Monument Valley | Sedona Monthly Magazine

MONUMENT VALLEY
Monument Valley We bet you’ve never seen Monument Valley like this. Where to stay, where to eat, the tours to take and what to do when the sun goes down. By Erika Any Finch

Monument Valley has captured the imaginations of people all over the world since Hollywood first showed us the expansive landscape and soaring monoliths in 1925. Count-less photographers have been inspired by the colorful rock formations and the valley’s ever-changing light. Even French singer Johnny Hallyday performs a song titled Monument Valley on his 2007 album Le Coeur D’Un Homme.

Admittedly, Sedona Monthly’s staff is no exception – we’ve been under Monument Valley’s spell since we first visited in 2000. While we were enchanted by the landscape, it didn’t seem like there was much to do other than check out the visitors center, eat some frybread and maybe take a guided tour. But after some research, we recently returned to Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park with a packed itinerary (and came home with a kitten, but that’s another story). It turns out the park might offer some of the most memorable experiences to be had on the Navajo Reservation if you’re willing to do a little planning. We went horseback riding, took tours with guides who grew up in the valley, spent an evening under the stars with a Navajo dancer and flutist, hiked at sunrise and wandered through a historical museum. As it turns out, three nights was barely enough time to do all we had planned, even after our hot air balloon tour was canceled due to windy weather.

The tribal park is a picturesque four-hour drive from Sedona (via highways 89, 160 and 163). It straddles both Arizona and Utah. We spent months researching the best ways to see Monument Valley and experience its culture, so use this story as a guide for planning a trip to an extraordinary spot located in Sedona’s backyard. It’s an adventure you won’t soon forget.

Dineh Trail Rides of Monument Valley
Horseback riding in Monument Valley should be on everyone’s bucket list. It was something we dreamed about for years, but not long ago the trail-riding outfits closed up shop when the Navajo tribe stopped allowing horse tours on the valley floor (it’s our understanding that the tour groups were riding too close to residences and private property, thus the moratorium was put in place). Lucky for us, that moratorium was lifted a few years ago, and once again you’re free to gallop across the valley floor like the characters from your favorite John Ford film.

After scouting prices and riding locations, we found Dineh Trail Rides, located on the valley floor at milepost 5 near the Three Sisters formation, to be the most reasonable. The outfit has been in the same location for 10 years. Dineh Trail Rides has 32 horses and offers everything from 30-minute to overnight tours. We wound up on a three-hour ride with our guide, Wilson Chief. Wilson took us on a big loop of the valley floor and to rock formations and petroglyphs you can only visit with a guide. He showed us incredible

kokopelli petroglyphs near Honeymoon Cave; a formation known as the Submarine with a rock window that perfectly frames some of the valley’s most popular monoliths; and the mystical Echo Cave. We rode over sand dunes near the Needle and Yei Bei Che formations and around mesas while Wilson told us about the dozen or so families who live on the valley floor without electricity or running water. He talked about his own personal history – the cattle drives he’d been on all across the United States and his explorations of the mesas surrounding Monument Valley. He gave us pointers on riding and trotting with our horses, a rare treat that usually isn’t allowed on the trail rides we’ve experienced. (Unfortunately, there wasn’t much he could do to keep us from walking bow legged the next morning, but we still had smiles on our faces.)

If you are comfortable on a horse, there’s nothing like riding in this area. Maybe it’s all the cowboy movies we’ve seen or the iconic images of Native Americans on horseback decked out in their finery, but there’s just something about being on a horse in Monument Valley that feels right.

Dineh Trail Rides
Located on the 17-mile loop drive on the valley floor at milepost 5. Rates: $45 to $195. 435-419-0135

The View Hotel
For decades, the only option for staying overnight in Monument Valley was Goulding’s Lodge or a picturesque campground, unless you wanted to book a room in one of the outlying towns. Needless to say, you had to plan your Monument Valley experience months, if not a year, in advance. That all changed in December 2008 when The View Hotel opened adjacent to the Tribal Visitors Center inside Monument Valley Tribal Park. The View includes 95 rooms and three floors; each room has stunning views of the Mittens formations and other iconic monoliths. Some of the best views of the park can be had right from your hotel balcony, especially at sunrise.

