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| May 28-29, 2001 |
For all the natural wonders I saw near Mexican Hat, none compares to the grandeur of Monument Valley. The rock formations here are so famous that they have become the cliche of the West, as seen in Roadrunner cartoons and Westerns from the 1950's. They take on a mythical scale in popular culture that is only exceeded by the real thing. I arrived in Monument Valley in mid-afternoon. The retired couple I had lunch with at the Goosenecks recommended the guided tour, which takes paying customers on roads that are closed to the general public. I arrived at a time of day when people were starting to set up camp, and the tour guides were struggling to find people to take into the Valley. As it turned out, I had my own personal guided tour. My guide took me to see some sacred places, like the Big Hogan, the Ear of the Wind, and the Eye of the Sun, that I would not have seen if I had driven the loop myself. She also described the monoliths in ways that only someone who has lived around them all her life could. She bounced her jeep across dunes of sand as fine as any beach's. I buckled up for fear of flipping over. The guided tour is well worth the price. I will not attempt to describe Monument Valley, because I can't possibly do it justice. The photos speak for themselves, and even they fail to entirely capture the essence of the place. I set up camp above the valley, in a shoddy campground full of roaming pets, motorcycle-riding European and Japanese tourists, and retirees in RVs. I woke up the next morning to three dogs fornicating outside my tent. Unfortunately, the campsite didn't offer much of a view of the valley. I ventured back in that morning with my own car to take more photos. I took more than 100 in my eighteen hours in Monument Valley. It's such a beautiful place that it's practically impossible to take bad pictures of it. The Grand Canyon, on the other hand... |
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