Monument Valley

candid America tips

 

Monument Valley
is special

Spectacular buttes as high as a 70-story building rise from the desert floor in Arizona, as do majestic spires and mesas.

Monument Valley

Tips & insights

Top two highlights

The three major buttes
View them (see photo) from the Visitor’s Center.
Totem Pole
This spire resembling its namesake. It soars over 125 meters (400 feet).

Best hours

The best times of the day for sightseers and photographers are early morning and late afternoon. The sun’s low-angled rays intensify the shadows and red hues of the scenic rock formations.

If possible, enter the park when it opens (8 a.m.) to see the reddish sunrise effect on the rocks.

The morning view of the same butte will look markedly different than in the afternoon light. Try to see the major ones at both times.

Tours

You can take a self-guided private tour in your car – or a Navajo Indian guided tour in a 4-wheel vehicle. I recommend that you take the latter because it goes places where private cars are prohibited – and your guide will explain Navajo culture.

The self-guided tour takes 2 to 5 hours, depending mainly on how long you linger at the scenic viewpoints. Most guided tours last about 4 hours, though longer ones exist.

Some roads are paved, others are dirt/gravel surfaced with bumps galore.

Horseback trips and flight-seeing tours are also available.

Filming

Many famous movies and high-budget TV commercials have been filmed using the buttes as backdrops. The first film was Stagecoach (the 1939 classic western starring John Wayne). Others include the Academy Award winning Forest Gump and Stanley Kubrick’s space epic 2001.

Creation

The buttes and mesas were carved by eroding winds and rain over millions of years.

Accommodations

None exists within Monument Valley. The closest accommodations are in the nearby Indian town of Goulding, Utah.

Official name and location

The wonder's official name is the Monument Valley Tribal Park. It lies entirely in Navajo Indian territory - and sits into two states, Arizona (mostly) and Utah.

Relatively nearby wonders

Several Hillman gold and bronze medal winners are within a long day's drive from Monument Valley:

Grand Canyon
Bryce Canyon
Sedona Red Rock Country
Zion National Park

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