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John Cletheroe's
USA and Canada Holiday Hints |
Monument Valley was the location for many of the classic western films such as Stagecoach.
Monument Valley is not a National Park or National Monument.
The main road through Monument Valley, US163 between Kayenta (Arizona) and Mexican Hat (Utah), is a normal toll-free road which can freely driven on.
Bill Mok from Hong Kong kindly supplied these directions:
Just turn right at 22 miles north of Kayenta. You will first see an RV campground. Two miles from the turn off US163 is the visitor centre, where there are various sales counters offering all kinds of escorted tours.Bill reports that there is an entrance fee of $2.50 per person for the Tribal Park (as at Oct-99). This entrance fee entitles you to drive the seventeen mile unpaved scenic road through the park in your own vehicle, with no escort and no further charge required. Bill says this road is easy to follow and that you are supplied with a map showing eleven scenic stopping points. Bill estimates that the drive takes about two hours, allowing time to stop and take photographs. Bill describes the road as unpaved but ok for normal cars and RV's.
Since this is a Navajo Tribal Park, neither the National Park Service National Parks Pass nor the Golden Eagle Pass can be used to gain entrance here.
Bill goes on to say:
For visitors who would like a more in-depth understanding of the Navajos and the mesas, an escorted tour is an better option. There are horse riding, jeep tours and all kinds of other tours available at the tour counters. The price for a two hour jeep tour is $25, which sounds reasonable. However, the jeeps are old and are modified small trucks, not Land Rovers or Suzuki Vitaras. Don't expect air-conditioning. So, is there any difference between a jeep tour and a self-drive tour? I would expect 90% is the same. In the scenic drive, I saw the touring jeeps. The jeeps stop at the same points as we did. Of course the guide will tell the tourists where each place is and probably the story behind the red mesas. However I didn't see a hogan [on my self-drive tour]. I noticed that there were notices saying "Only touring jeeps allowed" on the entrances to some minor roads. So, I think the Navajos prevent outside vehicles from entering these areas and so provide some selling points for their own entrepreneurs. The visitor centre is composed of a car park, a restaurant, a souvenir shop, a small exhibition room to tell you more about the park and a restroom. There are no park management personnel to tell you how to explore the park as in the National Parks. However, I think it is reasonable to pay $2.50 per head for the Navajo to maintain these facilities and the scenic drive. Anyway, it is a great place to visit.Maria Barnes of Brighton (UK) kindly sent me these interesting and valuable comments regarding the Tribal Park and the escorted tours available there, based on a trip she took in the late 1990's:
I did a trip with TrekAmerica from New York, right the way round and back to New York, with a little trip into Canada (to Banff NP) and a trip into Mexico. I had the best time of my life! What a great country. I did 13,000 miles in 67 days in a Dodge van with 14 others! We camped mostly, in the National Parks, with a few nights in hotels when we were in the cities.
I went to Monument Valley and did one of the Navajo guided tours available. It was a jeep tour, approximately two hours, with a visit to a hogan. There is a toll road that you can take though the valley.
I can't tell you how to get to Monument Valley Tribal Park because to be honest I wasn't taking much notice of the roads we were on, just the breathtaking scenery! I was actually reading "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee" at the time. I felt that to visit Native American lands, or in fact to visit America at all, it was important to understand the plight of the Native Americans and what they have been through. What with reading about that and taking in the majesty of the place, what directions we were taking slipped my mind altogether!
What can I say about my Monument Valley experiences?
Firstly, I want to say that this place is magical and well worth a visit. It is a wonderful place to camp out and catch a sunrise too - the colours are just amazing.
Secondly, although a jeep tour with a Navajo guide is a good way to see Monument Valley, my experience was that this option is not necessarily going to give you much more of a cultural insight to the Navajo nation than a trip around Valley Drive under your own steam. Our particular guide just told us the name of each mesa and what it looked like - "and this is elephant mesa, because it looks like an elephant", etc. The other guide that took another group of visitors alongside us did seem to be more knowledgeable, and more willing to share information - I guess it depends on who takes you round.
The jeeps are old and not very comfortable, but that isn't necessarily a problem. I would take a scarf to place over your mouth and nose to keep the fine red dust from being inhaled.
We were taken to a hogan where an old Navajo lady was weaving fantastic blankets, but she charged us for taking photos and using video cameras. It seemed to me that the acceptance of visitors to Navajo tribal lands is based around the ability to make a living from tourism. Jewellery is sold along the way and the jeep tours stop at every point where there is something to be sold.
The highlight of the tour was, without doubt (excluding the wonderful and breathtaking scenery) when our guide took us to a cavern in the rock and sang us some traditional songs. I will also never forget waking at 4.00am and sitting peacefully in the doorway of my tent in my pyjamas, with everyone else asleep and experiencing the most breathtaking sunrise I have ever seen in my life.
The jeep trip we took cost us something like $15-20 [as at autumn 1998] and the overnight trip would have been $60. The jeep trip is a good way to see the views.
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Most recently modified 28-Apr-06