During a Sept trip to Southwest I need best route taking me from CDC to MV. Should I see 4 corners-never been there? Should we head up through Mex Hat or head straight to Kayenta (where we will spend the night)and just take the tour versus driving through and then taking the tour. Please advise on best for scenery and time needed for route.

We will be heading to Page, Bryce, and Zion after that but CDC to MV is the part of the route I am not sure of.

I'm confused about your schedule and where you plan to take the "tour", but we took a 3 hour jeep tour of Canyon de Chelly out of Chinle. The drive from Page to Chinle took us through Kayenta.

It's less than 2 hours from Chinle to Kayenta and just another 2 hours on to Page.

Is your tour of Monument Valley or Canyon de Chelly?

4 corners? Different opinions. It's a bit "commerical" now (didn't used to be) but it's neat to stand in 4 states at one time.

We going from LV one night, GC south rim two nights, CDC one night with tour, then heading to MV for one night and planning to take a tour. What I don't understand is if taking the drive through Mexican Hat all the way to Kayenta is part of --seeing MV-- or should I just take the shortest route to Kayenta and then take the tour.

Well, MV is a fairly large geographic area that includes a part of Utah. Since the tour you refer to is a tour of Monument Valley, I suppose the answer is a question - How much of MV do you want to see before the tour - and where does the tour go? You can drive from Chinle directly to Kayenta in less than 2 hours. You can drive to Mexican Hat and 4Corners to see more. Either plan would work. I LOVE the scenery of MV so more would be better for me. Maybe you could play it by ear depending on how much time you actually have that day. I hope you plan to take a tour into CdeC. We did a couple of weeks ago and the private tour was wonderful!

Unless you want to pay $6 to stand on a circle where you can put your hands and feet in 4 states at once, I'd suggest you skip going to Four Corners. I assume that you do not mean spending time in the Four Corners area but just driving to see the circle. Ltos nicer things to see in area than this.

Hope this helps...
Debi
Debi

If you are an AAA member get their speciality map, A Guide To Indian Country. It has a lot of good information specific to the Four Corner Area.

Four corners is a tourist trap not worth a detour.In Kayenta you have a Holiday inn with a nice pool and good restaurant.The restaurant in Gouldings lodge isn't much.Kayenta is not far from the park entrance. We drove ourselves and were glad we did. We saw some of the guided tours(a pick up truck with garden chairs fastened on it). As the road is all bumpy and red dust the tourists on that truck will probably be very red indeed after the tour.When driving from Kayenta to Page take the small detour to see the Navajo nat.monument.Paul