The drive to Monument Valley (71 to 72 - under 75) and Monument Valley (75)

Checkout time at the Moab campground was at 10am and the concern of icy roads on the upcoming mountain pass meant that we left at late as possible, right on 10. It was a very gloomy, cold morning, a freezing wind was blowing and the clouds were dark and low. The weather forecast over the next few days was for similar or worse weather, so there was no point in staying longer for an improvement in conditions.

Fortunately, the roads were ice free and the drive on the one-lane each way highway to the mountain pass was quite easy. As we ascended, the temperature fell to about -2°C and snow covered both sides of the road. The pass wasn’t steep and our ascent to the plateau wasn’t dangerous although, just for safety we were travelling quite a bit slower than normal.

At the highest altitude snow drifts danced across the road surface pushed about by the invisible winds, however the road temperature was still above zero and snow didn’t build up. Ice was still my concern, particularly on bridges we needed to pass, so extra care was taken when approaching them to ensure we were straight and well behind any traffic to allow for additional braking distance.

The highway descended from the plateau over quite a distance, thus fears of a dangerous descent were also allayed. Once we reached a plateau quite a bit lower than the pass, the weather warmed slightly, the clouds thinned and there was no longer snow covering crests and hills or in the shadows of the lee away from direct sunlight. My tension and I’m sure Grace’s also had abated significantly.

Despite there being some hills and valleys, the remainder of the drive towards Monument Valley was easy. We passed a place called Mexican Hat about 45 kms north of the Valley, a place we had ear-marked to return to, and saw from a distance the flat rock perched atop a tall rock structure giving the town its name.

The road coming through Mexican hat dropped 800 feet in elevation quickly, from the plateau height of around 5000 feet to a small bridge over the San Juan River, and then climbed steeply for miles to a height of over 5800 feet.

As the road levelled out and we started a slight decline, Monument Valley in all her beauty appeared before us. It was a magnificent sight, one that we shall treasure – unlike the valleys, buttes, spires and canyons that were also wonderful sights, the stark contrast of the level valley with enormous pillars of stone was breathtaking. These monoliths had stood defiantly for eons against the forces of nature, whilst all around them had succumbed to the valley floor.

Goulding's campground and our
connected rig under the trees

We stayed at the Goulding’s RV campground which had a beautiful view from ground level of the valley. This is the only campground nearby and has a great history behind the name. Harry Goulding and his young wife Leone (who he affectionately called “Mike” because it was easier for him to say – Mike in inverted commas is even shown on their wedding certificate!) moved to Monument Valley in 1923. The couple came to live and work among the Navajo people to set up a Trading Post.

They gained the confidence and trust of the Navajos and in 1928 built the original Trading Post which is now Goulding’s Museum. They traded in items of food, household necessities and livestock and like many traders, they would have acted as advisors in government affairs.

In the 1930s Hollywood was making many western movies and Harry felt that Monument Valley would make an ideal setting, thus he went to Hollywood to sell the idea to John Ford. John was the director for making some of these types of films. Harry showed him photographs of Monument Valley and Ford was so impressed he immediately decided to use the Valley as the location for his next western, “Stagecoach” in 1939.

John Wayne, who was a young actor at the time, starred in this film and went on to make many others with John Ford such as “She wore a Yellow Ribbon” and “Fort Apache”. Movies are still being made in Monument Valley and some examples are “Forrest Gump” with Tom Hanks and “Wind Talkers” and “Con-Air” with Nicholas Cage.

We decided we should only stay 2 nights in the Valley because the cold weather front was heading further east and south. Once again we were lucky enough to manage our limited stay in good weather, but the night temperatures were becoming much colder.

We had enough time left on the day of our arrival to explore the Goulding’s Museum and have a late afternoon tea in their restaurant overlooking the Valley. In fact we were still there to watch the setting sun and when we left, the walk back to the car felt like Arctic conditions.



When we arrived back in the campground we chatted to a Navajo lady working in the shop. She was fascinating to chat to and had many stories about her childhood and stories she had passed to her from her grandparents. It was one of those times you wish you had a tape recorder. She has 8 children and they all have Navajo names; the only names I now remember are Wind Dancer, White Shell and Nazhoni which means Beautiful One in the Navajo language.

