Monticello

Once upon a time we were smitten with Monticello, Utah.  Here is the story.

As of 2023 neither one of us can remember just HOW we became smitten with Monticello.  But we sure did.  We fell for the San Juan County seat hook, line and sinker.

It had a lot to do with cinnamon rolls.  Back in the 90's we were smitten with cinnamon rolls. Big Time. Well, a store in Monticello sold the best fresh cinnamon rolls we'd ever had in our lives.  They looked just like this.  That was our first thing to do every time we arrived in Monticello--east a cinnamon roll.

Once we started obsessively camping outside Monticello, we convinced ourselves we needed a Post Office Box.  Back then you could rent a PO Box even if you didn't live in the local community.  And PO Boxes were cheap.  I think Monticello's was $10...a YEAR!  Well, anyway, we LOVED our PO Box.  It was behind that big window you see in the Post Office.  When we spun the combo lock and opened the PO Box we could look right through it and out the window and see the Abajo Mountains right from our PO Box.  We were mesmerized by that.  We'd often go to the Post Office just to look through our box at the Mountains.  The ladies who ran the place thought we were nuts, of course.

We went to camp in the near Abajo Mountains so many times we event rented a storage unit in Monticello.  That way we could stuff all our camping gear in the unit and not have to carry it back and forth from Rimrock.  It made sense to us and it didn't cost hardly anything--maybe $20 a month.

We became actively engaged in the summertime culture of Monticello and San Juan County.  We loved their little festivals.  There was some guy how had a home built corn roaster that utilized a tower.  Honest.  The corn would go up one side and down the other side of the tower and it would be roasted.  I've never seen anything like it since.  Nowadays, commercial companies compete to sell corn roasters.  The one above can roast 600 ears an hour and only costs $16,000.

We loved the San Juan County Fairs.  Our favorite was the Little Miss San Juan contest.  These itty, bitty girls would get all dressed up in western garb and then go up on stage and answer a couple of questions.  Our favorite was a tiny tyke who was asked, "Where does milk come from?"  And she coyly answered, "From the milkman."  This little girl isn't THAT little girl but she looks the same.  Being as how it is LDS Country, trust me, there are a LOT of little girls around.

One of Monticello's BIG things is "The Horsehead".  Can you see it?

One thing we liked to brag on back then was that our "radius" was 300 miles.  In the winter we'd go camp on the beach at Puerto Penasco (AKA: Rocky Point) in Sonora, Mexico.  It was 300 miles from home.  Our first thing to buy and consume down there was home made tortillas.  In the summer we'd drive about 300 miles north to Monticello and buy cinnamon rolls.

Generally speaking, it took us about six hours to get to either destination.

Alright, NOW comes the Good Part.  We were SO smitten with Monticello, we tried to buy a house there...sight unseen even.  Yep, we signed the papers and put money done and it sure looked like a done deal.  All we had to do was go inspect the place to finalize the deal.  So we drove up to Cinnamon Roll City and the place was a dump.  I mean a genuine DUMP!  The worst DUMP we'd ever seen.  Luckily, we were able to rescind the deal and get out money back.  I think the price was $25K and today it's prolly worth $250K.  Back in the 90's you could sill buy houses like the one above for less than $100K.  HAHAHA!  Monticello got "discovered" and there ain't no mo deals no mo.

Monticello was a way cool (literally) place for us to go during the hot Arizona summers.  It's really sort of an oasis between the hot deserts both south and north.  Since it's so relatively close to Moab, lots of Moab expats have relocated to Monticello.  It's going to be interesting to see how much the place has changed since our last visit.  Who knows?  Maybe we will buy a Ceremonial Cinnamon Roll!