As we continue south, we detour back west to travel through Monument Valley, specifically to see where Forest Gump made his famous run. We kept watching for the stretch of road hoping we didn’t miss it and then found it, an attraction with signs, parking areas and lots of people. One guy was even running on the road.

This was such a beautiful place, but I think Mexican Hat rock was our favorite.

Monument Valley was a bit out of our way, but we wanted to see it, so we took back roads west from Cortez, CO through the Navajo tribal land over to Mexican Hat. The tribal land roads were brutal on the truck and trailer even at slower speeds. As we approached Monument Valley, we got a low coolant warning and the engine overheated. We finally had to stop and add water until we could get to a gas station to purchase coolant. The stress of having engine trouble took away from some of the excitement of being in the Valley, but it was still incredibly beautiful and majestic. We later found a hose clamp had come off and we suspected it was due to the rough roads on the reservation.

We finally arrived in Flagstaff where we found an RV park right off the freeway. It was in and out and the next morning we were on our way to Casa Grande.