Miles: 125
Route: Cameron, AZ - Monument Valley, AZ
Have you heard of Monument Valley? Sarah hadn't before I insisted we go here as part of our road trip. This area has been made famous in many movies, some of which were childhood favorites of mine: Indiana Jones, Back to the Future and Forrest Gump. It was originally made famous by several John Wayne westerns and is still used in movies today (A Million Ways to Die in the West and the most recent Transformers movies both had scenes filmed in Monument Valley). Regardless of the notoriety the area receives for its place in cinematic history, the landscape is absolutely breathtaking and should be a required stop for anyone visiting the Grand Canyon!
We got an early start on Saturday so we would make it to Monument Valley in time for our afternoon tour. Interesting fact about visiting this part of the country: Arizona does not observe Daylight Savings Time, but Utah and the Navajo Nation do. So (since we woke up on Arizona time) we had to make sure we were at the Visitor Center by 12pm (AZ time) for our 1pm (Navajo time) tour. Seems unnecessarily confusing...
Anyway, the drive to Monument Valley was quick and very quiet. There is only the one major road passing this way through the Navajo Nation and, for the most part, there was just a lot of flat, desert-like land on either side. We stopped in Kayenta, the largest town we passed along our drive, for breakfast - good thing the one restaurant in town was open!
We arrived at the Visitor Center with half an hour to spare and we were immediately greeted with beautiful desert views. I thought we'd have to get further into the park to see some of these sights!
Our first views of Monument Valley. The East and West Mitten Buttes are probably the most famous rock formations in the park.
We met our Navajo guide, Harry (at least that's his English name), and boarded our truck for the three-hour tour of Monument Valley. If you have a 4x4 vehicle, you are allowed to drive some of the 17-mile loop yourself but we didn't think the Avalon was up to the task and we wanted to learn more about the region along the way. Navajo Spirit Tours worked out very well and we'd highly recommend it for anyone visiting Monument Valley!
Once we saw this modified pick-up would be our vehicle for the day, we knew we made the right choice leaving the Avalon in the parking lot!
First stop: an up close view of the Mittens.
East and West Mitten Buttes.
The view from John Ford Point. He was the director of many of John Wayne's films shot here - he spent so much time in Monument Valley that they named his campsite!
It's obvious to see why this landscape appeals to so many movie makers!
Big Indian Mesa. Can you see the Indian head? How about the eagle wing in the rock? You need to squint a little, but the Navajo have found human- or animal-like designs in most of the rock formations.
Another benefit of doing an officially guided tour is that you have access to part of the park that non-guided visitors do not. Harry took our truck even more off-road and stopped at a few arches and mesas for some more pictures.
The first arch we stopped at.
The Ear of the Wind. I can sort of see the resemblance...
Ancient drawings on the rocks.
The tall one on the left is known as the Totem Pole (even though the Navajo never used Totem Poles).
One of the most unforgettable parts of our tour happened shortly after we arrived at our first archway - a group of horses joined us in the cave-like rock formation to have a drink of water and Harry pulled out his flute (apparently he always carries it) and played a song to draw the rest of the horses in. Apparently horses like the sound of Harry's flute!
Glad we had the camera ready!
Though our tour of Monument Valley with Harry had come to an end by late afternoon, we had one more spot to check out on our sightseeing tour. This stretch of road was made famous in Forrest Gump and we decided it would be the perfect spot to watch the sunset.
Amazing view of Monument Valley as the sun set to the right.
One more a few minutes later.
We couldn't resist recreating (sort of...) the scene from Forrest Gump. At least I have the beard to match!
Accommodations around here are pretty limited and the hotels were all booked - so we decided to stay in a Tipi for the night. It was definitely a cool experience (and very appropriate for our location!) but as Sarah put it "We're roughing it almost as hard as Machu Picchu."
We got up early today to make the drive to Santa Fe, NM. It should be about six hours so hopefully the scenery stays as nice as it is here!
Our Tipi for the night.
Sunrise was just as spectacular as sunset!