Monument Valley
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3 reviews for Monument Valley
When I told my friends that I was going to visit Monument Valley, they didn't know what it was. I had to explain to them that it was where Forrest Gump stopped running, and then they understood.
Despite the fact that many movies, commercials, etc... have been shot in Monument Valley, the location is very real - from the hundreds of miles on a two-lane road (literally) driven to get here, to the vistas of massive buttes rising high above the valley floor. It is all very real.
This is truly an awesome and AMAZING place. The sights and vistas here represent some of the finest landscape images of the rugged West, which have been deeply engrained in the American psyche for years. Say "American West," and most likely, some images from Monument Valley come up. The location is on the Navajo Indian Reservation, and like the reviewer said before me, the Navajo people are generally poor. Tourism makes up the majority of the Navajo economy. Yes, the Grand Canyon is more famous, but it isn't necessarily better!
Monument Valley is very rugged, so be prepared for it. There is a fine red dust that permeates everything, and it will eventually get on your clothes and personal belongings. I stayed at the brand new View Hotel, and I have to say that it is one of the most beautiful hotels I've ever stayed in (see separate review). Upon paying the $5 admission fee to the Navajo tribe (fee allows one day of visitation), most people drive the 17 mile loop road, which is really rough for the first mile or so. You can get away with the 17 miles in a regular sedan style vehicle, but I recommend a vehicle that is high off the ground, like an SUV. Four-wheel drive is not required on the loop road, but it helps. DO NOT bring your sports car here - leave it at home! Despite the uneven and unpaved road, the loop road is scenic, enjoyable, and easily done. Go for it!
BUT, if you want to dive deeper into Monument Valley, you have to invest in a guide. Most of the interesting parts of MV (ancient ruins, petroglyphs, beautiful arches, etc...) are restricted to the general public, and you need a Navajo guide to access them. I came here to do only photography, so I charted Tom Phillips, who is well known, very knowledgeable, and has worked with many of the finest photographers around. Taking a tour with Tom Phillips has been one of the highlights of my life, as he made MV come to life through his stories and personality. While Tom works with photographers, and is typically well-booked, there are many guides available at the Visitor Center booth. Please be sure to tip your guide well.
A couple of other tips/hints:
1. Don't forget to visit Mile Marker 13. Drive north on US 163, 13 miles from the Monument Valley turnoff. When you get to mile 13 (look at the mile markers), stop your car on the side of the road, and look behind you. You'll be looking at one of the most famous images of the American West. This is the famous road shot, with the two lane road dipping downward, then up again, and leading straight to Monument Valley in the background.
2. The best place to catch the sunrise in the morning is in the area near the hotel and visitor center.
3. Near the visitor center and hotel (and a current construction site), are two rather large boulders which stick out like bumps. This is the site where Ansel Adams photographed his famous image of Monument Valley, with the three buttes in the background.
4. Try to get your guide to take you to Mystery Valley, where a lot of the ruins and petroglyphs can be found.
5. The View Hotel, which opened in Dec. 2008, is the place to stay here (forget Goulding's). Every room has a view of the valley, with the buttes. The hotel is very clean, modern, and the staff very friendly.
As a sign of the significance of this place, I met a lot of foreign tourists during my visit, who had no problem driving the hundreds of miles used to get to this very remote location. Monument Valley is very well worth the trek out here.
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"Nature is God's gift to us". Or at least that's how I remember that Hallmark ditty. Actually, Monument Valley is truly truly beautiful. Even though the Grand Canyon is more famous, it ain't necessarily better. Monument Valley has the great mesas and rock formations that is commonly associated with Arizona. Be-yoo-ti-full landscapes and vistas! But it is hotter than hades in the summer, so plan your trip carefully......and because it is still part of the Navajo reservation, remember that there are still Navajo people who live in the Valley, many without modern conveniences and in the hillside caverns, and are poorer than you could even imagine.
Oh, and when I was there in the mother-f****** heat (had to be about a bazillion degrees) we found two puppies that had been dumped in the middle of the g**damn desert, without food, drink or shade. No surprise to my brother or his friend who were playing tour-guide....they say it happens all the time.
So when you donate money to Native American groups (because they really do need help) please make another donation to a dog rescue in these desert areas. They are the ones who end up saving the ones that survive.
