Well, woke up on a Sunday morning thinking that I had nothing to do the for the week, no doctor appointments, no honey-do's, etc. Always wanted to go to Monument Valley and get my inner Ghost Rider on and wanted to go before the snow and ice hit the Flagstaff area. So, I check my hotel points and discounts and make a plan. Hilton Points, check, free night in Kayenta on the Navajo Reservation; Best Western gift certificates, check, hotel in Williams AZ for $17 after discount. Total lodging costs for three day two night trip, $17 plus food and gas, winner winner chicken dinner.
I Leave the Phoenix area and head up to Monument Valley UT via Hwy 89A thru Sedona AZ and Flagstaff. If you have never seen the red rocks of Sedona you definitely need to, beautiful. Flagstaff is a neat town, stopped in Cameron at the Trading Post for lunch. Headed out another 100 miles of flat earth and neat rock formations to Kayenta near Monument Valley for the night. The Hampton Inn is clean and nice with a good restaurant and had dinner. Woke up early the next morning to watch the sun rise over Monument Valley and get my Forest Gump pictures. There were billions of stars when I got up, no lights to mess with the view, it was great.
After seeing the valley, I headed out to the Grand Canyon. Used my National Parks Access Pass for free entry and stopped at the Watch Tower. It was built in 1932 and has a lot of Hopi Indian paintings, it is free admission and neat to see. Continued through the park taking in the views at various points and headed out to Williams for night two and dinner.
Woke up in the morning to ice on the bike so walked to the diner for coffee and bacon and eggs. It warmed up a bit so headed towards home via Prescott AZ, neat town with a lot of history, it is also near one of the few twisty mountain roads I have found in AZ, Hwy 89 between Prescott and Wilhoit (there is also another between Prescott and Jerome (neat town)via Hwy 89A). Passed Wickenburg and made it back home.
All in all spent around $40 on gas, the same on food and $17 for hotels. It was a great trip and would do it again.