Monument Valley State Park Things to Do

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As an extra part of our tour we were taken, by our Navajo guide Brenda to see the Eye of the Sun which is a lovely sandstone arch.

I'm not sure how old the Petroglyphs are but they are treated with great reverence by the Navajo.

Some of the wall carvings resemble what I thought were sheep, which are still farmed by the locals. Others were of what may have been carvings of what the locals looked liked at the time.

To pay our respects to theses ancestors, Brenda sang a song in her native tongue, which echoed beautifully around the cave we were in and was a fine tribute to the people long gone.

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Brenda, our guide, asked us if we would like to go and visit her grandmother, who lived in the park. We readily agreed and so took a detour from the public road.

We stopped off to see Brenda’s Grandmother, Suzzie Yazzie, who is somewhat a celebrity in these parts having featured in many a western movie, and she took us inside her Navajo hogan and gave us a demonstration of how she prepares wool for weaving.

Suzzie also tied up my wifes’s hair into a traditional Navajo bun, which looked great.

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Viewpont Ten - North Window
This is the stop that screen savers are made for. We took our time and got some great shots.

Viewpont Eleven - The Thumb
The last stop off on the drive. It looks like a thumb.

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Viewpont Seven - Totem Pole and Yei Bi Chei
One of the most famous of the sights in the valley. The Totem Pole is said to be a god held up by lightning.

It's a tall, red sandstone column, 450 feet high but only 40 foot across, slightly detached from its neighbours

Viewpont Eight - Totem Pole and Sand Spring
AS you drive further around you get another view of the Totem Pole and also you get to drive alongside the local creekbed (Gypsum Wash).

Viewpont Nine - Artist's Point
A peaceful spot, where the landscape seemingly goes on forever.

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They say that you can take your own car down the Valley Drive, and although this maybe the case if you own a decent 4x4 beast, we were happy enough to hop on board the tour jeep. This also meant that we could concentrate on the magnificent views and take some photos rather than keep and eye open for pot holes and sand dunes.

Viewpoint Four - John Ford's Point
Simply stunning view. Film director John Ford used Monument Valley as a location for many Westerns between 1939 (Stagecoach) and 1960, and one site that featured often is now known as John Ford's Point.

There is a Navajo jewelery stall and also you get an opportunity to get to act like a real cowboy as you can don a cowboy hat and lasso, pick up your rifle and hop onto a sturdy steed, all for a small fee. I actually think the horse was asleep just before I made my wife jump on. Good fun and well worth the two dollars and I'm sure it must help out the local economy.

Viewpoint Five - Camel Butte
It looks somewhat like a camel.

Viewpoint Six - The Hub
We took a little detour here, but this was only possible because we were with our local guide, to see several sandstone arches, Anasazi dwellings and petroglyphs.

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The Valley drive is spectacular. The drive is 17 miles long of which 13 miles is a one-way loop, and typical times for the full trip are 2 to 4 hours.

Viewpont One - The Mittens and Merrick Butte
Merrick Butte is named after long time Colorado prospector James Merrick, who found a rich source of silver in Skeleton Mesa. Merrick teamed up with Ernest Mitchell to prospect in Monument Valley in the autumn of 1879.

They both met a sticky end at the hands, or should I say arrows of, some local Ute Indians who took umbrage to them being on their land.

Their grisly skeletons were discovered some months later when a party of soldiers passed through Monument Valley and found them partially buried in the sand, still with their clothes and boots on. By Mitchell’s body were several leather sacks containing a fortune in silver ore.

Their mine they discovered in Skeleton Mesas was searched for high and low, but never found.

Viewpont Two - Elephant Butte
This looks somewhat like an elephant

Viewpont Three - Three Sisters
The Navajo believe these to be three holy people who have turned to stone. Their names are Faith, Hope & Charity.

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When we were in Monument Valley, on the 16 mile driving loop through the monuments, we stopped at a booth where Navajo Indians were selling jewelry. After asking us if we were part Native American (we are) an older gentleman asked my girls if they would like a lesson on the Navajo names for the monuments and surrounding wildlife. The girls were thrilled and I was so glad he asked. We stayed there about 30 minutes learning the names the Navajo had given the monuments as compared to the white man's names for them and other Navajo words. He said they are always glad to teach them to anyone.

This was perhaps my favourite of the places we stopped on the Valley Drive. Although apparently very busy nowadays, we had it to ourselves, perhaps partly because to get here you have to walk a short distance to get the best views. There were several dead trees too, to lend perspective to the photos. In this one you can see Elephant Butte on the left, Cly Butte on the right and East Mitten three miles beyond them, seen “through the window”. The latter looks rather different here, with the thumb of the mitten hidden on its far side. The spires in the further distance lie outside the park itself, in the area to the north known as Monument Pass, and include a well-known pair dubbed “Bear and Rabbit”.

I’ve mentioned elsewhere what seems to me the incongruousness of naming a formation in this are after one of the soldiers who campaigned against the Navajo. Here, more appropriately, is one named after a Navajo chieftain. Old Cly was a venerated chief who lived in the valley until his death in 1934. When he died they buried him at the foot of Cly Butte. His horse was killed, as is the Navajo custom, as were his sheep, goats and cattle, and his saddle and bridle were cut up and left there, so that he could use them for his longest journey.