A few years ago, following a series of personal disasters which I won’t go into, I took a year off, got on a plane to the USA, bought myself a Harley Davidson and hit the road. I started in New York, drove down the coast as far as I could go (Key West) and then came back up and started exploring the interior of the country. I managed to visit thirty three states in all and had some “interesting” experiences in all of them.

As the journey progressed, I began avoiding the larger cities, because with a few exceptions, I found them to be too similar to each other. After a while I couldn’t even remember which hotel I was staying in. Was it a Best Western or a Holiday Inn? Needless to say this got me into a few adventures all on its own, especially after a night on the town when I went into the Holiday Inn and demanded to see the manager because my key didn’t fit the lock any more, only to discover I was actually staying at the Best Western across the street. Personally I blame the introduction of unmarked electronic key cards. They are all just a piece of white plastic with no hotel name or room number. After 100 nights of staying in hotels, my brain just gave up trying to remember and I was reduced to begging the hotel clerk at whichever hotel I walked into to phone around the other hotels and see if they had a crazy Englishman with a Harley staying with them.

That aside, I did get to see some pretty amazing geography during my travels, and this experience was one of them. Monument Valley in Utah sticks in my head as one of the most incredible things I have ever seen. I wasn’t really sure what to expect because there is nothing to compare it to. It’s in the desert, in the middle of nowhere on an Indian reservation. My previous experiences with Utah had led me to believe that they are all insane, because you cannot buy an alcoholic drink in Utah unless you are a member of a private club and you can have as many wives as you want. Although God knows why anyone would want more than one. Perhaps the idea is that they are too busy arguing amongst themselves to give you any trouble? Answers on a postcard please.

But I digress. You approach Monument Valley across the desert and for the first time in my life I appreciated the word “deserted.” It is several hundred miles to ANYWHERE from here. I could find no hotels and ended up staying in a youth hostel that rented out rooms by the night. No restaurants, no bars, no pubs, nothing. Dinner the night after I went to the Valley consisted of two cans of coke and a selection of rubbish from a vending machine in the lobby.

Monument Valley was John Ford’s favorite backdrop and as soon as you get here the first thing that comes to mind is “Cowboys and Indians.” I went up to the visitor center and parked. They have a great view over the valley, but run bus tours out into the desert. They also have jeeps with a driver for hire and I elected to do that. My Indian guide dutifully drove me out to the desert for a closer look at some of these monoliths.

We stopped, he turned the engine off and I went for a walk, leaving the driver in the car. I walked a few hundred yards towards one of the buttes. They all have strange names like “the thumb” based on their shapes. I realized I could hear nothing. Nothing at all. No cars, no animals, no people, nothing. The best way I can describe the atmosphere in Monument Valley is to liken it to being in a big cathedral. For some reason, it feels the same and a voice in my head said “I want to stay here.” Then a more sensible voice tapped me on the shoulder and said, “You wouldn’t last five minutes out here on your own.” True, so I went back to the jeep and continued my tour, stopping at an old Navajo house where an old lady was making traditional blankets.

Monument Valley is truly stunning, and when you look at the pictures you might think the colors are faked, but that’s what it really looks like. Incredible doesn’t even begin to describe it. If you can possibly make it, this is one of the most spectacular places in the USA. Forget Disneyland or New York, this is far more exciting.

The next day of traveling, I got caught in a sand storm in the desert on my way to see The Grand Canyon, but that’s for another experience. Watch this space.