Doctor Who Impossible Astronaut Roadtrip Pt 2 - the Doctor meets Amy, Rory & River on the Monument Valley road

Following on from pt 1 - the picnic on the beach and emergence of the Impossible Astronaut, here's pt 2.....which chronologically probably should have come first as it's how the episode started...oh well, sometimes I get things in the wrong order and end up places I don't expect.

OK, for all you Whovians who have only landed on this page because you want directions, here you go:

Rory & Amy arrive on the school bus and meet the Doctor and River in Monument Valley in Impossible Astronaut

It's filmed on the l163 in Monument Valley, Utah.

Thanks to the Doctor Who Locations website we got the GPS co-ordinates are:  37°04'13", -110°02'03"

Pop that into your GPS/satnav and that will get you to the exact point.....

Trust the GPS co-ordinates....especially if you're driving from the south from the I160 and Kayenta. Because if you're like us, you'll doubt the co-ordinates as you drive nearer and nearer the iconic mountains...and then past them - they filmed from the road the other side of the mountains coming from Mexican Hat towards Kayenta.

And here are some of our pics and some from the actual show:

Oops, these are out of order again. You see the Doctor on the car....

...after Rory and Amy arrive on the school bus:

We couldn't hire a school bus...so Melchett made us one....with a mysterious driver.....I think, I can't actually remember....

And yes, I know it looks like we're not stood anywhere near the road in the episode, it's just when cars did come along it (the I163) they were really, really fast and I didn't want the kids getting run over. The bit where we took most of the photos was here:

However, there was one photo Melchett definitely wanted to be at the roadside for:

The shooting off of the Doctor's stetson by River Song:

Though I was stood by her ready to rugby tackle her off the road if a sportscar appeared on the horizon.

And here's some more fun shots we took. Mr D as the Doctor, Goth Child as Rory, me as Amy (all with our 11th Doctor's sonic screwdriver) and Melchett as little Amy (though not Amelia) and River and inseparable from a toy orange gun we bought her:

Monument Valley truly is amazing. I love that in the little clip of Doctor Who Confidential (why did you end it BBC? WHY?) I showed you the other day, Matt Smith mentions all the great films, westerns and Forrest Gump that were filmed here.....and Arthur Darvill mentioned Back to the Future III. Although I'm a great Western fan (can't WAIT for Season 7 though it's filmed in Spain), we were most impressed by Back to the Future III being filmed here too :)

Next up, pt 3 of our Doctor Who Road Trip....this time to a place used in Day of the Moon, our trip beside, on top of and inside the Glen Canyon Dam....and the funny looks the locals gave us when we started drawing tally marks on our faces :)

(All screen captures are the copyright of the BBC and appear here as reference to illustrate the location in comparison with how it looked at the time of filming and the present day; no attempt is made to supercede this or any other copyright)