The entire Navajo reservation covers one third of the 130,000 square mile Colorado Plateau. The Navajo Nation, among its 29,817 square miles of endless geological wonders lies a hidden valley that John Wayne called “ Gods Treasure”. Monument Valley sits at 5,564 ft above sea level. The park extends into Arizona and Utah, about 91,696 acres. The height of the monuments range from 100 feet to 1,500 feet tall. This dry desert climate receives all four seasons. Established in 1958 as a preserved environment by the Navajo Nation Council under the Division of Natural Resources.
This is a place where times stands still, long enough for you to feel the harmony and peace of the last western frontier.
As you drive up to the park you see many monuments outside of the park. This was the first one that we saw.
This was the second, it looks like a chess piece.
This was two towers that were just outside of Tuba City.
We arrived at the park at about 11 am, paid our entrance fee and proceeded into the park to do the 17 mile driving loop around the park. This is the first thing that you see as you start the park route. It is the East and West Mittens with the Merrick Butte on the left.
Here are closeups of the same picture. West Mitten
East Mitten
Merrick Butte
The road through the park is not paved and I am glad that we had the truck with the higher clearance. You are not allowed to take motorcycles, motor homes or trailers. It is very sandy and soft. Seeing each monument and the surrounding areas was very awe inspiring. It is very hard to explain unless you see them yourself, but hopefully the pictures give you the idea.
The next stop was the elephant, if you look closely you can see the head and it is like there is the carriage that people ride in on top.
We stopped on the side of the road to check out some little inuksuks. It was neat to see that someone had built these.
The next stop was the three sisters.
These were just before we got to John Ford’s Point. This is an area where John Ford used to film some of his movies. John Ford’s first movie in Monument valley was with John Wayne in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. He filmed 6 movies, including My Darling Clementine. John Wayne was in 5 movies in the valley including Stagecoach and Rio Grande. The valley created an image for the world of what the Wild West was.
This is the hub, you can see mud huts and small buildings, there are still people who live in the valley. There are also horse riding areas where you can take tours around the valley. You can also take a jeep tour that will take you to places only the tours guides can go.
We did see some horses just grazing around the area, not sure if they were wild or just let loose but they were very skinny.
The next area was the Totem Pole and Yei Bi Chei. You can see why they call it the totem. Yei Bi Chei in Navajo means spiritual gods and is viewed as a formation of dancers that perform for healing purposes.
Not sure what this formation was called but it looks like a candle holder and flame to me.
There are a number of Navajo vendors selling jewellery around the park. They had some very nice items and I even purchased a necklace. Considering that I don’t usually very jewellery, it was very nice.
This was taken at the Navajo Code Talker Outpost. During World War II the marines developed a complex network of nearly 400 Navajo Code Talkers. They developed over 800 code terms and provided the most sophisticated, accurate, fast and secure means of military communications. The code was used to send combat coordinates, troop movements, orders and highly classified messages. Without the accurate, secure rapid means of communications the outcome of the war in the Pacific could have been entirely different. The Navajo code as been praised as the only code in military history to never be broken by the enemy.
These last two pictures are what I call the fingers and the thumb. They call it the thumb, they didn’t have a name for the first rocks.
It took us about 3 hours to complete the full loop, there are so many things to see and you see something different from every angle. When you are coming back to the beginning of the loop you can see the visitor centre and the hotel. Can you imagine waking up to the view in the morning.
Here are some more random pictures from around the valley. We finished the tour and then went for a late lunch at the Burger King in Kayenta. They have a code talker exhibit at the restaurant.
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