April 28

We camped last night at Navajo Lake State Park. Had breakfast in camp and left around 8:30 a.m. Headed west along the San Juan River. Stopped in Aztec to see the ruins of an Anasazi culture. The great Kiva has been reconstructed to look like what archeologists think it did 900 years ago, and is suppose to be the best one in North America. This pueblo has 450 rooms, and was made as one structure. They call it Aztec Ruins National Monument, but, in fact, the Aztec peoples were never in the area. Those who named it thought it looked like the Aztec structures.

We stopped in Kayenta at the Burger King, not to eat lunch, but to looked at the display there that is dedicated to the Navajo Code Talkers. They were a group of Navajo in the armed forces in the Pacific during WWII, who were able to use their own language on the walkie talkies to stymie the Japanese. The Japanese could never break the code because in reality it wasn’t one.

As we drove along, the wind kept increasing. Great amounts of red dust from the red sands were blowing across the highway. At times we could barely see a few feet in front of us. All the cars had to use lights.

We drove into Kanab, Utah, and checked into the Parry Lodge, which has been in use since 1931. Kanab is known as “Little Hollywood” because so many movies and TV shows were filmed here. The old part of the lodge has famous names on the rooms. We are staying in the Ronald Reagan room. There is a picture of him dressed as a cowboy on one wall. The dining room was reserved for two big groups, so we ate dinner across the street at restaurant decorated with a cowboy theme.

At 8:00 p.m. we went to the Movie Barn, part of the lodge, and saw two short films, plus the 1952 cowboy film, “Ride The Man Down” with Rod Cameron, Brian Donlevy, Joel McCrea, Forrest Tucker and Chill Wills. Of course, Rod Cameron won the girl in the end. The wind was gusting so strongly, it sounded like the barn might blow down. We had to hang onto our hats going back to our room.

More from Utah tomorrow….

John and Elaine