USA 2019: Monument Valley

I've read about it, I've seen it in the films and now I'm seeing it for real. Monument Valley is one of these places that really does live up to expectations. It certainly did not disappoint. By the way, it is neither a National Park, not a State Park. It is a Navajo Tribal Park, owned and run by Navajos.

The road from Mexican Hat to Monument Valley. This particular stretch of Highway 163, or rather a piece a little further along, is called Forest Gump's Hill. It features in the film of the same name apparently. I haven't seen it (or Star Wars or Aliens or Star Trek). Because of this, it is a very famous piece of tarmac and lots of people stop and try to replicate the exact filmic location. Some of them wander into the middle of the road to do so. Some of them deserve to be run over for doing so. Some of them are. A sort of Holywood road kill. I didn't notice if they've put stars in the middle of the raod commemorating each fan who falls by the wayside with a camera in thier hand.

This is Mrs P in our luxury coach that took us out on an all-day Mystery Valley and Monument Valley tour. Larry was our guide and he was a full-blood Navajo so he was able to tell us lots about the Navajo lifestyle and the issues they face trying to reconcile traditional ways with the modern world.

An arch in Mystery Valley. The mystery with this one is "what was it called?". I can't remember.

Another mystery arch, this time with a tree. Believe it or not but someone had actually carved an 'X' on the spot on a rock that gives the best photograph of this combination.

Whilst I'm on a roll of mystery arches, here's another one. Not quite as mysterious as the other two. It has got a name: Mystery Arch #3.

Some pre-Puebloan dwellings. These could be 3000 years old. Apart from being recognised as being of historic importance, they are neither well documents or protected.

We came across quite a few pteroglyphs and this one is of a couple of pronghorn sheep. Larry, our guide, told us that since the advent of Trump, there has been much more vandalism of these artefacts than ever before. Some people have taken to peppering them with bullets. Wasn't the Taliban particularly adept at defacing historical artefacts in Afghansitan?

There is water in the desert and this little pool gave some good reflections. It also had a good colony of water skaters skimming the surface.

As can be seen, the weather was good and the temperatures must have been approaching 90F.

I'm sure Larry told us what this is called but I'll let it go as another mystery.

This, I think, a Fragrant White Sand Verbena, The flowers are not yet fully open but they still smelt nice.

The only yellow broad-leafed cactus that we came across.

There was lots of the red variety around,

Another lovely Desert Rose.

A Spotted Lizard.

The 'Duke' against the archetypical background of Monument Valley.

I found it rather strange that, despite that the characters he played were not particulary 'native friendly', the Navajo are using his image and associations to extract as much cash from tourists as possible. And why not? The films that John Wayne starred in and which were shot in Monument Valley were all made by John Ford and, according to Guide Larry, the Navajo have a high opinion of JF. He looked after the Navajos who acted in his flims and did many 'good deeds' to help the communities cope with a number of set-backs (floods, droughts etc). larry was very dismissive of modern stars such as Johnny Depp who jet in for their bit of filming and then jet back out straight away.

And now I'll let the landscape speak for itself. It is immense. Stark and beautiful at the same time. It was destined to the ideal backdrop for Westerns when they came to be made.