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Do you remember those old John Wayne/John Ford cowboy movies with the most fantastic desert rock formations in the background? If you do, then you have seen Monument Valley. When John Ford saw it in the early '40's he fell in love with it, made several movies there starring John Wayne, and made it famous forever.

Monument Valley

We had long wanted to visit, having had to bypass it on our previous visits to the National Parks and Monuments of the American West. We hadn't really expected to see it this time, but when Gerry's computer went on the blink and we suddenly had a week to spare, Monument Valley was one of the first things on our list of must-sees.

Monument Valley

Monument Valley

We came here after camping in Upper Tonto Creek, near the Mongollan Rim, and visits to Petrified Forest and Canyon de Chelly and before seeing Glen Canyon Dam and then the Grand Canyon. On our way from Canyon de Chelly, we stopped briefly in Bluff, Arizona, for no better reason than it was on the map and Gerry was kind of curious about it. Bluff turned out to be a small desert town, orginally founded by Mormons and still proud of its past as a pioneer outpost. From Bluff we drove through Medicine Hat — such an evocative name for a one-horse town, or more properly a one-motel town — where we ate a quick lunch and decided to forgo a/c and private bathroom in favor of camping.

Monument Valley

Monument Valley

When we pulled into the parking lot of Goulding's campground, we had already had a glimpse of the valley across the highway as well as a growing sense of the heat and the redness of the place. Because the sand is red, and there isn't much but sand, well the place just has a kind of redness to it! We signed up for a campsite at $16 for the night and pitched our tent up the hill a little from the main, RV, section of the campground.

When we signed up for the tent site, we also signed up for a tour of the Valley. Monument Valley is part of the Navajo reservation and as such is governed by Navajo rules, one of which is that there is only free access to limited parts of the valley. To see more you have to sign up for a tour. This is much like in Canyon de Chelly where there is only one trail with free public access. Other areas can only be seen by hiring a Navajo guide or taking a Navajo tour. The road around Monument Valley that is open to the public is a loop of approximately 17 miles of graded dirt road. Most of the cars on that road did not have 4-wheel drive, but Gerry and I were still glad that we had not subjected our little Ford Escort to that surface.

Monument Valley

Monument Valley

Our tour lasted more than four hours and was well worth the money. We were in a converted small truck that had all-wheel drive, which proved necessary on more than one occasion. We drove about 15 miles into the valley and half of what we covered was accessible only with 4-wheel drive and as there were no street names or road signs, you had to have a driver who knew his way around. Ours clearly did. A man of about 50, he pointed out all the famous rocks and tried to help us see how the shapes could be interpreted to match their names. Some of the famous ones are the two gloves, one with the thumb on the left and one with the thumb on the right; the stagecoach, with the driver in front and the luggage on top. And so on, and so on. Every ten minutes or so, we would stop and all pile out to take photos or just to gawp. In spite of the heat, it was breathtaking, and as the day wore on the heat became less intense, the light mellowed, and the whole place took on a kind of warm glow.

Monument Valley

Some unexpected things we saw were: A mini sandstorm that blew up just as we were entering the Valley. Although it lasted only a few minutes, it was horribly uncomfortable as the sand whipping into your face was quite painful and of course you were breathing it and eating it as well, and it limited visibility dramatically. Another was a river with water in it. Quite a shock given how dry the valley first appeared, but explained simply as the result of an in-ground spring. And the final surprise was rain-clouds, big and dark and menacing in the distance with long black fingers that reached toward the ground. Our guide assured us that at this time of year even though it rained, the rain never reached the ground.

Monument Valley

Monument Valley

Monument Valley

Monument Valley

It was almost dark when we were finally dropped off back at the campground and we had to hustle to get a bite to eat and get to the showers before they closed at 9:30. Then it was time for bed as we looked forward to waking up the next morning with the monuments of monument valley visible in the distance through the windows of our tent. But first we had to get to sleep. That turned out to be extremely difficult for two very unrelated reasons. First, our tent was pitched on the red sand that is the desert's main component. That sand had been soaking up the heat of the sun all day and now that it was dark, it was giving up all that heat to - you guessed it - us! You can't imagine how hot it was in that tent even with every door and window possible unzipped. Reason number two was that the campground was so well lit that you might think it was the middle of the day. First of all, not very conducive to easily falling asleep, and second not very forgiving of the fact that we were so hot all we wanted to do was be naked. These two factors conspired to give us probably the worst night's sleep we have had since we started our travels (would you believe) more than four years ago!

We were not sorry to leave Goulding's campground and would recommend it to no tent camper. In retrospect, we should have taken the motel in Medicine Hat.

For our non-American readers, RV is short for Recreational Vehicle. Sometimes also called a fifth wheel, it would probably be called a caravan in England. It is truly a mobile home, although that term funnily enough is used more often for a home that is moved by tractor-trailer only to be set on concrete blocks until it becomes a target for the nearest tornado. But that, as they say, is another story. The RV usually comes equipped with all modern conveniences, bedroom, kitchen, shower, toilet, and eats gasoline at a rate of about 10 miles to the gallon.