Sunrises, Sunsets, and Travels in Between

I didn’t want to camp at Monument Valley. We had a reservation at The View Campground, but we arrived after dark—I didn’t want to stay. I had very little experience setting up camp even in the daylight. Plus, what about rattlesnakes? Kayenta, AZ was 30 minutes away and had a Hampton Inn I thought sounded much more attractive. What was the big deal about waking up there when we were going to see it all in the daylight, anyways? The Mittens would still be the Mittens and I’d be cleaner and well rested.
The big deal was the $300 price tag on a room at The View Hotel for just a slice of that sunrise. The big deal was that the campground was a fraction of that cost for the best view of the Valley. The big deal was that I really had no idea what I would be missing.
We stayed, but at first I felt vindicated in wanting to leave. The bathrooms were grimy and basic. The campsite was hard to find with only our flashlight and the tiny number marking our spot in all the identical scrub. Setting up camp in the dark involved flashlights held by teeth and tripping over the prickly scrub, but we did manage to get the tent set up properly at last.
At last, as I was tucked in my sleeping bag, I decided I didn’t miss the hotel room in Kayenta. The sand was soft and lush to lay on, as far as ground goes, and I had never seen the stars so thick in the sky. Once your eyes adjusted to the dim light, you could make out the faintest outline of the Mittens just ahead.
Sunrise was beyond words. It woke us with the gentlest light, and we rolled back the door flap on our tent to watch the world go from gray to glowing. In all my travels, I have never felt such a sense of wonder—not climbing pyramids, not standing in great cathedrals, not in any other sunrise I have ever seen. As the light grew and wrapped around the Mittens, everything seemed both new and old. The best picture I took couldn’t capture the feeling of being on the edge of something so primitively powerful (although a tripod and DSLR are certainly essentials).
Full daylight was something of a letdown. Given the chance to do it again, I would break camp and drive away with my sense of wonder intact. The Valley is dusty, touristy, and somewhat boring. Camp there till daybreak, head up to nearby Forrest Gump Point for an iconic movie picture, and head on to other adventures. But don’t talk yourself out of the best sunrise of your life.