On the Road: Monument Valley, Utah
We traveled down our Canyonlands Trail one more time to Monument Valley, Utah. And Arizona--the Monument area crosses state borders here since we are so close to the Four Corners area (Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. . The "Valley" is part of the much larger Navajo Nation's Reservation--a self-governed entity with the "capital" in Window Rock, Arizona. The glorious area with all the valleys and spires and buttes and mesas is part of the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. We stayed in one of two areas with places to stay, and the only RV park. Not a bad park given the very, very dry and dusty area--we had a few trees and it was spacious. Set up right in corner of a box canyon, we had wild horses wandering through the area all day and night--much to Charlie's joy and great frustration when we wouldn't let him chase them. We were able to climb around the canyon and found an arch about a 1/4 mile up the hill.
This is a stunning, but stark, vast but bleak, very isolated corner of our country. It came to prominence in the late 1930's when a movie producer (John Ford) discovered the area and begin making cowboy flicks. Most notable, probably, is Stagecoach with John Wayne. Big John's cabin is preserved and a museum these days. He didn't live fancy, for sure, making one wonder about the rest of the folks who supported the filming. The wind blows--and blows--and fine red dust gets in everything. The Navajo are not living in mansions, the local high school is in this corner and has 532 students (our guide for the moon tour was a fountain of local knowledge--and a graduate). Eiger Sanction was filmed here as well, including the big fight up on top of the "Totem Pole," a 1000 foot high spire.
The majority of roads off of Highway 163 (morphed from Hwy 191 at Mexican Hat, a thriving metropolis about 30 miles north of the Valley) are unimproved dirt. We took the full moon tour since our visit happened to coincide, and the 9 mile ride into the hinterlands was an hour long journey. The moon ended up largely obscured by clouds, the wind still blew, and it got cold. Many of the monoliths are considered sacred by older Navajos, but--according to our 30 something guide--the younger generation has little interest. As a result the Navajo Nation has imposed Navajo cultural and language studies as a prereq to graduate. They even have to build a "Hogan."
The Navajos we met were proud, well-spoken, but, man, this is a tough--and glorious--place to live and work.
Read MoreThis is a stunning, but stark, vast but bleak, very isolated corner of our country. It came to prominence in the late 1930's when a movie producer (John Ford) discovered the area and begin making cowboy flicks. Most notable, probably, is Stagecoach with John Wayne. Big John's cabin is preserved and a museum these days. He didn't live fancy, for sure, making one wonder about the rest of the folks who supported the filming. The wind blows--and blows--and fine red dust gets in everything. The Navajo are not living in mansions, the local high school is in this corner and has 532 students (our guide for the moon tour was a fountain of local knowledge--and a graduate). Eiger Sanction was filmed here as well, including the big fight up on top of the "Totem Pole," a 1000 foot high spire.
The majority of roads off of Highway 163 (morphed from Hwy 191 at Mexican Hat, a thriving metropolis about 30 miles north of the Valley) are unimproved dirt. We took the full moon tour since our visit happened to coincide, and the 9 mile ride into the hinterlands was an hour long journey. The moon ended up largely obscured by clouds, the wind still blew, and it got cold. Many of the monoliths are considered sacred by older Navajos, but--according to our 30 something guide--the younger generation has little interest. As a result the Navajo Nation has imposed Navajo cultural and language studies as a prereq to graduate. They even have to build a "Hogan."
The Navajos we met were proud, well-spoken, but, man, this is a tough--and glorious--place to live and work.
