Monument Valley

June 11, 2013 Tuesday

I planned on today being an all day adventure but it turned out that is not what happened.  I had packed a lunch and made sure we had plenty of water.  It was about 70 miles to Monument Valley.  The drive was nice as was the scenery.

Our first stop was at the Goulding's Trading Post.  Harry and Leona (Mike) Goulding opened the trading post in 1921.  They lived in Monument Valley and traded with the Indians.  They were very well respected.  The original Trading post is now a museum. 

The Goulding's introduced John Ford to Monument Valley and he made many famous films here, including "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" and "Stagecoach".  Many, many other films were made here over the years.  This building was the family potato storage room but was used as John Wayne's characters office in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

After spending some time in the museum and Trading Post we drove over to drive through the park.  This is not a National Park but is owned by the Navajo Tribal Park System.  They do not honor the National Park passes.  It cost us $5 each to enter the park.  We did not go into the Visitor's Center as we were first going to do the 17 mile drive.  Anyway, all the places we have been in lately all have the same stuff. 

You can either pay to go on one of the tours or you can drive yourself in a self guided tour.  We decided to take the drive even though they warn you it is an unpaved dirt road and you should have a high clearance vehicle.  I was very surprised that the road was in such bad shape.  I wonder if they keep it that way on purpose so that most people take the tours they offer.  The tours run from $40 up to over $150.  Here is a view of part of the road, and this was the good part!

We saw one car stuck in the red sand with their front wheels in a hole and maybe a broken front axel.  Thank goodness we have 4-wheel drive!  We decided to only do about 4 miles of the tour before we turned back.  We got to the point where the road became one way and we would have had to drive the entire 17 miles.  The distance we did drive took over 30 minutes. 

Here are a couple of pictures -

The mittens, the most photographed part of the valley.

Elephant Butte -

Three Sisters -

Anyway, we were disappointed in Monument Valley.  We stopped at a turnout to have our lunch and then headed back to the RV.  We pack up and head out to Colorado tomorrow so this gives us a little more time for that. 

That is all for now.  Here are all the pictures I took -