Your name in stone

I learned of the Valley of the Names a few years ago, but all the info I had found advised that four wheel drive was required. So even though I’ve spent several winters about ten as-the-crow-flys miles from Valley of Names, I never went — particularly in the wetter times.

But I finally saw video of the road there. Oh, I can do that. 

No doubt there would be washboard. I mentally prepared myself for that. As I drove I kept thinking a passenger car, with its soft suspension, would be a better vehicle choice for the drive than something with stiff springs, like my van. The contents of the Rolling Steel Tent got rearranged a little, but high ground clearance wasn’t necessary.

Originally called Graffiti Mesa, the names began as the work of soldiers training in the area. After WWII the names became less about leaving your own name and more about memorializing the names of fallen comrades. But since it’s all unsupervised folk art, many of the names are now about departed friends and family, John + Mary true love forever, and personal I-was-here ego gratification.

Whether the original name has become more apropos than Valley of the Names, I still have to give a nod to the work put into collecting and transporting all those rocks.