Bear’s Ears – Day 4

With batteries charged, we left early for the day concerned that wind would be picking up later in the day. We were ready for our first dirt riding of the trip. We had to backtrack to the Valley of the Gods (VOG) and then we would be on dirt until our final destination of the day: Valley of the God’s B&B where we would be staying for 2 nights. The short mileage made things look like it would be a relatively easy day.

We were enroute before the cafe in Mexican Hat had even opened. That’s not too impressive as they likely open whenever they finally wake up although seeing them yesterday I would not exactly call them woke. Anyway, the weather was perfect with cool air and blue sky. The first few miles zipped by on pavement with nearly no traffic. As we turned onto the Southeast entrance to VOG, we began riding on dirt for the first time. We stopped to have a little breakfast – later in the day, I would personally regret any pause along the route but at the time it was a pleasant stop.

VOG is not Monument Valley, but it is the same type of formations and you don’t have to hire a Navajo guide to get through it. In fact, a bike was the perfect transportation to slowly enjoy the scenery. The dirt/gravel roads meant the few drivers along the route were driving slowly and made sharing the road easy. We even stopped and helped take pictures of people from Maryland and Belgium and them of us. Surprisingly, Gloria didn’t know the people from Belgium. The ride went well and as we left most of the rock towers, we still had a few miles to reach the VOG B&B near the Northwest entrance.

Before we could reach VOG B&B the wonderful day became not so wonderful. The pleasant stops along the way had delayed us long enough for the wind to arrive suddenely and ferociously. Of course it was also blowing against our direction of travel. The other three likely thought it was annoying to have so much dust and sand blowing around as their motors assisted in propelling them forward. I found it difficult to simply move forward against the wind. Thankfully, we were only a few miles from our destination so it wasn’t painful for too long.

The VOG B&B would be our little oasis/haven for the next two nights. Anne convinced us to stay two days – something we’d never done before on a bike tour except for the Sabbath and one time for weather. It was a unique and amazing place which provided us a great starting point for a day trip on Friday and a send off up the Moki Dugway on Saturday. BTW – the food each morning was worth a long bicycle ride across the desert, even with wind in your face.