Alans Awesome Adventure 2002

The Wild West Revisited - Page 3 - Monument Valley

Wednesday 4th December 2002

With a pre-dawn view like this from the hotel bedroom window, it was worth getting up at some unearthly hour, stepping out into the subzero temperatures and scraping the ice from the car just to capture some sunrise photographs from THAT view, looking south onto Monument Valley. If all hotels had a view like that I would probably enjoy staying in them more, but I digress. Anyway, a short while later, we were there, in the not-much-above zero temperature, wondering just what we were doing. The road was surprisingly busy at that time - no doubt the regular drivers are used to seeing nerdy photographers standing in the middle of the road at all times.

I shot off a whole roll of film on that view at dawn- having gone to such great lengths to find it, I was dtermined to make the most of it. The two pictures above are my favourites from the film, shot from slightly different perspectives on the road. The middle picture is from the same vantage point, but off to one side, where the dawn sun was starting to burn through the morning mist. Having now found the view, I think I have a desire to go back there in the baking heat of summer, at dawn and sunset, and midday, and shoot off more rolls of film. And while I'm at it, maybe spring and autumn time too. Or perhaps I could become an honorary Navajo and live there, at that spot.

I couldn't resist this picture - it was just too topical of how the area is portrayed in movies.

After the pre-dawn rise we returned to Gouldings lodge in time to catch the 9Am guided tour of the inside of Monument Valley which we had booked. Various tours are available, and details are available at the lodge office, as well as Monument Valley visitor centre. Goulding was the first white man to set up a trading camp in Monument Valley and attempt serious trade with the Navajo in the early part of the 20th century. In the 1920's he heard that a Hollywood producer was looking for a location to make a film about the early days of white settlement in the west (a movie we would now call a Western) and after sending some photographs of Monument Valley, persuaded the producer to bring his film crew to the area, including a little known actor by the name of John Wayne. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Not only is Gouldings lodge a hotel, restaurant and campground, it also features the original cabin used in many movies as John Waynes home, as well as a superb small movie theater which shows frequent recitals of a video describing the geological history of the area and explains its cultural significance to the Navajo.
Perhaps I should, at this stage, point out that the whole of North-East Arizona is within the Navajo Nation Reservation, and technically is independent of the United States in many respects. Monument Valley, although passed through by a public highway is not a public area, and is under the strict control of the Navajo. Many Navajo natives live in the area and within the private part of the valley. You may wish to think about the valley as being their back garden and farmland. You can leave the public highway at the visitor centre, located pretty much on the Arizona-Utah border and then take a self-driven 17 mile drive round some of the valleys more accesible internal sights -be aware however, that the road is just a dirt track, and after rain it will become very muddy and sandy. Alternatively, you can book a tour with one of the local operators and get access to parts which are not accesible on the 17 mile drive, and a full narrated tour into the bargain. Tours are available in half day and full day versions, and some locals specialise in guided professional photography tours. Although you may balk at the cost of such tours, remember that tourism is one of the major sources of income to many of the locals and enables this area to remains as naturally rugged and undeveloped as it is.

A view of Gouldings Lodge complex. Definitely more than a room with a view.

From the visitor centre you get a splendid view of East and West Mitten.

West Mitten in all its glory.

We were lucky to catch the sun burning off the morning mist as we entered the 17 mile drive.

Nature even carved a giant "W V" in the rock! It stands for Welcome Visitors.

A visitor on the right illustrates the scale of the surroundings.

In Monument Valley, as in many other parts of the South West, there are ancient rock carvings, petroglyphs, inscribed a thousand years ago by the Anasazi ("Ancient People") who inhabited this area long before the Navajo arrived. These carvings are today an indication of their culture and of their farming and animals. There are several locations within MV where these petroglyphs survive, but none of them are on the 17 mile public drive. To see these carvings you have to take one of the escorted tours.

Above you can see a wall full of carvings, depicting humans, sheep, farm animals and snakes amongst others, and a close up of one picture. You can also see Bond taking a close look at one of the inscribed rock faces.

Above - Some views of the general landscape within Monument Valley.

Elsewhere within the valley, nature has been busy carving windows and "eyes" through the rock. Most of these have been formed by pools of water lying ontop of the rock, slowly eroding, freezing, and breaking away the stone, grain by grain over millions of years. Today they are beautiful examples of natures powers to sculp solid rock.

Above are two views of one of my favourite windows through the rock, reflected into a pool of water which had remained since heavy rain several months earlier. Although I didn't see it at the time I took the picture, the one on the right was quickly nicknamed "the alien" by my friends. Look at it sideways, and the hole and its reflection looks like a pair of alien eyes, and the wall of rock like a nose!

One of Monument Valleys biggest claims to fame is as the back drop for literally hundreds of movies and commercials. What Goulding and John Wayne started 80 years ago continues to this day. Above: Some classic views of Monument Valley as used in many movie sets. The rock in the centre of the top row is often referred to as John Waynes boot whilst the "Totem Pole" in the bottom row was recently used by IBM for a mobile computing commercial.

And so, as noon came round, we finished our morning guided tour of Monument Valley, returned to Gouldings Restaurant for a super lunch (we had missed breakfast) and in the afternoon it was time to hit the road once more heading North. Destination Moab, Utah.

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