Home of John Ford westerns, endless Roadrunner cartoons, (not to mention many other movies & TV shows), and the Marlboro Man, and hundreds of real live Navajo indians, this can only be Monument Valley and Highway 163.
I’ve actually never been here, though I’ve been close by during my college days, driven through Shiprock, NM, and the Canyonlands in Utah. This photo was taken by one of my parents (and ended up in my possession when I helped them with a digital camera issue at some point) on a Copperstate 1000 Rally. Can you guess that car that served as the photographer’s vantage point?
Lessee…big, curvy ‘ponton’ fenders, Tri-star on the nose.
Nope. No idea. Nice pix, though!
>;)
My brother Doug and I stopped at that *very* point, and took the *very same* foto! It’s MUCH more impressive when you’re there! Even better than in “Forest Gump,” too!
NOTE TO FOTOGS: Waaaay down the road, off to the left there’s a perpendicular dirt road (you can *barely* see it, just below the red bluffs in the left background) that intersects the blacktop and that has truck traffic. If you see a truck there, sit on your fender, drink a coldie, smoke a stogie, strum a tune, or do whatever it is you like to do, to pass time. It will take some time to get *all* the traffic out of frame (not that there’s a lot in these parts, but still…) and it will take awhile to get all the dust settled from aforementioned truck!
Ask me how I (we) know!
Oh, BTW? At the end of that loooong stretch of blacktop is one of the FEW places to buy food/gas in this area, called “Goldings.” VERY interesting place…it’s on the ‘res,’ as is all of Monument Valley.
Make DAMN sure you tank up there…..
Sorry…it’s “Gouldings.”
There is a similar section of I-80, I believe just east outside of Evanston, WY. It has a noticeably more dramatic dip and rise, however. I used to love seeing that part of I-80 when traveling west, because it essentially meant that I’d broken the back of the Ft. Collins to Provo UT trip that I used to make so often between 1991 and 1995. The scenery and roads were shortly about to get much more interesting, after 250 or so miles of WY boredom. I wish I’d taken a picture like the one above of it, as I haven’t seen it in several years. Great picture, Chuck.
Beautiful pic and even more beautiful road. I MUST drive it before I slough the mortal coil. Not really suited to a classic Mini Cooper though. Write 500 times “I must get the E running soon….I must get the E running soon…”.
And if not the E, a Wells Fargo stage coach will do. Believe it or not I do have the cowboy hat and boots…
MD 20/20 sez: ” I MUST drive it before I slough the mortal coil.”
Well, join me and whoever else joins in, for the 50th anniversary of the E-Type, on the “Desert Rats Southwest Spectacular” tour. That *very* spot is on the route that’s planned for the 2011 bash and I’m sure I’d love to swap cars with you, somewhere along the way! It’ll be ONLY E-Types that year, and perhaps in ensuing years, other Brit-machines.
Lessee…big, curvy ‘ponton’ fenders, Tri-star on the nose.
Nope. No idea. Nice pix, though!
I know the MAKE is obvious, but how about the model?
I’ll do my vert best to be there: roll on 2011…
OOO, I like that, as a title!
“Roll On, Desert Rats” tour, 2001.
😉
Errrr, I think 2001 might be wishful thinking (unfortunately). But roll on 2011. I’ll be there. Have you made a website yet…?
Damn rented fingerlers.
🙂
Website? Uh, apparently you don’t understand the depths of my despond, regarding my near-total lack of Internet skills, MD!
However, if you’re *volunteering*….. 🙂