Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park 6/3/2024

Nance

25 Jun, 2024

Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park 6/3/2024

We absolutely loved this park! We took a tour from Goulding’s RV park which is only a few miles from the park entrance. We could see some of the historic sandstone buttes from a distance, but once you enter the park and drive among these towering monuments the sheer size and beauty are awesome! Accessed by a 17-mile Valley drive.

So much history, both spiritual and tragic. Hogon’s {native Indian huts} made of spruce and red mud still partially standing from the 1600s. Only 25 different families that have lived there for many generations are allowed to live in the valley among the monuments. The tour guide was Navajo and told many stories of his people. His great grandfather was the medicine man and lived till 106. He even sang a safe travels song in Navajo as we left the park after sunset. Phenomenal!

Goulding’s tour truck parked in front of a Mesa
The North Mitten.
The North and South Mittens. The state line of Utah and Arizona.
Panorama view.
The Three Sisters. A Navajo family lived on top of the Mesa next to it for generations, using a mule trail up the backside.
The group of pillars are the Navajo Men. The one to the far right is the Totem Pole, which Clint Eastwood free hand climbed in the movie Eiger Sanction.
Clint Eastwood and crew at top of the Totem Pole in 1975.
Skeletal remains of a Hogan built in the 1600’s. The desert spruce used does not rot and it would have been covered in red mud.
Our Navajo tour guide
Us helping to hold up the monuments.
John Ford’s Point
John Ford’s Point where he loved to shoot the scenery.
Nancy next to John Wayne’s Boot to her right.