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I haven’t taken many pictures this winter but I’ve been using the time to look over some old ones.  When I’m busy traveling, sight seeing, and taking photos, I often don’t have the time to carefully evaluate the results.  That’s not necessarily a disadvantage because I’ve found that when I try to examine my pictures right after I’ve taken them I’m frequently disappointed.  If I wait a couple of weeks or a month and then look at them I’m surprised at how much better they are.  They seem to improve with age.

Recently I’ve been looking at photos I took in November 2009 in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park in southern Utah.  If you want to feel like you’re in the middle of an old John Ford western movie like Stagecoach, this is the place to go.  I first visited Monument Valley in May 1980.  Although the entrance to the park has recently changed with the addition a large new motel, restaurant and souvenir shop, the valley itself retains its original rugged appearance.  Once the road leaves the main parking lot and heads down to the valley floor it becomes a narrow rutted dirt (actually sand) road that winds around and through a forest of interesting sandstone formations.  I expected to run into John Wayne at any moment.  He didn’t show up but I did meet 4 people from France on motorcycles.  They said they wanted to visit the scenery they’d seen in American Westerns.  I guess the feeling is universal.

The picture above was taken from the balcony of our room in Goulding’s Lodge in Monument Valley, Utah.  Some photos taken in and around the Tribal Park are shown below.