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Grand Canyon Monument Valley,
The Maze in Canyon Lands
By: Bruce Bolander - 09/27/2004
 Steve and Eileen Sampson,
Gary and Linda Gayda, Bruce and Toni Bolander from The Early Bronco Limited and
Ed Bolander from the Early Bronco Registry made the trip. The trip was in
planning for months. The critical plans were for The Maze in cayonlands. Only
three vehicles are permitted in a campsite in the Maze. Reservation are required
well in advance. Everything must be taken out, so we all learned about Luggable
Loops before the trip. The Maze is remote, no facilities or services available
for many miles. The planning included allowance for 250 miles of off-road and
gas, water and food. We rescearched the ham repeaters for the trip as
well.
The Sampson and Gaydas left for the Grand Canyon on Saturday,
September 29, 2001. After a night in messquite, Nevada they arrived at the Grand
Canyon and stayed at the Kaibab Lodge on the North Rim for two days. Four
wheeling was limited since there were several forest fires on the North Rim-
closed gates abounded. Photo opportunities were prolific and most of time was
spent relaxing enjoy the scenery and take picture and video.
The Bolander met the Gaydas and Sampson in Jacob Lake on
Tuesday October 7,2001. After breakfast at the great little Jacob Lake inn we
head east on 89A for Monument Valley. We came down from the Kaibab Forest into
House Rock Valley a spectacular panorama of desert below. We stopped at
Cliffdweller's lodge for a few minutes to look at the abandoned roadside
site.
After crossing the Marble Canyon bridge over the Colorado River
and heading south, we took a left and climber the steep grade up 89 toward Page.
Steve Sampson noticed a tire going flat, and the tire was repaired in Page-it
was an antique nail so Steve felt privileged. We took the shortcut on 98 from
Page to 160 and stopped in Kaibito at the general store and snack bar for lunch.
This was a very scenic and remote shortcut, well worth the effort. We turned on
160 and after having an early dinner in Kayenta, we arrived at Monument
Valley.
In Monument Valley we went straight to the visitor's center to
try and get in on a tour that afternoon. An Indian guide approached us and
convinced us to tour with him. We hopped into his tour truck and had a fantastic
tour of Monument Valley, take loads of picture and video. The late afternoon
timing gave us great photos, including a rainbow, virga ( rain not reaching the
ground), and sunsets. We saw the famous formations like The Mittens and Three
sisters and also saw three arches. The trip lasted about 2 1/2 hours and was
well worth the $40 per person it cost. We have hundreds of outstanding photos to
show for it. Our tour guide was Alex. Alex works for Keyah Hozhoni Tours at www.monumentvalley.com Alex
also agreed to take us out on a 4wd trip the following day on the mesa to the
west of Mystery Valley. We had a great dinner at Goulding's Lodge. We stayed in
a couple of great two bedroom apartments owned by Goulding's
nearby.
 
The following morning the Gaydas and the
Bolanders met Alex for the Mystery Valley run. Steve had hurt his arm the night
before unloading at the apartment and he and Eileen spent most of the day
looking for medical care. We unloaded our camping equipment at a horse ranch
west of town and headed out on the Mystery Valley trail. After a short run along
a sandy road and through a wash, we reached our first slick rock to climb. it
was all easily negotiable in our Bronco's but there was a little pucker factor
along some steep drop-off's alongside the trail. After the slick rock and some
loose-rock hills and cliffs, we arrived at a spectacular viewpoint atop the mesa
overlooking Monument Valley. Alex gave us some history on the geology and showed
us petrified dinosaur bones, fossils and petrified wood. then he took us a
little further around the mesa to an old trail built by miners. Alex and Ed
walking the trail and discovered that we wouldn't be able to get through on
this trail. They were excited to see that the trail builders had created a web
of steel cables and filled then with trees, brush and rocks to bridge the box
canyons below on each side of the trail. They had also blasted a trail width
crevice about 30 feet high through slick rock. This was an amazing testimonial
to those who pioneered this area many years ago.
 We returned to the highway the way we came, and met up with
Sampsons at Monument Valley visitors Center. We headed up through Mexican Hat,
The Goosenecks, and on 261 to 95 on our way to Hanksville. The Goosenecks were
amazing. After traveling a short way along 261 we reached an amazing 5mph
switchback gravel road climbing directly up the face of Cedar Mesa from the
Valley of the God's below. The route must cut at least an hour off the trip
from Mexican Hat to Hite. We stopped in Hite to top off on gas around 9 pm and
found the only gas station closed- a good thing to remember since it's the only
gas in about a 50-mile radius. Fortunately we had enough gas to make it to
Hanksville. We settled in at the Desert Inn motel in Hanksville that night and
had a good rest.
 On Thursday morning, October 4, 2001 we loaded up with
film,food,ice and gas and headed east on 24 to the dirt road through the San
Rafael Desert to Hans Flat Ranger Station. The road to Hans Flat was easy 2wd
and was pretty fast traveling until we neared Hans Flat. Hans Flat is the north
entry into the Maze areas. We spent about an hour at the Ranger station
discussing the area and picking up maps and literature. The roads from this
point on were not difficult, but they were rocky and rough enough to keep our
speed around 10 mph or less. we stopped by Millard Canyon Overlook just after
leaving Hans Flat for our first Box Canyon view. We then turned left at North
Point and went on to Panorama Point, for a great overlook of Horse Canyon below
and The Maze beyond. After leaving Panorama Point, we stopped at a small butte
on the left side of the trail and saw scores of dinosaur track fossils in the
rocks. The landmark was an old trail that was blocked with fallen tree trunks.
