Monument Valley

Hey Guys!! We spent a long weekend in Monument Valley and we crammed as much as we could in… so let’s get started!

The morning we left Page to head for Monument Valley, we woke up to snow. Our main concern was the condition of the roads, but they were totally fine. Honestly, I was beyond thrilled at the thought of getting some shots of Monument Valley with snow.

We turned off the main road and pretty much drove right out of the snow. Boo. But look how pretty the area is! I’ve always wanted to go to Monument Valley. I can remember watching old Westerns on Sundays with my dad and thinking how cool it would be to go see Monument Valley in person one day.

The first thing we did when we got there was grab some grub… because… well, that’s what we do. We’re foodies. And the Navajo Tacos were screaming my name. Screaming!

We were sitting at our table with the awesome view, eating our tasty foodies, when the snow we drove out of earlier caught up with us. It was so neat to watch it move in! And I thought…ooooo, we’re going straight over to the valley so I can grab some snowy pictures!! And it snowed until we were almost there…but then we drove out of it again. Guys, it snowed like a block away from the valley…but not in the valley. I mean, what-the-hey-diddly-do!?! Come on Mother Nature…work with me here!!

After realizing the snow wasn’t going to work with us, we took our time in the museum they have at the visitor center. There are some really beautiful jewelry and weavings on display along with some educational exhibits on the Navajo culture. We spent the most time in the Code Talkers exhibit. I don’t know if you know this about us…but we’re nerds. It always takes us so much time to go through museums.

Our first day there, we never actually made it into the valley, but I did get some very moody shots of the that iconic view. With the storm blowing through, it was extremely windy and so cold that we didn’t stick around outside too long.

We got up early the next day and headed to the valley to try and get some shots off before the crowds moved in. Yup, it was crowded. Tour buses would show up with tons of people. We didn’t see too many people out and about that morning though. I think the freezing temps and the arctic wind kept the saner people at bay.

Monument Valley is a Navajo Tribal Park and there are still families who live in the valley itself. The park spans two states…Utah and Arizona and is somewhere close to 90,000 acres. The Navajo (they call themselves Diné which means ‘the people’) call Monument Valley Tsé Bii’Ndzisgaii (the valley within the rock). The valley drive is a seventeen mile unpaved very bumpy road. You can drive it yourself or take a guided tour. Next time we go, I’d love to do one of the tours!

We would have been tempted to take a guided tour this time, but it was freezing and so windy…and the only tour trucks we saw were all open to the elements. In the picture above you can see the dust blowing around.

The Hub has a few hogans around it. The Navajo see the Hub as a fireplace in the middle of a giant hogan. A hogan is the traditional Navajo home and if you look closely as you travel through Navajo land, you’ll see that pretty much every modern home as a hogan near it. The traditional hogan is still used by the Navajo today for ceremonial purposes.

We had to do the obligatory Forrest Gump Point photo. This was a surprisingly busy road. People would dash out for pictures in between cars. But, it’s a fun shot.

We stayed at Gouldings RV Park and you can see by the picture that we were pretty much the only ones there. I think one night we had four other campers there, but that was the most we saw at our RV Park. I think the Lodge and the hotel over in the valley were all pretty busy.

One afternoon we did the short hike from the RV Park to the Gouldings Arch. It was pretty short but it was nice to stretch our legs. I don’t really have any info on the arch, it’s not huge…but it’s a good size.

We took the opportunity to hit some places in the Monument Valley area while we were there. We went to see Mexican Hat (picture on the right). You can drive right up to it. It’s called Mexican Hat because it looks like a big sombrero. We saw quite a few horses on our explorations. I’m not sure if they were wild or not. There weren’t a lot of fences around.

Goosenecks State Park is a great little park near Blanding, UT. You can see the San Juan River makes a few tight twists and turns, making a gooseneck…or if you want to get really technical it’s called an entrenched meander. The river runs about a 1,000 feet below the overview. When we were there, we had the place to ourselves. It was wonderful. I took several pictures, but I don’t have a wide angle lens, so I settled for a panorama on my phone to capture all three bends in the gooseneck. I think we had to pay $5 at the self-pay station. There were some picnic tables around and a few primitive campsites along with a vault toilet.

After we left Goosenecks State Park we headed to Valley of the Gods. It’s kind of like a mini Monument Valley. We stopped here for a picnic lunch and had the entire place to ourselves…the view was pretty superb. You’ll have a hard time finding a restaurant with views like that. Valley of the Gods is run by the BLM and doesn’t really have any hiking trails, but you can roam around to your hearts content as you take in all of the buttes, mesas, sandstone towers, and pinnacles. This remote area used to be a part of Bears Ears National Monument. The coolest part though…two episodes of Doctor Who were filmed in Valley of the Gods! This family of Whovians was pretty stoked to find that out. It’s always fun to try and spot areas from shows/movies as we explore someplace.

We had some amazing foodies while we were staying in the Monument Valley area. We ate at The Lodge and everything we had was amazing. I had to have a Navajo Taco (right). Someone else had the Spicy Pork in Green Chili Sauce with Fry Bread (left). The menu is filled with Navajo specialties and didn’t disappoint.

We had a great time exploring the Monument Valley area! We’d like to go back one day when the weather is a little warmer…not in the summer…but warmer than frigid, so we can take a guided tour through the valley. You get to go to other parts of the valley on the guided tour so we’ll get to see something new!

See y’all down the road!

#NationalParkTour