Each guestroom is comfortably appointed with a flat-screen television; spacious bathrooms; a refrigerator, microwave and coffeemaker; and plush bath towels. The rooms are decorated with Navajo sand paintings, rugs and plant dye charts. The hotel also boasts a fitness center; an extensive gift shop; a cozy lobby with a floor-to-ceiling rock fireplace; and a restaurant that serves up traditional Navajo cuisine, headed by Executive Chef MacNeal Crank. MacNeal was born in Monument Valley, but he attended Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Chicago when it was still the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago. The restaurant serves up a breakfast buffet as well as lunch and dinner. You can dine indoors or outdoors – either way you’ll enjoy the same expansive views that you enjoy from your guest room (the hotel is also a wedding hot spot; owner Armanda Ortega was married at The View, and her wedding photos hang in the lobby). For dinner one night, we enjoyed The Duke’s Steak, a 14-ounce ribeye, and the Wild Wild West, a buffalo medallion with a port wine sauce. One thing to keep in mind: The Navajo Nation is dry, which means you won’t be able to purchase alcoholic beverages on the reservation.

Don’t miss the Tribal Visitors Center, which will give you a much better understanding of the Navajo Nation (especially if you don’t take a tour during your visit).

The View Hotel
Located inside Monument Valley Tribal Park. Room rates range from $99 to $199 plus tax depending on the season ($20 to $30 extra for rooms with premium views). 435-727-5555; www.monumentvalleyview.com

Wildcat Trail
The silence in Monument Valley is so enormous that your soul absorbs it. You speak in hushed voices as if the sound of humans might scare the quiet away. Mostly, you don’t speak at all because nothing you can say is more important than the scenery surrounding you. At no other time is the silence as profound as sunrise. It’s not as if people are still tucked away in their hotel beds. Sunrise is the equivalent of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Monument Valley, and everyone wakes up for it. Travelers stand alone on their hotel balconies or gather in hushed groups near the visitors center, but they are all awake.

One of the best spots to experience the sunrise and the silence is the Wildcat Trail, one of only two trails in the tribal park that you can hike without a guide. The 3.2-mile loop leaves from the campground north of The View Hotel and immediately makes a sandy descent to the valley floor, eventually circling the left mitten. It’s a nature trail, which means signs identify the various plants along the route. Amazingly enough, we were the only people on the trail one Saturday morning, which allowed our imaginations to travel back in time to a pre-tourist Monument Valley when only the Diné had the fortune of watching the sun rise between the left mitten and Merrick Butte.

The Wildcat Trail is the closest you can get to either of the mitten formations without a guide, so don’t miss it. Your views stretch all the way to the horizon, and you’ll be able to see many more distant monoliths and spires than just the mittens. This trail was not open the last time we visited Monument Valley about seven years ago, and we applaud the park for this much-needed addition.

Wildcat Trail
Trailhead located at the campground north of The View Hotel, 3.2-mile loop

Goulding’s Lodge
For history buffs or fans of Western movies, Goulding’s Lodge is paradise. Harry and Leone (better known by her nickname of “Mike”) Goulding came to Monument Valley in the 1920s. Harry was a sheepherder from Durango, Colo. The couple opened Goulding’s Trading Post in 1928 (construction mostly took place in 1927; it opened for business in 1928, although the Gouldings had been trading out of tents for two years). The original trading post is now a museum complete with scores of magazine and newspaper clippings; a movie room (see story on page 26); the Josef Muench Room, which displays Monument Valley photography as well as Harry and Mike’s marriage certificate; and Harry and Mike’s upstairs living quarters featuring dozens of framed family photos. The museum is open to everyone, and it would be easy to spend hours poring over all the documents and displays.

The lodge was built in 1953 as a row of motel rooms, and it was expanded in 1956. Today it includes 62 rooms, deluxe apartments and cabins, all with private balconies. The property also features the Stagecoach Dining Room; an exercise room; indoor pool; gift shop; campground with RV hookups; carwash; laundromat; and grocery store. We stayed in Goulding’s comfy cabins that are located behind the lodge and near the dining room. Each cabin has a patio with views of the park (the park entrance is five miles from the lodge); a flat-screen TV; a refrigerator and coffeemaker; a DVD player; plus a sofa sleeper, Murphy bed and two queen-size beds. You’ll definitely want to borrow one of the John Wayne films available in the lobby – a nice way to end the day.

Speaking of movies, Goulding’s also boasts the Earth Spirit Theater located behind the museum. The theater screens John Wayne films and Monument Valley documentaries.

