You’ve likely seen Monument Valley, part of the Navajo Nation astride the Arizona-Utah border in the Four Corners region. You just may never have been there. After reading this, that could change because we’ll tell you why Monument Valley is definitely worth a visit.
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Monument Valley in movies
So, how do you know Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park? You’ve seen iconic photographs and you’ve seen it in movies. John Ford did Stagecoach there in 1939, the first of his eight Monument Valley films. Stanley Kubrick shot part of 2001: A Space Odyssey there, and you may remember bumbling Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp as Tonto in their Lone Ranger spoof, filmed in numerous Four Corners venues. Monument Valley is the iconic backdrop to these classic films.
But there’s so much more. Monument Valley sits in the center of the 130,000-square-mile Colorado Plateau. Call it the keystone of the Four Corners region. Call it high desert. Call it breathtaking.
How Monument Valley was formed
Since its formation more than 600 million years ago, the plateau has experienced little rock deformation. It has been the floor of inland seas, which left sediments up to four miles thick. Then nature took over. Wind, rain, snow, heat, and cold tortured the rock. Fractured it. Eroded it. Shaped it into what we see today — a vast land whose constant flatness is interrupted by 900-foot-tall buttes jutting into Delft blue sky. They’re called the Mitten Buttes, Elephant Butte, Three Sisters, Camel Butte, and the ever-popular John Ford’s Point, a location that helped establish the image of “the American West” in the minds of the rest of the world.
The Diné call it home
The Diné live here in modern housing and more traditional hogans, scattered like diamonds on red velvet. They call their home Tse’Bii’Ndzisgaii. It is a land of solitude, a land that appears empty and is anything but.
Life is hard here. Wells are few. Water is raised by electric pumps and piped to places where people can get to it. Water for the largest resort is piped from a well four miles away. The nearest grocery store may be in Kayenta 25 miles or more away. Mostly, people raise sheep and horses, weave rugs . . . and host tourists.
Visiting Monument Valley
Monument Valley, nearly 100,000 acres in the Navajo Tribal Park system, is open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Entrance fee is $8 per person, per day.
There are guided tours throughout the day but go early. The summer sun can be brutal. You’ll ride in Jeeps on a narrated cruise through the formations and feel like you’ve ridden a buckboard for hours by day’s end.
Or you can venture out yourself, following the loop drive which takes you past the buttes. Guided tours are preferred. That way you can enjoy the sights and not have to worry about driving into loose sand along a shoulder and having to be towed out.
Then, there’s the 1.5-mile Wildcat hiking trail that lets you get up close and personal with the geology and beauty of the region.
Guides take you to all the scenic points of interest, so you get the best views of the formations. Some tours take you to Mystery Valley to see the ruins of ancient ancestors who built cliff dwellings. At the foot of one ruin, called Square House, there’s a pile of potsherds, some dating back perhaps 800 years. They’re there to inform, not as souvenirs.
At one point, there’s an arch, called Teardrop, eroded through the sandstone. You can frame buttes several miles away through the opening of the arch, making memorable pictures.
Some tours include a visit to a hogan. You’ll see how it’s constructed and learn why it’s built as it is, giving you a sense of how the Diné have lived for centuries and some continue to live today. Your hostess, who likely occupies a nearby, modern home, demonstrates wool carding and spinning techniques as well as weaving, increasing your knowledge and appreciation of Navajo culture.
Finally, you’ll reach the last stop — John Ford’s Point. From the parking area, you’ll look north to a slab of sandstone jutting out over the desert. In the distance stand the buttes in a dramatic tableau, as if they’d been placed there by an art director designing a set. All that’s missing is John Wayne, sitting on his horse. However, you’ll usually find someone there, dressed in Western duds and sitting on his horse, so you can take a picture made famous by Ford. For a fee, he’ll even let you mount up so your friends and family can photograph you as if you were the star.
You’ll be grateful for the gallon of sunscreen you slathered on all day long. You’ll be bone dry and exhausted at day’s end. But you will have experienced serenity in the majestic setting of Monument Valley, set in the high desert of the Colorado Plateau.
Navajonationparks.org has a wealth of information — permits, guided tours, events, and hotel, camping, and dining accommodations. Then, go and create an adventure equal to anything the Duke ever did.