Last note: Kayenta has two things that have "upped" its status. There is an awesome display on the Navajo windtalkers at the Burger King (it is the only one in town, so you can't miss it) and there is now a Holiday Inn Express hotel to stay at. If it is full, you might have to stay at the Anasazi Motel (paint by numbers clown pictures in every room)...I only remember that name because 1) we had to stay there one night and 2) it was the same name as a very creepy X-files episode.
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First of all: if you are going there by car (your own or a rental), see the IMPORTANT HINT that I mention a few paragraphs below.
So-- on to the review.
I'll agree that this place is AMAZING and worth the trek out there. If you're looking for places to stay, try Kayenta (10 minutes away) or Gouldings, UT (five minutes away, with one hotel that is a bit more expensive than the ones in Kayenta.) The Anasazi Motel (that the other reviewer mentions) is about 15 to 20 minutes away, slightly west of Kayenta, and is situated on another beautiful canyon, the road of which looks like another interesting road detour for a few hours that we sadly didn't make.
The road in Monument Valley (the valley itself) is a dirt road that is 17 miles long, it's doable in a regular car but I don't recommend it-- there were some parts of it that I at least wouldn't have wanted to take my sports car on. However, I saw a bunch of rental vans and rental cars tackling it without a problem. It's totally doable in an SUV. It all depends on how much you care about your supension: I care about mine, I don't care about Hertz or Enterprise's.
Suggestion: get a jeep tour. There will be people staked out in a booth in the parking lot ready to take you on one, but to be safe you can arrange one ahead of time via phone or internet.
You can do it a few ways; the hotel in Gouldings offers tours, but I think you have more people on your tour. They seemed to take people on a rickety truck with bench seats type of situation. The company we used was called Black's (http://www.blacksmonum...), a 2.5 hour sunset tour was $60 per person and well worth it. It was me, my friend, and our guide, in a jeep all to ourselves, so we could stop when we wanted and where we wanted. Our guide was friendly and we tipped him well. (If you like your tour, you should too... the local Navajos often have limited options for income, and tips are a crucial part of it.)
We really liked Black's and would use them again-- they take credit card reservations through their website.
IMPORTANT HINT FOR VISITING:
--The visitor's center does a weird thing: there are two road gates-- one to get to the visitor's center, and the other to get down the dirt road into the canyon-- and they will CLOSE AND LOCK THE GATES BEFORE EVERYBODY IS OUT. You very well might find yourself seemingly stuck there for the night with no escape. So if you're going to be there around closing time or sunset, find the escape routes first, because they ARE there-- just hidden.
The escape route to get out of the canyon: when you hit the locked gate, back up about 50 feet and go down the other dirt road to your right-- the one that you probably didn't notice. It will get you out to the main paved road just uphill from the kiosk where you paid your entry fee.
If you are stuck in the parking lot, then the escape route is via the "employee parking" lot. It's still not obvious, so get out and walk it but then you'll see how to get out.
CAMPING:
There are two camping areas. Both are first-come, first-serve, but neither were crowded, even on a labor day weekend. The "main" one is near the employee parking, just south (i.e., to the right) of the Visitor Center. We didn't see or go to this one, but it supposedly has bathrooms and showers. I'm not sure if there's a fee.
We camped at the other one, which is a big flat area north (to the left) of the Visitor's Center, located at the top of the dirt road going into the canyon. There is no fee... or at least, we didn't pay one, and nobody came to collect it, and there wasn't any obvious place to deposit it. We camped literally on the edge of the canyon and saw the most amazing sunrise... find the local sunrise time on the small board in the museum (near the stamp pad) and set your watch alarm, so that you don't miss the sunrise like the poor sap next to us, who ought to have killed his buddy for not waking him up to see it.
Again, there didn't seem to be a fee to use this second campsite. There were porta-potties but no showers. So if you find that the other side charges a fee and you are feeling cheap, then try this secondary camping area.
The museum inside the Visitor's Center is a bit dated, but okay... the best part of it is the display on the Navajo Code Talkers. We didn't get to the Code Talker museum in the Kayenta Burger King (really) to compare, but the one here was interesting. They have an inkpad stamp that you can stamp your National Park passport with... it's not a National Park per se, but it's kind of the same idea, so it's fun to stamp your passport with a stamp signifying a visit to a very unique (and rather out-of-the-way) place.
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