Goulding’s Lodge
1000 Main Street in Monument Valley. Room rates range from $78 to $185 plus tax depending on the season. 435-727-3231; www.gouldings.com

Goulding’s Tours
It’s probably safe to say some of the most popular tours in Monument Valley are those conducted by Goulding’s Lodge. Everyone in our party had taken a Goulding’s tour at least once, and we all thought it was so memorable that we wanted to do it again. Enter Larry Holiday, a Goulding’s guide who grew up in Monument Valley, moved to Phoenix for six years and then returned to his place of birth. Larry is full of knowledge and legends about the valley, so we set off on a full-day (eight-hour) tour in an open-air truck with Larry behind the wheel.

The tour actually begins in Mystery Valley, which is south of Monument Valley and only accessible with a guide. The roads are carved out of red sand the consistency of baby powder, and you’ll need to be prepared for a dusty and somewhat bumpy journey. In Mystery Valley, you’ll stop at ruins including Square House, Baby Feet and Longhouse. Larry pointed out pottery shards littering the ground (DO NOT remove the shards from the site!) and explained how the broken pottery was ground up and used as a salve for wounded animals. He told us many elders believe the ruins still possess negative energy because the Navajo’s ancestors abandoned the dwellings so abruptly; all guides go through a ceremony before becoming guides “to protect us from the mojo in the ruins,” says Larry.

In Mystery Valley, you’ll see Honeymoon, Stout and Delicate arches, among others. You’ll have the opportunity to get out of the vehicle and climb up to a few of the arches. We were enthralled by the House of Many Hands, a small ruin with walls covered in hundreds if not thousands of Anasazi handprints. Midway through the tour, we stopped for lunch. Larry barbecued hamburgers toward the back of a shaded canyon, and we dined on burgers, fruit, cookies and cowboy coffee at picnic tables. (Vegetarian items are available upon request.)

After lunch, it was on to Monument Valley. Ever the entertainer, Larry sang a traditional Navajo song along the drive as we spied wild horses and hogans, traditional Navajo dwellings. Once in Monument Valley, we stopped at panoramic John Ford’s Point, which was said to be one of filmmaker John Ford’s favorite camera positions in the valley, especially when it came to wide-angle shots of cavalry charges and Indian attacks. (Ford made seven movies in Monument Valley between 1938 and 1963.) At the vista point, a young Navajo man and his 20-plus-year-old horse will pose for iconic shots for a fee. We also stopped at the Sun Eye, an eye-shaped opening in the ceiling of a red rock amphitheater, and the Ear-of-the-Wind formation. The tour traverses most of the park’s 17-mile loop road, which is accessible to anyone with the right vehicle, but it also encompasses many areas that are off limits without a guide. There are countless opportunities to photograph the mesas and buttes in the valley, but you might want to bring wind protection for your camera. The sand and open vehicle can be death on photography equipment.

Goulding’s Tours
Located at Goulding’s Lodge, 1000 Main Street in Monument Valley.
All-day tour rates (including tax): $90.06 for adults and $70.05 for children 7 and younger (shorter tours are also available; see website for details). 435-727-3231; www.gouldings.com

Monument Valley Simpson’s Trailhandler Tours
When the sun sets in Monument Valley, bathing the buttes in a warm, orange glow, there doesn’t seem to be much left to do except grab a bite to eat, borrow a John Wayne flick from the hotel lobby and then settle in for the night. Not so if you book the Dreamcatcher Package through Monument Valley Simpson’s Trailhandler Tours, owned by Harold Simpson who started the company 14 years ago. The program begins with a 2.5-hour sunset tour of the valley. Our guide, Carlos Mose, was an incredible photographer who knew exactly where to take us for the best shots. We wound up at the sand dune in front of the Totem Pole and Yei Bei Che formations, photographing the ripples in the sand.

After the tour, we parked at the base of a towering monolith where we were treated to a feast of Navajo tacos: grilled steak, beans, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and onions piled high atop of frybread. After dinner, Harold (who was born and raised in Monument Valley) and his guides took turns telling stories and playing the flute while a dancer in traditional dress performed in front of a roaring fire. Smoke from the fire curled up toward a black night sky that was studded with millions of stars. For the finale, each man in the group chose a woman he didn’t know for a group round dance. The darkness and the fact that we were surrounded by strangers allowed us to leave our inhibitions behind and abandon ourselves to a cultural experience like none other. •

Monument Valley Simpson’s Trailhandler Tours
Call for tour prices. 1-877-686-2848; www.trailhandlertours.com