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I am a “car guy”… I love old cars.
We’d crossed the desert southwest and were now t the feet of the Rockies in Cortez, Colorado. Today’s drive is a loop through the San Juan mountains, visiting the towns of Telluride, Ridgway, Ouray, Silverton, and Durango.
Our timing was perfect, as the aspens were turning color as we rose in altitude, so we could see each stage of Autumn as we rose from ~6000′ up to just over 11000′.
Monument Valley is both an amazing, but also mundane place. Amazing in that it is a real-life Roadrunner & Wile-e-Coyote landscape, with stunning sandstone towers, spectacular color, and John Ford Western Vistas.
However, it is, and always has been, home to many people, and with people come mundane things like fences, buildings in various states of entropy, and of course the bane of landscape photographers everywhere: telephone and power poles. I will admit to retouching away two poles and quite a few wires from the above shot. It pains me to do so, but …. *bleagh!*
I find myself in this place with my face always up. I spent the night before sleeping out under the stars. In the nighttime, gathered in a group of fellow Jag nuts in the campground I just stared at the sky – soaking in the stars, satellites, and meteors above. I slept (without the benefit of a sleeping bag, therefore snuggled up to the ~500lb iron, aluminum, and stainless steel heat sink known as the exhaust side of the Jaguar XK Engine) staring at the moonless sky whenever I wasn’t asleep. Before dawn I arose (the night had pulled all the heat from the XK, and so I was without my source of external warmth by around 4am) and shook off the chill with a stroll around the campground with my monopod and telephoto lens – shooting dozens of variations of the image above. Eventually the light grew to enable hand-held shooting and the awakening of slumbering campers.
Despite the myriad of telephone and power lines strung throughout the canyon, this campground is truly a visual feast, with wind-sculpted sandstone in every direction. I watch the dawn’s light crawl down the walls and illuminate the whole scene. But I also know that this place is a mere nook of this scenic wonderland and I find myself being drawn out of the canyon and towards those free-standing monuments to the east. Morning light is fading into the day’s haze, so I pack my cameras and gear, bid my camp-friends adieu, and motor off.
I hope to connect with my friend Paul and his “poiple” car for some shots out on the valley floor among the monuments. Unfortunately he spent the night in Chinle, AZ, a lengthy drive from here. I call him, and he’s on his way, so I let him know where I’ll be. I pull up to the parking lot of The View hotel and ponder going out onto the valley floor. The nice lady at the park entrance tells me there is no way my “little car” will make it. The roads are all dirt, and suggested for 4WD vehicles with high ground clearance. I can barely slide my hand between the ground and the E-type’s exhaust!
Continue reading “SOL Tour Day Three: Monument Valley, Moki Dugway, and Malts at The Patio.”
A few folks have asked me about the route of the SOL Tour. Above is a Google Maps representation of the SOL Tour Route for you to explore as you read the story and look at the photographs.
We leave Flagstaff (which reminds me a LOT of Bend, Oregon) early in the morning, with frost on the tonneau cover of the 65E, caravanning up to the Grand Canyon. I have a confession to make… While I can claim to have visited all of the Lower 48 States, plus Alaska (Hawaii is my last un-visted place in the USA); Arizona is the one state I have barely touched. I’ve clipped the northeast corner between New Mexico and Utah in my college climbing road trip days, and have changed planes once in the Phoenix airport. Until now that has been the total extent of my travels in Arizona. I’ve never seen the Grand Canyon from terra firma until today. Additionally, despite having visited Shiprock, Canyonlands, Arches, and the Moab area many times, I’ve yet to see Monument Valley. Today’s journey will address all these shortcomings of my travel experience and more.
L—R Back Row: Larry Wade, La Canada, California – Michael Goodwin, Phoenix, Arizona – (Larry’s Nephew Travis, USMC) – Jan & Lynn Gardner, Boise, Idaho – David Fey, Lakewood, Colorado – Mark Stephenson, Phoenix, Arizona – Paul Wigton, Prospect Valley, Colorado – Andrea Stephenson, Phoenix, Arizona – Mike King, Phoenix, Arizona – Steve & Gordon Bedell, Denver, Colorado – David Langley, Monterey, California – Lloyd Schmedley, Carmel Valley, California.
L—R Front Row: Dianne & Greg Meboe, Renton, WA – Darrell Grimes, Delavan, Wisconsin – Jerry Mouton, Austin, Texas – Steve Peterson & Kjell Nelin, Bishop, California – Chuck Goolsbee, Bend, Oregon.
Three years ago Paul Wigton of Colorado was neck-deep in the restoration of “Tweety”, an early E-type coupe that was his mother’s car. Needing a motivator to maintain momentum on his project, he dreamt of a tour to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the E-type Jaguar. He’d collect fellow “desert rats” as he called them, and drive a bunch of E-types around the Southwest. He wanted it to be a low-budget, relaxed affair, as Paul is a low-budget relaxed guy. He announced his dream on the Jag-lovers.org E-type Forum, and several of us signed up. A route and itinerary were formulated and plans laid.
I’m weightless. Buoyed only by the air in my lungs… and one foot resting atop the edge of the pool. The water envelops and calms me. My thoughts focused solely on the air in my lungs, and the level of the water around my face. Like a whale, instinctively knowing when to close its blowhole when submerging – just as the water reaches its edge – I maintain my semi-floating state by short exhalations, which start me sinking, and rapid, deep inhalations, which rebound me from a submerged state and bob me back to the surface. I learned this from my Grandfather Goolsbee, who could magically stay afloat so well that he would nap while freely afloat in a pool. I can’t manage that, so have to rest a foot somewhere to keep me truly afloat. The process is remarkably calming, and provides my mind with a soft landing. From the harsh sunlight, and loud noises I’ve been enveloped in since daybreak.
I’m in a Super 8 motel in Battle Mountain, Nevada – soaking away the day’s road film off myself. I left Bend, Oregon this morning around 7, and drove south via La Pine, Paisley, and Lakeview, Oregon, where I had a pleasant, but early lunch with my traveling companions Greg & Dianne Meboe. Early because once we left Lakeview we were not going to see another town for many many hours. The direct route to the start of the SOL tour in Laughlin, NV goes right down through the middle of Nevada north to south – there’s a whole lot of NOTHING out there.
Once we leave Lakeview the vegetation thins rapidly to just bunchgrass and sage. The valleys open up and dry lakes appear. The road uncoils itself into straightaways that fly like an arrow towards gaps in distant mountain ranges. This is Nevada in a Nutshell…
An entire afternoon of this, and we arrive in Winnemucca, in the Humboldt River valley, and join the superslab of Interstate 80 for the 60 miles or so to Battle Mountain, where I’m now washing away 27 layers of sunscreen and thinking about tomorrow…
I hinted at this earlier in the year, and the time has arrived to pack the car, the camera, and the laptop and head off towards the Vanishing Point on the Horizon.
My friend Paul Wigton dreamed up the goofy adventure three years ago to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the E-type Jaguar. A bunch of us “Loon-Es” are going to converge on Laughlin, NV this weekend from all over the USA. On Monday morning we’ll be off on Old Route 66, heading east, stopping at a few sights along the way such as the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley, then proceed up to Cortez, CO to cool off in the mountains of SW Colorado, drive the Million Dollar Highway, and Mesa Verde.
I’ll be caravanning with the contingent from the Pacific Northwest, leaving tomorrow morning. Provided I can get online I’ll be posting daily summaries and photographs here on my site. I’ll also post a running stream of where I am and what we’re doing on my Facebook page, and maybe on Twitter if I can.
I’m prepping the 65E and packing as we speak. Stay tuned and follow along!