On To Monument Valley

Our base of operations is now Kayenta, Arizona. It’s a quiet, dusty town with two traffic lights. Kayenta is entirely within the Navajo Nation and the statistics I saw show over 95% of the people who live here are Native American&#185.

We left the hotel and drove north a bit over 20 miles. It didn’t take long to see the monolithic rock formations that make Monument Valley what it is.

Before I left, when I mentioned I was going to Monument Valley, most folks shrugged. They recognize the pictures or remembered where all the Road Runner cartoons were set. They didn’t know the name.

Monument Valley isn’t a National Park. Being on Navajo land it is a Tribal Park and for that reason probably gets short shrift as far as publicity is concerned. That it’s far away from everything doesn’t help either.

From AZCentral:

Monument Valley’s towers, which range in height from 400 to 1,000 feet, are made of De Chelly sandstone, which is 215 million years old, with a base of organ rock shale. The towers are the remnants of mesas, or flat-topped mountains. Mesas erode first into buttes like the Elephant, which typically are as high as they are wide, then into slender spires like the Three Sisters.

The valley’s earlier inhabitants included the Anasazi who also built Mesa Verde, and archaeologists have recorded more than 100 ancient Anasazi sites and ruins in the valley dating before 1300, when the ancient tribe abandoned the area. Navajos have herded sheep and other livestock in the area for generations.

The valley was added to the Navajo Reservation in 1984, and the tribal park was established in 1958. Harry Goulding and his wife, Mike, founded the trading post in 1924.

It’s possible to take guided tours. We decided to go it alone instead in our rented Impala. The 18 mile Valley Road is all dirt. It is rutted, puddled, potholed and jarring. Trust me – you’ve never been on a road like this.

It is not to be driven by the faint of heart.

I’ll let the photos speak for themself.

&#185 – Any public reference I have seen here has eschewed Native American for the less politically correct Indian. I’m really not sure which way to go.

From Monument Valley
From Monument Valley
From Monument Valley
From Monument Valley
From Monument Valley

2 thoughts on “On To Monument Valley”

  1. Great pictures Geoff. I’m enjoying the trip as much as you and Helaine. Any John Ford fan is intimately familiar with Monument Valley. Listen closely and you will hear the bugles and John Wayne yelling “Follow me!”

  2. There is a tour in, of all places, the island of Maui, circling it—where the roads are so incredibly bad, pregnant women and people with back problems aren’t allowed. The tour van was the type with an extra tall roof, and even with double seat belts, we were bouncing up and out of our seats at times. Good thing that was 10 years ago, when my stomach was stronger, but it was worth it. At one school, the kids have a commute of two hours—and one of the churches there only has services a few times a year because it’s so difficult to get to. It’s one of the few routes AAA ignores ~ you’re on your own there.

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