Cacti & Canyons Mar/April 2015 - Day 8 Monument Valley & Mystery Valley

[katiebaz]

We woke as the sun was rising and drew back the curtains to watch the sunrise over the monuments whilst drinking a cup of tea. Now there is a great way to wake up!

After a lovely breakfast in the hotel restaurant we headed into Monument Valley itself as we had a tour booked with Navajo Spirit Tours and were due to meet our guide at the View Hotel inside the park. Now you can drive round some of Monument Valley yourself but there are many places you can only go with a guide so we decided to make the most of our time here and book an all-day tour of Monument Valley and the very intriguing ( and Scooby Doo sounding ) Mystery Valley.

Navajo Spirit Tours had been highly recommended on Trip Advisor and we can’t praise them enough. This day has got to be one of the highlights of this trip, and indeed one of our BEST DAYS EVER as we travelled into this beautiful and amazing place by our Navajo guide, the wonderfully named Will Cowboy. This is his English name and the “cowboy” comes from a nickname his grandfather was given when he worked on the railways. Will Cowboy was an amazing guide, both interesting and funny and kept us entertained all day. He had grown up in Monument and Mystery Valley so was able to give us a special insight and personal stories too.



The day started with a morning tour of Monument Valley and it was brilliant to see these iconic rocks up close. Will told us lots about Navajo history and culture as well as regaling us with stories of the many films that have been shot there - such as John Wayne westerns, Forrest Gump, Thelma and Louise, National Lampoon etc etc. The distances between the rock formations are really hard to judge as the land is so flat between them and it looks like they are really close. However there is over 3 miles between the Mittens, and that is why the Navajo make excellent marksmen due to their ability to judge distance.





Monument Valley is stunning and we really enjoyed seeing all the different rock formations such as the Mittens, three sisters, dragons etc. We also visited a traditional Navajo home, where I had my hair put up in a Navajo style and bought some beautiful hand made jewellry. Will also took us to remote places and sang traditional Navajo songs which was eerily beautiful against the majestic red rocks.








After grabbing lunch at the View Hotel, which as the name says has a brilliant view of the Valley we had the second part of our tour which was a trip into Mystery Valley. You can’t access Mystery Valley without a guide and this was even better than the morning tour, as you get to see hidden places you just can’t normally access. Will took us and another family climbing up over rocks, up ladders and down into caves. The other family were a bit hesitant to do some of the climbing, but fortunately we managed to “persuade” them to give it ago and it was well worth it. We saw ancient Puebloan ruins, amazing rock formations and learnt so much about the Navajo and this beautiful area. It was such good fun and we all felt like kids again, clambering over rocks and discovering what was there.








After saying goodbye to Will we headed back to Gouldings Lodge and had swim before dinner. We ate again in the lovely restaurant watching the sun go down over the ancient stones, very tired but contented.

[florida girl]

Great report and photos. Totally agree with one of Best days ever it is such an amazing place to visit.We stayed at the View hotel and what a sight to wake up to each morning.

[katiebaz]

Originally Posted by florida girl

Great report and photos. Totally agree with one of Best days ever it is such an amazing place to visit.We stayed at the View hotel and what a sight to wake up to each morning.

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Yes such an amazing view and the view hotel looked lovely

[CrispyA]

Brilliant pictures - looks like an amazing day. What did your hair look like?