We arrived to our new camping place, Monument Valley RV Park. This looks like a new park but has wide spaces. We will be here until Monday so it is a short trip and was only two hours away from where we were in Cortez, NM.
After setting up, we spent the afternoon at the Mexican Hat and the Valley of the Gods which is a Bureau of Land Management Park (BLM).
Our first stop was to see the Mexican Hat. We could see that on our way in because it is very prominent but knew we could not pull our RV into the area so we waited until we were in the SUV. This rock has been around for 50 million years. It looks like someone just placed the rock on top but this formation is due to the eroding sandstone due to wind, snow, rain and other natural events. “The name “Mexican Hat” comes from a curiously sombrero-shaped rock outcropping on the northeast edge of town; the rock measures 60-foot (18 m) wide by 12-foot (3.7 m). The “Hat”‘ has two rock climbing routes ascending it.” It is amazing what Mother Nature does and what is formed.
Our next stop was the the Valley of the Gods which has no charge to get in because it was a BLM. “Valley of the Gods is a scenic sandstone valley that features stunning geologic formations. The statuesque formations are sculpted from Cedar Mesa sandstone dating to the Permian period, around 250 million years ago. Eroded by water, wind and ice over millions of years, the rock was carved into the unique buttes, monoliths (single massive stone or rock), pinnacles and other geological features as seen today. ” We took the 17 mile drive on the Valley of the Gods Loop. As you can see you can enter from one end and finish at the other end.
The roads were not smooth and have many potholes from the water or rain. However, our Ford Edge did just fine. Not sure if a regular car would make it without bottoming out. We were lucky.
Since we started from the east off of Rt 163, we were able to see all the glorious sites right away. By the time we got to the west side by US 261, there were less to see.
The following pictures are what we saw. Unfortunately, we cannot share with you our amazement at these rock formations. Sorry we cannot tell you all the names of all the points but hopefully you will get the jest of the amazing layout of these. 
After that, when we came out at the US 261, the Forest Gump Point was there. This is the place where Forest stopped running.You see everyone pulled over on the side and run to the middle to take their pictures. You just have to pay attention to the cars!
hope you enjoyed these.
