The San Juan river continues south from the Goosenecks, then East along a colourful set of cliffs 30 km to the South, right next ot Mexican Hat rock.
Here, the variety of the landscape becomes downright disturbing: within a few hundred meters are two distinct types of cliffs: one of porous red rock, the other striped with grey and red sediment. Below them flows a wide river. On the opposite bank looms another monolith, but with a difference: the top part of the formation looks like an upside-down sombrero.
I had long ago heard of this place, but I had completely forgotten about it until I stumbled upon it the day before while looking for a general store. I couldn't have made up something so ludicrously unlikely. One would swear upon seeing this that God is Mexican, and He forgot where He put down His hat when He carved up the Southwest.
I followed the dirt roads around the monolith to the very banks of the San Juan, which I even dipped my hand into. I parked my car and hiked up the rock as far as the trail goes. As I relaxed three quarters of the way to the summit, I knew it was time to move on to Monument Valley. I was getting exhausted from being amazed all the time.
