Monument Valley and Shiprock

Four states in one day today - well Colorado was cheating a bit but more on that later. The primary venue for today's episode was Monument Valley. I have been a fan of western movies for as long as I can remember. My father was a great fan of John Wayne and introduced me to his movies at a young age. The first one I can remember was John Ford's classic, Stagecoach, and I was captivated by the scenery so for almost half a century Monument Valley has been one of my "must go there" places.

Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, which encloses most of the valley and its famous mesas, buttes, towers and other formations, straddles the Arizona - Utah state border so it's a bit like travelling in a space warp. I started in Arizona but the highway to the park crosses into Utah just before the entry road to the park and a few hundred metres down the road, you cross back into Arizona before the park entrance. The tourist drive is entirely in Arizona but many of the rock formations you're viewing are in Utah, then you can drive into Utah for a view back into the park in Arizona.

Entrance fee is only $5.00. The Navajo could learn something about price modelling and what the market will bear from the National Parks Service but I suspect they make most of their money from licensing the various tour operators and the hotel and visitor centre giftshop.

While the visitor centre provides captivating views, the best experience is from the 17 mile scenic drive that winds its way through the rock formations. The road is unpaved and quite rocky in parts but still suitable for conventional vehicles if you take your time (the speed limit varies from 10-15 mph so you're forced to take it easy anyway) and pick the right line through the tricky sections. I was amused to watch one car being led back up the steep start/end part of the road by a pedestrian, moving small rocks (hand size) out of the way and pointing out the best line to take to the driver while a third man walked behind shaking his head saying "there's plenty of clearance, can we just get on with it?" - oh, to be a fly on the wall for the rest of their trip.

I love these two buttes - they are almost mirror images (photographed from the visitor centre and clearly showing cars on the start of the scenic drive).

View of scenic drive from visitor centre

As usual this trip, the sky was overcast most of the time but there were some periods of sunshine.

West Mitten Butte

Mitchell Mesa and Three Sisters

At several places along the drive, local Navajo have set up concession stands mostly selling jewellery (I bought a turquoise necklace).

The most commercial of the sites on the drive though is John Ford's Point commemorating the shot in the movie Stagecoach where John Wayne sat on his horse surveying the valley. The man on the horse (seen in the image below), goes out and poses every time a tourist "bus" arrives ("bus" is a bit grandiose - they are mostly pickup trucks with three rows of seats on the tray and an open canopy to shelter the passengers from the sun/rain). I just missed him when I first got there but waited around for the next "show" a few minutes later when a bus of Japanese tourists arrived. It was quite peculiar to listen to their Navajo guide speaking fluent Japanese! Anyway, as the horseman was setting his pose, a tourist wandered onto the rock just next to the horse. There were polite grumblings from the Japanese and other tourists lining up their shot of a lifetime when from over my left shoulder I heard: "Hey mate, get out of the bloody way will ya!". You can take the bloke out of Australia but you can't take the Aussie out of the bloke :-)

John Ford's Point

Some of my other favourite views:

Spearhead Mesa (right) and Rain God Mesa (left)

 Classic view from Artist's Point

Three Sisters behind Camel Butte

As can be seen from the last two images, the weather was setting in again so I headed back to the visitor centre for the compulsory fridge magnet search. Mission accomplished and wallet $4.00 lighter, it was time to head out. Back across the border into Utah, I decided to take the road north to see the view of the Valley from the Utah side (made famous in Forrest Gump) a few miles up Hwy 163 to the somewhat obviously named Redlands Viewpoint.

A few more miles up the road is Mexican Hat, a small town on the San Juan River, a tributary of the Colorado River that now forms an arm of Lake Powell further downstream. Mexican Hat is so named for a stylish rock formation just out of town - it does resemble an upside down sombrero on top of a small butte.

OK, so onto the 4 states story. I was hoping to slip into New Mexico to see Shiprock (and clock up another state) but a short detour on the way takes in Four Corners. No, not the long running ABC current affairs show, but the (as I was soon to find out) rather tawdry Navajo market surrounding the only point in the USA where four states meet.

So having paid $3 for the privilege, I stood over the very point where you can actually stand in 4 states simultaneously.

I think I was actually parked in Colorado so it was not really cheating but I've been to Colorado before so I don't have to claim it with this experience ;-)

Back into Arizona for 8 miles, then

for my 4th state for the day, 29th lifetime and 7th border crossing for the day (so far). The first thing I noticed in New Mexico was the landscape

...familiar shape BUT a different colour scheme! It seemed quite foreign.

Shiprock is a small town in the NW corner of New Mexico named after the nearby rock formation that rises more than 1500 ft from the plains. You can't miss the rock (it can be seen from more than 20 miles away) but it's not obvious how to get directly to it. I approached from the west passing just north of it before driving into Shiprock town. The next main road south passes east of it so I found myself circling it and hoping this would be an inward spiral. As I approached the rock just to the east, the weather turned really nasty:

Still about 10 miles away, I persisted through the rain and eventually found a road that drove close enough to get reasonable views. There was some apparently public land with dirt tracks heading towards the rock but they were clearly 4WDish and I didn't want to get trapped on a wet track, so I walked about half a mile or so in to get this shot.

The sky was threatening another downpour so I hiked it back to the car and headed back to...Arizona! After crossing the border again (8th and last for the day) at the small village called, somewhat obviously, Red Rock, the road turned south and ran down a pretty valley between two mountain ranges - red rocks on the west (Arizona) and yellow-grey rocks on the east (New Mexico) - it was really that obvious - you could almost see the line on the ground. The road soon turned west and wound its way up over the Chuska Mountains (the red ones) and on to Chinle (I don't know how to pronounce it - apparently it's an anglicisation of a Navajo word but that doesn't help - must find out tomorrow). The road to Chinle skirts the northern boundary of tomorrow's destination, Canyon de Chelly National Monument (an ancient Anasazi site with cave dwellings in the cliffs) but there was a road in to two overlooks and there was just enough light left to get a sneak preview before tomorrow...see tomorrow's post for images.

For today, 378  miles, 4 states (well, OK 3) and a lifetime "must go there" achieved - now for some sleep :-)