With the exception of the second floor John Wayne Suite, all rooms are on the ground floor. Nevertheless we have never stayed in front facing rooms, Just to be sure, we only stay in rooms on the back side, and these have all been commendably quiet at night. The redirection of traffic to the new main road helped make the road facing front slide of the Apache motel close to OK for traffic noise- no traffic, no noise. This all to the good, for the Apache Motel sits uncomfortably close to the road. At some point, the main road was relocated to ts present location, and the Apache Motel nearly vanished into the past. The Apache Motel was original built on the main highway through Moab. The Apache Motel provided 3 of the 4, providing an OK pillow rather than a good pillow, but that's common until you get into the luxury brands that offer a choice of 4- 6 different pillows.

When traveling, I want my overnight room to do four things, 1] be quiet 2] be dark when its night 3] have a comfortable bed and 4] provide a good pillow (this is rarely found). Rooms tend to be smaller and more basic that current standards, but, we have stayed at the Apache Motel several times with no complaints. In Moab, John Wayne and many other Holyowood stars stayed at the Apache Motel, where today you can sleep in John Wayne's bed in the John Wayne Suite which is where John Wayne stayed when making movies in Moab (hopefully, the mattress has been updated).Ī motels go, the Apache is ancient, dating back to the 1950s if not earlier.

When filming westerns in Hollywood's cowboy movie heyday near Kanab, all the stars etc stayed at the Perry Lodge, which may or may not still be in business, I can't figure it out. The second film opened with a fade in of that very same scene. The first film ended with a fade out scene of a particular view in Monument Valley. Curiously, I was watching two John Ford westerns on the Grit channel tonight. The standard for cowboy movies was the work of Director John Ford, who had a preference for using John Wayne and filming in in two places in Utah, near Kanab and near Moab. Ī couple decades later, the Cohen brothers (Raising Arizona, Fargo, The Big Lebowski) did their version of “True Grit” and both are remarkable movies. Indigent John Wayne, “Fill your hands, you son of a bitch”.

John Wayne to the bad guy, “I aim to take you in to appear before the judge and see you hang”īad guy to John Wayne, “I call that mighty strong talk for a one-eyed fat man” The actor John Wayne, Hollywood's most famous cowboy movie star, won his only Academe Award for the first “True Grit” movie in which there is is this memorable exchange between US Marshall Rooster Cogborn (John Wayne) and the bad guy. There is a TV channel in the USA called “Grit”, a name taken from two famous cowboy (western) movies (films) telling the same story, both based on the book “True Grit”.

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