More Travels 4-Almost Dusted

Almost Dusted in Monument Valley

In the early morning the lonely road
in to the Navajo Reservation
 stretches south from Mexican Hat.

Before 9:00 a.m., we were headed into Monument Valley on the Navajo Reservation. Most of the Navajo jewelry stands were empty and closed.

Gray Whiskers rises in the distance.

Mitchell Butte and Gray Whiskers stood out in the morning sun. We stopped for pictures. "Take all you want," said Andy. "We can always delete them."

Buttes in the background line the entrance
to the Navajo Tribal Park.

"Ten dollars for two people," said the older Native American woman at the entrance to Monument Valley Tribal Park. "Here's a map, but we don't recommend driving. Take one of the tours. They are available from the Visitor Center on top, because the road is very bad."

At the entrance, a Navajo Hogan demonstrates
ceremonial lifestyle.

We parked to take a look.
"How bad?" we asked an elderly couple driving back up the first slope.
"I might do it in a rental car but not in my own vehicle," he answered. "We went in 150 yards and turned around. I won't try it."
"Are they doing it on purpose to get people to take the tours?" asked Andy.
"Maybe, but it's bad here," answered the wife.
We parked to look around. A van pulled in next to us--a mother and two kids. "What do you think?" she asked. "I drove it in 1989, and it was fine. Are they just out for a buck?"

The first turn gives visitors a view of West Mitten formation.

"That's what we thought," said Andy. "And I'll bet the tours are expensive--at least $25. We were here too in 1975, and we drove it without any problems."
"Probably more like at least $50," she answered. "What are you going to do?"
A young Native American man drove up. "No parking here," he said. "This isn't a parking lot."
We both moved our vehicles.
For half an hour we walked around the store, plaza, patio, restaurant and bathrooms, trying to decide. "I'm going to check the cost of the tours," said Andy.
The mom, her children and I watched the nine-passenger jeep tour vehicle bang its way back up the Valley.

At site #3 cars stop to view the Three Sisters formation.

"Okay, we underestimated," said Andy, returning to the plaza. "They have really commercialized this. The one-and-a-half-hour tour is $75 a person, and the two-and-a-half-hour tour is $85 a person." He turned to me. "Let's try it; we can always turn back."
And so we set out on the impossibly impassible journey.

Nearby at site #3 the Dineh Trailhead Rides lure tourists
to travel deeper into Navajo country.

At a maximum speed of 10 m.p.h. we rolled and bounced and rattled and jostled along the 17-mile two-way and then one-way dirt path. Ruts two feet across threatened, devil winds twisted in front of us, sand patches tossed up ominous piles of powdery dust, and layers of sandstone uncovered by traffic and wind jutted up from underneath red clay. Andy deftly maneuvered the little Black Ford Focus around the worst pot holes and slowly--two miles an hour or less--steered into and over the rough spots. It was definitely worse than the Garden of the Gods road.

At site #6 Rain God Mesa dwarfs Andy as he
takes a break from the nerve-racking drive.

"It's better once you get to the loop," said an Oriental girl. Her husband or boyfriend, who was driving, just shook his head.
It WAS better on the one-way ten-mile loop, but the first 3.5 miles in and out was so bad, the comparison was ludicrous.
Andy stopped repeatedly for pictures. "Take all the photos you want," he said. "We'll never be back here." He admitted later his hands shook a couple times and he needed a break.

Rounding Rain God Mesa, the road skirts Thunderbird Mesa.

Blackwater Tours and Monument Valley Tours hauled load after load of tourists the opposite direction as we scaled the last two miles back up. Awning-covered jeep loads of nine to 25 people coughed up clouds of red dust as they passed. The passengers covered their faces with their hands and their scarves as the dirt swirled around them.

At site #7 Totem Pole shows what
erosion does to a butte.

We pretty much kept the windows closed and hesitated using air conditioning because of the strain it might cause on the engine in so inhospitable climate.
Site #4 on the return drive was called John Ford Point in remembrance of the Hollywood director who discovered John Wayne.  There, a rider on horseback offered to have pictures taken with tourists for $2.00 a person. Busloads crowded the site, but we dallied to get clear views of the landscape.

The wind picks up as we reach site #9, Artist's Point Overlook.

Going back uphill the final two miles was the worst part of the drive, with cars ahead slowing in the sand and cars coming down in the same lane to avoid the deepest ruts. We pulled to the side as much as we could when someone else rounded a bend above us and then prayed that the little Focus could make it up the rise in low gear.

North Window Overlook, site #10, provides a picture window
view of Monument Valley.

By 1:45 p.m. when we reached the top of the mesa, red clouds of dust obscured the distant formations. Winds up to 40 m.p.h. whipped the sands and blurred everything in sight. We stopped at the stalls of the Tribal Park Arts Center, browsed at the jewelry display counters, and looked at all the pottery and sand paintings. The wind whipped up more sand. It stung my legs.
"I've got sand in my mouth," said Andy.
I knew exactly what he was talking about. The powdery fine grains crunched between my teeth and clung to my hair. By 2:30 p.m. Monument Valley was engulfed in a full blown sandy dust storm. 

John Ford's Point, site #4, celebrates
the Hollywood director who made
John Wayne famous.

"I feel really sorry for those people who paid $75 or $85 each for tours in the open jeeps," said Andy. It was miserable up high on the cliff side at Gouldings Trading Post. But down beneath us in the cloud of reddish powder, every breath must have been misery. And those tourists wouldn't be able to see a thing!

Although it looks like a hand, East Mitten Butte
represents a spiritual being watching over the land.

Goulding's catered to the buses with full loads of Oriental tourists. They shopped in the Trading Post for tchotchke items like key chains, tee-shirts and mugs, but the long-time tourist inholding on the Navajo Reservation seemed to have held on to a thriving business. At least he held a niche market in what has become a milk-the-tourist haven.
But the scenery is out-of-this-world. No wonder the Navajo Nation takes pride in Monument Valley.
I'm really glad we went. I'm really glad we drove ourselves. And I'm really glad we made it out before the dust storm moved in!

After dinner we drove back to Monument Valley, Navajo Tribal Park entrance. A cold front had passed through, so clouds blocked the sunset, and a broken cloud cover promised to prevent any serious star gazing. Nevertheless, we caught some interesting pictures of the sun sinking behind the rock formations. No wonder this land holds spiritual significance for the Navajo peoples.