So this time we’re camping at Wahweap, on the shore of lake Powell, in Glen Canyons.

The campground happens to be sitting just on the border between Utah and Arizona.

It’s notable because Utah and Arizona are in 2 different time zones, so technically, it’s not the same time between one end of the campground and the other end.

Since we plan to visit Monument Valley around sunset -and Monument Valley is in Arizona- we decide to stick to this timezone and plan to leave around 2pm, to reach before 5pm.

In the meantime we take a bath in the lake, with a great view on Glen Canyon’s geology.

We leave on time and reach Monument Valley around 4:30pm and we’re fairly proud of our perfect organisation as we enter the park.

There the Navajo ranger explains to us that it’s actually 5:30pm and the scenic road is already closed, because in spite of being in Arizona, Navajos live on Utah time.

Except in winter, when they switch to AZ, because… why not!

So no Monument Valley for us ☹️

But we still get to see the main ones from outside and soon we’re advised to check another site, “the Valley of the Gods”, a bit further north, after the town of “Mexican Hat” (because why not)

It’s a maintained dirt road that goes across beautiful “western landscapes” and it totally makes up for our initial deception.

Only it’s pretty late already and we’re about half way down the road when the sun has set. So we get a little thrill driving on a bumpy dirt road with an economy car in complete darkness 🙂