Monument Valley, Utah

We visited Monument Valley, Utah for the very first time.

Fasten your seatbelts, I am posting a lot of pictures today. I took 275, and have spent hours editing them down, but this is such an amazing area, I was limited in how far I could go in throwing out pictures.

This is an amazingly beautiful area.  On the day we were driving into the valley, it was overcast and rainy, which made for some interesting pictures. I had mixed feelings about the weather but there was nothing I could do about it.

This was our first view as we came into the valley and it was enough to get me excited about what else we would be seeing.

This is called El Capitan. Many of these formations had names, but you will have to go there yourself to figure out what they all are. I just called them Magnificent and Beautiful.

Looking at these massive formations through rain gave them an ethereal look that was enchanting to say the least.

We stayed at Goulding’s Lodge and Campground, (obviously at the campground!) It is the only non-Indian development in this area. Their property is on a Navajo Reservation, and the land was bought by the Gouldings many, many years ago. They put in a hotel, restaurant, gas station, trading post, supermarket and campground, among a few other things all in one area.

This was a valley view from Goulding’s Lodge.

Don and I were having lunch one day at Goulding’s Lodge dinning room, when we saw a group of mountain goats along with two sheep dogs making their way down a steep mountain path into the Lodge parking lot. They all acted like friends and just hung out together.

Later, when it was raining, we saw them huddled up, all together, against the front of a building trying to stay out of the rain. It is open range on the reservation, so you never know what you will see where animals are concerned. There were a couple horses that were always along side the road near the campground. You have to be a defensive driver around here.

Since the monuments are on the reservation, there are rules. You can only drive by yourself on a 17-mile drive through the valley. To go anywhere else, you have to have a native guide. This is the road that goes along thse 17-mile drive. It is dirt with huge rocks…basically a 4-wheel vehicle required…very rough, but a great 2-3 hour ride.

After our drive through the valley, we stopped at the Visitor Center for lunch.

This was the view from our table. Not too bad either.

The dirt in this entire area is red, full of iron oxide. Streams are a muddy red and the rock and the monoliths are all red. One of the very interesting things was that the red dirt reflected the reddish color on the bottom of clouds. Very impressive!

The first day and a half we were there were overcast and rainy. Then the last day we had blue skies. I was very happy as I had been hoping for some sapphire-colored skies to contrast with the red soil…and now, here it was!

Today we took a 5-1/2 hour tour to Mystery Valley with a native tour guide.

This was really fun. There were only seven of us on the tour which made it even nicer.  The tour started off by driving back roads where non-natives are not allowed.  The cliffs in the distance were beautiful pastel colors of pink and blue.

We went past massive monoliths and further back into the desert. Finally our guide, Gregg,  stopped at a huge sandstone “hill” with a massive arch on top.

Gregg told us we could climb up and into the arch where there was a view of the valley. We of course, wanted to go up to the top with several of the others. Walking up was not too bad, although I was aware that it was exceedingly steep.  In my mind I was thinking, “There is no way I am getting down from here without the help of a helicopter!”

Finally, about four-fifths of the way up I called it quits as it was even steeper from there. I have very poor balance and could see myself doing a long fast roll all the way to the bottom.

Gregg (in red shirt) and some of the others sat around and talked up above us at the arch before going through to the other side and finding some other way back down.

One lady was smarter than I was, realizing she would be unable to get down if she got up and so just stayed below and watched the rest of us.

Don, bless his heart, stayed with me and didn’t go the rest of the way up. Finally, he said the only way we could get down was to sit down and slide…and so we did…Don in sitting front of me as we slowly scooted all the way to the bottom of the sandstone hill. 




At the end, (no pun intended!) Don had holes in the backside of his jeans and mine lost some of the color out of them.

Here and there were beautiful red sand dunes. This one was right next to our sandstone “hill.”

Our guide, Gregg, was an interesting character, well educated and an accomplished potter. Some of his pot are sold in the gift store at the lodge.

Gregg drove us past many cliff dwellings and arches in the rocks. There were also many petroglyphs near the cliff dwellings.

One of the rather scary things about all of these ancient dwellings as well as the petroglyphs and arches, is that there is very little protection for these natural treasures. 




We were encouraged to climb up and into many of these dwellings. Our group, of course was non-destructive, however others may be less careful. Very few had fences or signs telling people to stay back or away from these antiquities.

There were lots of petroglyphs around as well, usually near the cliff dwellings. Again, totally unprotected.

There is an adult “goat” or “deer” on the left and a baby one on the right. It is the same level as the larger one, and to the right of the two holes.

 

We couldn’t help but wonder what the story was behind this one.

Finally, Gregg took us into a box canyon and while most of the guys explored some more, he broke out box lunches and grilled great hamburgers for us all.

On the way back, he stopped at a hogan where an elderly Navajo lady was weaving a rug. We were invited inside to watch for a while.

So it was a full day, we saw so many wonderful things and we had a great time.

Monument Valley IS an amazing place.