Monument Valley Tours Run Half-Empty

Above, the tour bus stopped at The Thumb during a
 sunrise tour I took in 2022. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

In recent years, I have taken two guided tours of Monument Valley. Both were by open air bus originating from Goulding's Lodge. I also took a tour by horseback.

The Navajo Nation, in which Monument Valley is their tribal park, offers Jeep tours. It used to be necessary to make advance reservations as the tours were popular.

According to an article in Travelers Today, those tours have been running half-empty. The Goulding's Lodge tour I went on in 2022 was also half empty.

The article begins with: 

Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park is in the middle of its peak summer season, and something unusual is happening in the valley: the guided jeep tours that once required advance reservations are running at dramatically reduced capacity. The global drop in international travel to the United States has hit Navajo-owned tour operators at Monument Valley harder than almost anywhere else in the Southwest — and for a traveler arriving this summer, that creates a rare window of access, even as the park's fees are higher than ever and the Navajo Nation holds a presidential primary today that will shape its tourism policies through 2027.

Above, yours truly at a viewpoint during a sunrise tour in 2022.
The East Mitten and Merrick Butte are in the background.

To read more, go here. 

George W. S. Abbey Rocket Park

Above, the flight certified Saturn 5 at Rocket Park. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

When our tour of the Astronaut Training Facility ended, we departed the tram at the George W. S. Abbey Rocket Park.

According to the Visit Houston Texas website:

George W.S. Abbey Rocket Park, formerly known as Rocket Park, is located at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC). In December 2021, JSC renamed Rocket Park after its former director, George Abbey, who began his four-decade-long NASA career during the Apollo Program.

At George W.S. Abbey Rocket Park, visitors have the pleasure of viewing four rockets that were used in NASA missions during the 1960s and 70s, including Little Joe II, Mercury-Redstone, the Gemini-Titan, and Saturn V, the tallest, heaviest and most powerful rocket ever flown. 

Mighty and massive, the 30-story tall Saturn V is perhaps the most accomplished of the four with 9 trips into outer space (six of which landed on the Moon) carrying 27 Apollo astronauts. Saturn V also launched Skylab, America’s first space station, into orbit in its final mission. In total, 13 Saturn V rockets were launched into space. When fueled and ready for launch, the rocket can weigh 6.2 million pounds. That is almost the same weight as 39 space shuttle orbiters.

There are only three Saturn V rockets on display in the world. The rocket at NASA Johnson Space Center is the only one comprised of all flight-certified hardware. The other two rockets are made of flight hardware, mock-ups and test components.

Here are some photos taken at the George W. S. Abbey Rocket Park during our visit:

 

Yellowstone: Top 10 Types of Wildlife

Above, a pair of bighorn sheep on a Yellowstone hill. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

A few years ago, my daughter and I took two tours of Yellowstone National Park with Buffalo Bus Touring Co. One was of the upper loop and the other was the lower loop. 

Taking a tour was convenient as we were picked up and dropped off at the KOA we were staying at in West Yellowstone, Montana and didn't have to fight the traffic inside the park. We left the driving to someone else.

During the tours, we did manage to see bears, bighorn sheep, osprey nest and bison along with the geothermal geysers and hot springs. 

TheTravel posted an article listing the top ten types of  wildlife to see in Yellowstone.

They begin it with:

Yellowstone is one of the most popular national parks in the United States and is a destination that should be on everyone's bucket list. Yellowstone is particularly famous for two things: having more than half of the world's geysers and for being perhaps the greatest hotspot for American wildlife. Yellowstone is worth visiting for its landscapes and hydrothermal activity, as well as its diverse and rich biodiversity.

Yellowstone is one of the best places to go on a safari outside of Africa, with some valleys like Lamar Valley being noted hotspots of wildlife. Remember that animal behavior changes with the seasons (birds fly south, the musk season, hibernation, etc.), so plan in advance and arrange a visit around the behavioral cycles of the animals of Yellowstone. Out of all the wildlife in Yellowstone National Park to see, these species are some of the most amazing to look out for.

To read more, go here. 

Monument Valley: Road Trip To The Wild West

Above, the Three Sisters. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Back in October, I took a little trip up to Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. It had been six years since I was last there and I had a hankering to visit it again (and to stop at Hubbell Trading Post along the way).

