the light is cast from a full moon. This is not daytime and you can tell by all the stars!
This is the same photo, taken at 3:00am with the same, long exposure but showing two enhanced constellations in the night sky – The Big Dipper on the left and Leo on the right.

We seemed to time our departure just right, as we were leaving Monument Valley, a short storm moved in and it started snowing! Glad I was warm and cozy in the car and not still out on the race course>

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