We returned to North point and continued south through Gordon Flats on the Flint
Flat Trail. As we neared the turnoff point down the switchbacks into Flint Cove,
The Gayda's bronco developed a power steering pressure hose leak. Gary had been
through this before and cut the ferrule at the tubing trimmed the hose and
clamped it with three hose clamps. Gary tied the clamp to the tubing with wire
to keep the hose from coming off. The fix lasted the entire trip and hasn't
been touched since. A hacksaw was the essential tool for this fix. The
switchback down from Flint Flat into Flint Cove were extremely steep,
pucker-factor switchbacks. Since Steve had hurt his arm, Eileen did all driving.
She was a real trooper getting down these switchbacks, and now is a very
experienced 4-wheel driver. We arrived at our Golden Stairs campsite around 7 pm
and set up camp with a little daylight and lot of darkness. The Golden Stairs is
the best campsite we saw during out trip. It had a great overlook of the Teapot
Rock and The Fins areas and lots of trees for shelter.
 On Friday morning, October 5, 2001 we headed north on the Big Water
trail toward the Maze Overlook around 9:30 am. The trail runs right down a long
ridge from the Flint Trail mesa. The knew Eileen had become a real 4-wheel
driver when we saw her driving with one hand and shooting video with the other
hand driving down this ridge. The Big Water Trail was very scenic. it runs
though the bottom of a big canyon and wash on the way to the Maze Overlook
Trail. It was a perfect trail for a "filly run", and the wives took over
driving. We reached the Maze Overlook trail intersections and headed right up
the canyon wall toward the Maze Overlook. On the way we passed several deep box
canyons into Horse Canyon on the left side. We slid up to the edge of one box
canyon cliff on our bellies and looked straight down below to the bottom of the
canyons. Since that we called this spot "belly-up canyon".
 After leaving the box canyons we veered right around Elatente Butte
and head directly southeast toward the Maze Overlook. it was lunchtime and we
all hungry, anxiously awaiting the Overlook just a few minute ahead. In the
Bolander bronco we heard a loud scraping noise. After only a minute or so Ed
looked in his rear view mirror and found that the drivers side rear wheel had
increased it's offset several inches-and said "We have a problem". We stopped
and saw the left rear wheel extending out from the Bronco enough to expose
almost the complete rear brake pads. We took the axle out and found that the
bearing retainer had come loose and the axle was sliding out from the bearing
and retainer. We all breathed a sigh of relief when we saw no apparent damage.
We pounded the retainer back in place with a 3lb sledge and Steve fired up his
Link Arc welder. Gary tacked some welds on the retainer to hold it to the axle
and all was back in place in about an hour. We made the entire on the repair
axle without any problems and are still driving on it untouched. The key tools
here were the welder and sledge.
 After the axle repair, we spend a lot of time at the Maze Overlook.
One look make it clear why it's named The Maze. it's a labyrinth with no
equal. We shots tons of pictures and video. In the picture above, the pinnacles
of Chimney Rock and Standing Rock can be seen in the upper left corner. These
were our planned targets for the next day, but it would have been too long of a
trip there and back for one day. We're going to camp in Chimney Rock, Standing
Rock and Dollhouse area and do short runs on our next trip to The Maze. We
backtracked and returned to our Golden Stairs camp, the same way we
came.
 The trip to the Maze Overlook was about 5 hours of driving, plus
the looking and axle repair. This left us a little time in the afternoon to
relax and see some overlooks from the Golden Stairs hiking trailhead before
dinner. One of the prettiest views from Golden Stairs is the Fins. These are
amazing fin shaped pinnacles. The trail to Standing Rock is on the north side of
The Fins. There are no 4wd trails into the Maze canyons or The Fins. There're
several hiking trails and they would be outstanding hikes. We watched some great
sunsets and a lot of stars. Staying at the campsite more would have been
great.
 The next morning Saturday October 6, 2001, we left around 9:15 for
Teapot Rock. The trail to teapot Rock is a very high trail skirting the edge of
a deep canyon below. The scenery is great and the trail is fine - -except don't
get caught on it in a rain or you'll be sliding in the clay on a precarious
trail. Shortly after dropped down to the base of Teapot Rock our best 4-wheeling
day began. The trail isn't difficult to negotiate in a Bronco, but there were
enough rocks to crawl over to make it interesting and the scenery was
breathtaking. We saw several mountain bikers on this trail and a stock Blazer.
We're sure the Blazer left a lot of scrapes on the trail.
 That evening we looked at the scenery from camp again. Gary and Ed
hiked across the ridge to the mesa on the east of camp and saw views of The Maze
and petrified wood galore. We relaxed in camp for the last evening.
On
Sunday, October &, 2001 we packed up and left the Golden Stairs for Hite.
Even on the way out we saw great scenery had some more good four wheeling. The
trail circles a few canyons on the way out and is a great trip all by itself. We
all gassed up at Hite and each went on our different paths back home. This was
one of those once in a lifetime type of trips, and we're going to make it at
least twice in our lifetime by going back again to the Standing Rock area.
Click here to view all the pictures from
the trip in the photo album
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