While in Monument Valley, I took a sunrise tour of the park with Goulding's Lodge Tours. I had a great time photographing the rock formations illuminated in the morning light. Since I live about three hours away, I plan on going back.

Above, John Ford Point. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Tyson Hugie has a new article on his recent mid-holiday trip to Monument Valley posted in The ClassicCars.com Journal. It is an enjoyable read.

It begins with:

Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park is a magical place. Despite being only about a five-hour drive from my home in Phoenix, it feels like another planet entirely. At the same time, it has the vibe of a time-travel destination: The landscapes appear straight out of an 1950s cowboy film from the Wild West. Add in the hospitality and culture of the native Navajo people who reside there, and it becomes the kind of place I wish I could spend for an entire week or more.

To read the full article, go here. 

Kyoto Facing The Return of Tourists

Above, Kyoto's famous Kinkaku-ji "Golden Pavilion" in 2015. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

In the years just prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Japanese city of Kyoto were suffering overtourism of too many tourists, some of them ill-mannered. The businesses loved the revenue the generated, just didn't particularly like the tourists.

I was last in Kyoto in 2015 and from what I saw of the numbers of tourists, I understood how the residents felt. We visited with an organized bus tour company.

Then the pandemic hit and Japan closed its borders to foreign tourists. The country will fully reopen October 11. Many in Kyoto are happy this will be happening, but with some reservations.

Above, the Kyoto tour group photo at Kiyomizu-dera in 2015.

TODAY posted an article on Kyoto and what they are and aren't looking forward to when the country reopens.

They start it off with:

TOKYO — In the months before March 2020, the food sellers in Kyoto’s Nishiki market often wished for an end to the seemingly endless stream of photo-hungry visitors from abroad who always seemed to be underfoot.

“We weren’t used to foreign tourists,” said Mr Nobuyuki Hatsuda, who leads a business alliance promoting the shopping street in the city centre, where vendors sell a dizzying array of traditional Japanese foods, carefully displayed and attractively packaged.

Nishiki has long been a working market, and the parade of visitors — rifling through the meticulously arranged merchandise, haggling with frazzled shopkeepers and blocking storefronts with their luggage — interfered with the flow of daily business, driving away locals who had long done their shopping on the street.

But then the pandemic hit. The tourists — along with their money — evaporated, and sellers had a change of heart, said Mr Hatsuda, who sells kamaboko, a fish cake often formed into delicate pink and white loaves.

“We realised that we can’t choose our customers,” he said. Other than China, Japan had maintained the strictest border controls of any major economy. Since the start of 2021, fewer than 800,000 foreign visitors have set foot in the country. As other countries began welcoming tourists back in numbers close to their pre-pandemic highs, Japan let only a trickle of travellers in.

The country eased restrictions on trips for business and study in the spring, but as of September, it was still limiting tourism to travelers on package tours who were willing to negotiate a labyrinth of red tape.

That will soon change, however. Prime minister Fumio Kishida said last week that the country would further ease border controls in October, eliminating a cap on daily entries and allowing tourists to travel independently. (Even after normal travel resumes, however, Chinese visitors, who accounted for more than 30 per cent of inbound traffic in 2019, are unlikely to return in large numbers until Beijing relaxes its strict Covid-zero policy.)  

As tourism slowly returns, Kyoto, like other famous tourist destinations worldwide, is grappling with how to accommodate the crowds without sacrificing quality of life for those who call the ancient capital home.

To read more, go here.

Survey: 72% Say Border Controls Keeping Them From Visiting Japan

Above, the Saikai Bridge near Sasebo, Japan. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Japan's current policy of only allowing group tours along with strict rules are not inviting to potential overseas tourists. At least not inviting enough to get them to come to Japan according to a July survey.

The Mainichi reported:

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A survey released Tuesday by a Tokyo-based company that encourages tourism to Japan showed that 72 percent of respondents will not, or will probably not, visit the country if it continues with its current entry controls.

The D2C X Inc. survey also showed 91 percent of the 1,717 overseas respondents found the entry controls, which include COVID-19 testing within 72 hours of departure to Japan, too strict or rather strict, illustrating how the country's pandemic border measures have deterred visits from overseas.

The online survey, conducted in early July, was answered by people from across 52 countries and territories.

To read more, go here.