Monument Valley
Monument Valley is the archetypal Classic Wild West. Even my first time here felt vaguely familiar. I had just found a job in Austin, Texas fresh out of grad school, and started rooming with my college buddy. My friend was big into photography, and wanted to do a road trip to the Southwest. We both set out on a 9-day trip to Arizona and Utah. He did all the research, and I just tagged on. I had little idea on what to expect.
Location:
Monument Valley is located in one of the driest & most sparsely populated region of the Southwest desert, between the border of Southern Utah and Northern Arizona. Specifically, it is in the middle of the drive on route 163 connecting Kayenta, AZ to Mexican Hat, UT. There are no nearby cities or airports. But for visitors visiting Page, AZ and Arches/Canyonlands in Moab, UT, this is a highly achievable 2–3-hour detour.
As we drove through Route 163 to Monument Valley, I remember feeling at once a sense of Déjà vu. It all felt like I was in a scene out of Indiana Jones or Mackenna’s Gold. A desolate paradise set in the high Southwest desert; Monument Valley evokes a feeling of spirituality & serenity in most travelers. It’s towering red rock formations in various shapes and forms rising out of a flat desert sprawling out to the horizon leaves you awestruck at the grandeur. Part of the 26,000 square mile Navajo Nation autonomous region and one of its six tribal parks, Monument Valley is also considered sacred to the Navajo people here.
The reason why you have this feeling of familiarity here is, well, not that surprising. Monument Valley has been featured in countless Hollywood movies and is one of the most photographed places in the world. If you grew up in a steady diet of Westerns like I did, you will find yourself feeling like you’ve seen this place before. No points for guessing, but both Indiana Jones & Mackenna’s Gold were indeed shot here.
History:
Legend has it that in the early 1920’s, a trader named Harry Goulding was so enamored by this place that he purchased a large plot of land and relocated here. He starting trading here, exchanging food and other goods for Navajo handcrafted items such as the famed Navajo rugs & jewels. A permanent trading outpost was soon constructed (the Goulding’s Trading Post Museum now).
With the onset of the Great Depression in the early 1930’s, the Navajo Nation suffered immensely. At this time, Goulding heard of a Hollywood movie production company scouting out locations to use in Western movies. With the firm belief that Monument Valley could be that perfect location & that it would help out the Navajo people, Goulding set out to Hollywood with his last $60 & photos of Monument Valley to show. Goulding met with the famous director John Ford, and convinced him to shoot there.
This started John Ford’s tryst with Monument Valley. He enlisted Goulding to help feed & house his film crew to shoot the ‘Stagecoach’. It went on to become a big hit, and launched John Wayne as a star. It is said that when John Wayne first saw this site, he declared “So this is where God put the West”. Over the next decade, John Ford would return to shoot six more movies here. The Navajo people benefitted as well. In fact, quite a few of these movies had the local Navajo people play extras representing the Apache, Comanche, Lakota and Cheyenne, but they always spoke their Navajo dialect.
Pop Culture:
Some of the popular movies shot here:
- Stagecoach (1939)
- Billy the Kid (1941)
- My darling Clementine (1946)
- The Searchers (1956)
- How the West was won (1962)
- Mackenna’s Gold (1969)
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
- Back to the Future III (1990)
- Thelma & Louise (1991)
- Forrest Gump (1994) ends his cross-country run here
- Mission Impossible 2 (2000) opening shots
- Vertical Limit (2000) opening scene
- Cars (2006)
- Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)
A few pointers if you chose to visit:
- You can drive your car into the valley for a $20 fee. My advice – take a guided Navajo tour for a higher fee & give your car suspension a break. The road is unpaved & bone jarring, aptly named a ‘Billygoat highway’
- Find a good Navajo guided tour. You will learn quite a bit about the history of the Navajo people and this place. Our guide played his flute for an incredible 10 minutes.
- There is just one hiking trail in the entire valley – a four-mile loop near the left Mitten that can be accessed after paying a $5 fee. It is well worth it.
- Don’t miss the drive outside the park towards Mexican Hat, UT to the Forrest Gump point. It is a beautiful photo spot and is so named for the location where Forrest Gump decides to end his cross-country run in the movie ‘Forrest Gump’.
- Do try the local Navajo cuisine. The Navajo frybread is a must; it’s deep fried bread goodness most closely resembling the North Indian ‘Bhature’. It can be eaten as an entrée (typically served with mutton stew) or a dessert (with cinnamon, powdered sugar and honey).
- You will be hard pressed to find a “unique” photo spot here. Try an off-beat destination outside the park. One such place is the ‘Teardrop Arch’, a 15 minute drive from the Visitor Center, accessible only through a Navajo guide. The ‘Teardrop Arch’ beautifully frames the Monument Valley.
