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MONUMENT VALLEY, Utah
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It was 7 a.m. when the tour van got stuck in the sand. The temperature was 0听degrees C and it was still dark outside.
My sister and I, the only passengers, got out of the battered vehicle and stomped around to keep warm amid the sharp gray-green sagebrush and snakeweed. Otherworldly spires in the distance were silhouetted by the impending sunrise. All was silent in this magnificent Navajo tribal park along the Utah-Arizona border.
Visiting Monument Valley has been a dream of mine for at least three years.
A photograph of Monument Valley鈥檚 topaz and sapphire-coloured landscape is thumbtacked to the bulletin board at my desk. The View Hotel in the park has garnered rave reviews for its service and vistas from every room.
Monument Valley is so iconic that anyone who ever saw a movie will recognize it. It鈥檚 the place where Forrest Gump tires of running and says, 鈥淭hink I鈥檒l go home now.鈥� It鈥檚 the place where sandstone buttes and strange-shaped spires stand like beautiful monuments carved by God. It鈥檚 the place that has been the backdrop for famous Westerns, from John Wayne鈥檚 first film, Stagecoach, in 1939 to Johnny Depp鈥檚 bomb The Lone Ranger this year.
The part I didn鈥檛 know is that this park, which gets 360,000 visitors a year, is quirky.
Operated by the Navajo Nation, the park has excellent, well-paved entrance roads.
However, the 27-kilometre loop inside the park has dirt roads that are so terrible you need a four-wheel-drive vehicle.
Tours are operated independently by Navajo vendors, so you deal directly with each vendor and get what driver and vehicle they offer 鈥� rickety van, nice truck, chilly open-sided vehicle or sturdy Jeep.
And you really do need to do the tour if you want to see the park鈥檚 hidden wonders. Which was why I was on this sunrise tour in the middle of nowhere, tapping my foot.
Naturally, we got out of there. After an hour, a friend of Don鈥檚 came with a big Chevy and towed the van out in two minutes, and away we went.
Don didn鈥檛 scrimp on the tour. We started near Totem Pole, a famous spire that is one feature of Monument Valley鈥檚 unique geology. Rocks you see today are about 160 million years old, formed when water, wind, volcanic eruptions and an uplifting of the Earth鈥檚 crust created what look like statues and monuments across a vast plain.
In the valley, we saw Anasazi rock drawings of animals, echoes of an ancient Southwest people who lived here as long ago as 1300. They vanished, long before the Navajo arrived 400 years ago.
The van bumped along and made it safely to two iconic outposts that have famous openings in the rock 鈥� Sun鈥檚 Eye, surrounded with stripes on the rock that look like eyelashes, and Ear-in-the-Wind, in the shape of a human ear. We passed buttes shaped like elephants and camels, and the twin buttes Right Mitten and Left Mitten (eerily shaped like Michigan). The van shuddered on sandy roads past a trio of spires called the Three Sisters, and past mesas as big as whole city blocks.
Visitors used to the emptiness of national parks might find it jarring, but people live in Monument Valley. Some Navajo clans still dwell in tiny enclaves, and their trailers are dots in the landscape. From the valley, we also could spot the View Hotel in the far distance. Low-slung and tan coloured, it was nearly invisible 鈥� which is exactly as the hotel designers planned it.
Finally, on a high cliff, we stood at John Ford鈥檚 Point, where the movie director liked to stand when orchestrating his magnificent Westerns and where today you can take a picture of a horse in front of the scenery for $2. A local vendor was struck by lightning and killed at the spot in 2006.
When we got to the hotel an hour late, nobody said anything about our mishap, the tour vendor didn鈥檛 apologize, and I don鈥檛 know why but I only made a token attempt to get our tour rate cut. In the end, I paid for the whole thing, plus a $20 tip for Don, who was still brushing the sand out of his boots.
As I went in for breakfast, I realized that it didn鈥檛 matter, the money or the delay or the ditch.
What mattered was, the Earth is beautiful.
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AS SEEN IN THE MOVIES
Monument Valley has been the background for hundreds of Hollywood films, magazine shoots, video games and TV commercials since the 1930s.
Among its films are Stagecoach, Forrest Gump, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Lone Ranger, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Back to the Future Part 3, Easy Rider and National Lampoon鈥檚 Vacation.
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THE NAVAJO NATION
The autonomous Navajo Nation spreads across four states 鈥� Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. Its 70,000 square kilometres contain about 173,000 residents.
U.S. federal data show that 42 per cent live below the poverty line, with 38 per cent having no electricity, running water or cellphones. Opening hotels, shops and its grand natural attractions for tourists brings in jobs and dollars.
Besides Monument Valley, the Navajo Nation has Canyon de Chelly and other attractions.
See discovernavajo.com.
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WHAT鈥橲 A BUTTE?
Monument Valley has been shaped by water, wind, volcanoes, eruptions and temperatures of the last 570 million years. Its formations are:
Mesas: Wide, flat-topped rock; 鈥渕esa鈥� means 鈥渢able鈥� in Spanish.
Buttes: (pronounced bee-ute): A mesa that has eroded so it is a free-standing, chunky formation surrounded by what looks like a pedestal of stone and flat land beyond.
Spires: A butte that has eroded so much that it is only a narrow formation of steeples surrounded by stone.
IF YOU GO
Getting there: Monument Valley is 500 kilometres north of Phoenix, a 5 1/2-hour drive. Along the way are Sedona and Flagstaff and the Navajo towns of Tuba City and Kayenta. There are no gas stations except in the towns. The park is open year-round and gets little snow, but in winter the challenge is making it through snowy Flagstaff to get there.
Admission: $5 per person to enter the tribal park. It is not part of the National Park system. Its Navajo name is Tse Bii鈥� Ndzisgaii, and it is 1,695 metres above sea level.
navajonationparks.org/htm/
monumentvalley.htm.
Lodging: The View Hotel (from $219/night, monument
valleyview.com, 435-727-5555), or try Gouldings Lodge (six kilometres from Monument Valley) or the Hampton Inn in Kayeta (80 kilometres from Monument Valley). The park is building a new RV campground.
Tours: Book tours when you arrive from vendors in the hotel parking lot. Tours are daytime, sunrise or sunset, they last between 1 1/2 and 3 hours. A three-hour tour costs about $100. Driving the 30-kilometre loop on your own generally requires a four-wheel-drive vehicle. You also can hike the five-kilometre Wildcat Trail or take a horseback ride.
Shop: The View Hotel is attached to a visitors centre and the large Trading Post gift shop featuring Navajo pottery, rugs, jewelry, flutes and blankets. Find authentic Hopi baskets at the TUUVI Travel Center in Tuba City on the way.
Note: No alcohol is sold inside the Navajo Nation, including restaurants.
