Monument Valley is located in the heart of the Navajo Nation. They have lived in this region for generations. The Monument Valley Visitor Center is perched on the entrance to the Tribal Park. This area has been and is currently used for movie locations. John Wayne’s Cabin, which is an original set from the classic film, “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” is located here. Film director, John Ford, used this valley as a location for many western movies between 1939 and 1960.
We spent four hours driving on a dry, dirt road that had deep holes and ruts winding through stone monoliths with many other tourists doing the same thing. The valley is pretty flat and some tribe members still live and farm among the skyscraper-size sandstone buttes and towers that soar from the plain of sage-brush scrublands.
It was a perfect day with some clouds in the sky, sun shining, and the temperature got to 102° but there was a breeze, so it wasn’t uncomfortable.
The sites are amazing even though we had to drive on the 17-mile dirt loop (very rough) road from the visitor’s center past the starkly eroded buttes and sculpted spires.
They name a few of these formations, some being obvious and others not! To us it seemed like whoever named SOME of these rocks must have been smoking ‘something’ OR drinking pretty heavily.
This is another one of those ‘must-see’ places!
No comments:
Post a Comment