She explained the significance of your hand and the meaning of each finger. The thumb is you, the forefinger is your mother, the middle finger is your father, the ring finger is your grandfather and the small finger is your grandmother. In this way, your hand represents your family and the bond that exists between each member.



The following morning we left Gouldings on our way to the Monument Valley visitor’s centre, however, just outside the campground and down the small hill is an airstrip and beside that a dome shaped structure covered with earth or clay that had a pipe sticking out the centre of the roof.



The Hogan door faces east, hidden from
view from this photo taken from the NW

As we learnt yesterday evening, this dome shaped structure is called a Hogan. The Hogan is a Navajo home that is made of logs and tree branches, sometimes covered with a layer of mud. Storytellers say that the Holy People taught the Navajo how to build these dwellings. Hogans are still an important part of Navajo life and even people who don’t live in them sometimes build them for use in ceremonies.



Hogans remind the Navajo of values that are important to their culture. The logs that form the wall of the Hogan are joined together to represent the strong bonds between a husband and wife and the doorway always faces east so the Navajo can begin each day by greeting the light of the rising sun.



We would have loved to look inside the Hogan and gingerly made our way around the side, but weren’t sure whether or not it was a display home or one in which people lived. Accordingly, we settled for taking a couple of photos.

Beside the Hogan was a small airstrip and we’re not sure if that is the airstrip that would be used by aircraft bringing people to Monument Valley. If it is, then you would have to travel in a small Cessna or similar because it was only small. That morning there was a group of people in small, propeller driven sort of hang-glider thingys.





Left Mitten and Right Mitten with
Merrick Butte on the right

Once we had watched them take off, we headed out to the Monument Valley visitor’s centre and paid our entrance fee as the land belonged to the Navajo as a Tribal Park, not covered by our National Parks annual ticket. The view from there was just incredible. Beside the visitor’s centre is The View Hotel  that blends nicely into the local environment, and if you ever wanted to visit the Valley and needed a place to stay, that is certainly the place to stay.



Everyone is allowed to drive on a dirt road to the valley floor to explore the monuments from much closer, so down the track we headed. You don’t need a 4-wheel drive vehicle, a normal car is fine and seeing these monoliths from ground level makes them all the more spectacular. There are also guided tours where you pay to travel in a small bus driven by someone of Navajo descent, and they take you to private roads, forbidden to those of us who wanted to drive for ourselves.

The gravel road is easy to follow and there are about 10 places clearly signposted where you can stop for photos. The only distraction and small disappointment at each stop were many tables set up by Navajo people, primarily selling jewellery and assorted trinkets. I understand that is the way they earn a living, but it made me see the commercial side of what we were enjoying, and you were left with a sense of guilt for not buying something to help support them. We bought necklaces from one of the vendors at the first stop and tried to avoid eye contact at each stop from there.

After several hours we drove back to the top to have something to eat and chose a café inside the visitor’s centre. We tried to select food that was of Navajo tradition, but other than Navajo bread which resembled pide, all the other dishes just had Navajo names.

Once we got back to the Chev to drive back to the campground I noticed a diesel spill from the tray, coming out and down the back of the truck. It was particularly noticeable as a fine red/orange coloured dust from the valley floor covered the entire truck – not a good thing to see but the diesel was coming from the recently purchased 5 gallon emergency tank, carefully strapped inside the back. All the bouncing about on the valley floor had vibrated the cap a little loose.

We still had enough time left to drive back north to see Mexican Hat that we had passed on our way to the Valley, and driving without the 6 ½ tonne Sierra on the back certainly made the trip easy and faster. When we arrived we found some intrepid climbers scaling the hat and watched them for a while before heading back to the campground – time enough to wash the truck and luckily there was a truck wash at Gouldings and still enough daylight left to get the job done.

Tomorrow we planned to drive to Williams which is as close as we could get to the Grand Canyon, and that’s the next blog.