Sunday, October 9, 2011

Mexican Hat, UT - Monument Valley and the Valley of the Gods

Today we arose early since we have a full day ahead. Yikes, it’s only 33 degrees. Time to turn over, bring the covers up over our heads and sleep in. But, but, but, our plans say that we have things to do and there’s nothing like a hot dish of oatmeal with cinnamon and raisins to start the day. We bundled up in our down jackets and gloves and, after Gary scraped the ice off the car window, we took off for Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park.

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What can I say about Monument Valley? It’s iconic and everyone recognizes it from previous pictures, movies, TV shows and posters. It was stunning and on the road to the Park we stopped at every turnout for a view that we were sure differed from the one we saw not more than 50 feet before. We were there at sunrise and the rocks glistened with promise.

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Monument Valley is a part of the traditional homeland of the Navajo, they have lived in this Valley for many years and many still call Monument Valley home. You can see their homes dotting the desert below the rock formations. Back in the 1860’s the Navajo fled into the Valley from Kit Carson who had been ordered to round them up and transport them to a reservation in New Mexico. He rounded them up. destroyed their homes, burned their crops and forced marched them to Fort Sumner in New Mexico, 450 miles away on foot in what is called the Long Walk. At least 200 died on the way and between 8000 and 9000 people were finally ‘settled’ on an area of 40 square miles.

In 1868, the US Government changed its mind and they were allowed to return to their ancestral home in northern Arizona. They were granted 3.5 million acres which they successfully increased to 16 million acres. Monument Valley is inside this area and is under Navajo governance.

We drove into the park about 8:30 and, after a stop at the Visitor Center we began our tour. The drive down to the valley begins with a failry precipitous drop with several switchbacks. The drive around the Park is 17 miles of unpaved gravel, sand, boulders and rock. Definitely for our Jeep but we saw sedans, RV’s and vans traversing this terrain. Here at least the road is smooth but the dust potential is high.

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You can hire a tour vehicle like this one with a Navajo guide. Here is one with 2 women from New Hampshire. They told us that they knew how to dress for the cold. We told them we had also lived in NH and that I had taught at Plaistow, NH.

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You can also take this kind of tour bus but it doesn’t look as these people are gettig off to a good start.

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The first major formations you see are East and West Mitten with Merrick Butte off to the right.

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Stunning formation follows stunning formation from the 3 sisters (below) to Totem Pole to North Window and others.

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One special turn-out is named John Ford Point. You’ve all heard of John Ford who specialized in Westerns featuring John Wayne. Harry Goulding who established a trading post near Monument Valley in 1924 thought the Valley would be the perfect setting for Westerns and convinced Ford to come see it. Ford agreed and filmed several John Wayne films here beginning with Stagecoach in 1939. John Ford Point is named for him and was his favorite view in Monument Valley. I love the green of the desert floor contrasted with the red of the rocks and the blue of the sky.

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(Not only John Ford made movies here. ‘Forest Gump’ ended his run in Monument Valley, ‘Back to the Future III’ was filmed here, and Clint Eastwood was helicopter landed on top of Totem Pole in the ‘Eiger Sanction.’)

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Here’s a view through the ‘Nprth Window.’

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We continued on the Park road until we had returned to the Visitor Center. Here we decided to eat lunch, fry bread and chili corn soup. A delicious warm meal with a million dollar view on their deck overlooking the valley. We finally left about 3:00 heading for what I had read was a Miniature Monument Valley.

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We have a friend, Jerry, who also RV’s but he and his wife have a 5th wheel and a truck. He likes to take his truck on the most improbably roads. If it is a challenge, he likes it, the twistier, the steeper, the rockier, the sandier, it’s his road. Thus we call a ‘challenging’ road a ‘Jerry’ Road. Today we got to take 2 Jerry Roads.

The first was the 17-mile road in Monument Valley.

Our second Jerry Road not only had twists and turns, rocks and loose sand but what made it really special is the blind hills. In most cases this road is a 1 1/2 way road with turnouts for pictures or for passing. But, sometimes you’d plunge down steeply to a wash, and then up just as steeply to the next ridge. When the nose of your car is pointing up at a 45 degree angle, you can’t see what’s coming over the hill. And, sometimes there was a turn at the top of the hill. Whoo - eee. Jerry would have loved this road. I’m not sure about the 4 80-year olds in the sedan we saw. The guy in the seat behind the driver had a glazed petrified look on his eyes as he peered out at us.

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This 17-mile road, Valley of the Gods Road, took us through awesome territory. This road had scenery the equal to scenery we’ve seen in Monument Valley, Arches NP, Capital Reef NP or Canyonlands. Every corner, every curve, every turn took us by sheer, deep red cliffs with the desert patina I love so well. Rocks perched pecariously on battlements, cliffs eroded irregularly, huge boulders sheared off cliffs towering above, all with the backdrop of Cedar Mesa formed 250 million years ago. There were pinacles and spires of cliffs not yet eroded and huge monolithic battlements all in every shade of red. Awesome.

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Valley of the Gods is only a 1/4 of the size of Monument Valley but is more surprising and intimate. You expect grandeur at Monument Valley and you get it. You don’t expect it here and it’s an unexpected treasure.

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I’d recommend it to anyone in the area. A Jerry Road and awesome views.

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