Conference and holiday in Colorado
On Saturday 18th October 2008, I went to Colorado for a software conference, where I gave a few talks.
Colorado Software Summit if you're interested - sadly 2008 was the last of these excellent conferences.
I managed to get a couple of extra weeks of holiday after the conference, and did a little bit of mountain walking, along with a trip to Arizona to see the sights, even skipping briefly into Utah.
Monument Valley - Tuesday 4th November
On Tuesday, I again got up early, and was picked up by the same tour guide, this time to visit Monument Valley.
It was a long drive - Google puts it down as 175 miles.
On the way, we saw Indian landmarks, and a group of Indians riding horses to their voting stations carrying Obama/Biden flags.
We were heading into Navajo land.
We stopped briefly by a couple of rock outcrops called the "Elephant's Feet".
So many things I saw that day were very aptly named.
Finally we arrived at Gouldings Lodge, where I was handed over to a Navajo tour guide with a huge 4×4 truck.
Harry Goulding was a trader who established the lodge.
He is apparently the only person to have ever been sold any land by the Navajo - all the rest is merely lent out to whoever uses it.
He is also the person who brought the attention of Hollywood to Monument Valley, and made it a location for film-making.
