Driving Monument Valley

 

Driving Monument Valley

We happened to spend an extra day camping at Monument Valley, so we had the opportunity to drive along a scenic loop drive through Monument Valley.  It’s in the Navajo Nation (reservation), so we needed to comply with their rules, which included a long wait to enter the drive.  They closely monitor how many folks are allowed on the drive at one time.  Tours are excluded from this count, but they don’t seem to have all that many of them.  Their goal is to protect this environment, so I can’t argue with that!

An iconic view of Monument Valley often times includes a view of at least one of the two mitten rock formations.  They are not that terribly close to each other, but from this angle they look rather close!

When you first look at these two rock formations, you may not see it, but they do have the names of elephant (upper left) and camel (lower right).  The elephant is facing to the right.  If you look at the lower part of the formation, you can make out its trunk.  The camel, on the other hand, is facing to the left.  To me, it looks like it’s holding its head up high, and you can kind of make out a double hump.  Apparently, their shapes become more obvious if you look at their shadows, if you happen to be there at the right time of the day (which we weren’t!!).

This formation is called Three Sisters, and is viewed by the Navajo as a nun teaching other young students nuns.  I like the simplicity of the formation.

The roads throughout Monument Valley are all the same color as that of the rock formations they wind through.  I included this because I like the feel of this image, and to give you an idea of how rather primitive the road was!

One of the dusty roads led to this view of Spearhead Mesa.  The formation seem to reach up to the sky!

This formation is called totem pole.  The smaller spires on the left are called Yei Bi Chei (Navajo spiritual Gods) and the higher totem pole on the right.  It’s 450 feet tall.

The view from Code Talker Point is a scene from a spot honoring the Navajo Code Talkers, who spoke in code (the Navajo language that was also in a bit of code) to help the US troops during World War II.  They communicated the activity in the field to headquarters, so that headquarters could respond with further instructions.

Here are some other views from a place called North Window.  If some of the scenes I’ve been sharing look somewhat familiar, this was a favorite filming site of John Ford, who directed a number of John Wayne movies in the 1940s and 1950s.  You also might recognize some scenes from Marlboro cigarette commercials and billboard ads, when that was allowed.

This final image is of a rock formation called The Thumb.  The Thumb is the formation off to the right in the image.  I like to think of the formation to the left as the rest of the hand!!

Enjoy!!