Monument Valley - Day 1 & 2

 

    I had some grand plans to make a road trip during my school's spring break.  Unfortunately for me, I am a being called as a witness in a trial on 3/11.  That falls right in the middle of my break, so my week-long roadtrip was a no go.  With that in mind I looked at places I have wanted to visit and Monument Valley was towards the top of that list.  I texted Ryan and he said he was in for a quick weekend jaunt.  I busted out of work at 12:30 and made my way to Flagstaff to pickup my passenger.

    Spanning approximately 320 miles, the drive from Phoenix to Monument Valley takes between 5 and 6 hours through three distinct ecological zones.  You start in the Sonoran Desert, make your way through the high-altitude ponderosa pines of Flagstaff, and end up in the high seat plains of the Colorado Plateau.  Monument Valley sits on the Utah border in Northern Arizona, and is on the Navajo Tribe land.  

    I grabbed Ryan and we left Flagstaff at 1:30PM and drove to Kayenta, AZ.  We grabbed some drinks, put some gas in the car, and were on our way.  Before arriving at the View Hotel, we stopped at a gas station that happened to be a pizza place too.  I had a cheese pizza, while Ryan opted for the chicken fingers.  It was tasty food for a gas station.  We checked into the hotel and the view from our balcony was incredible. The View is the only hotel located inside the tribal park and was opened in 2008.  All of the rooms face East towards the valley, and most provide a stunning view.  Since we as the sun was already down, our view was of dark silhouettes.  

    

    Since we both went to bed so early, we were both up by 0600.  I setup my camera to grab some sunrise photos and stepped onto the balcony.  It was a chilly 28 when went outside.  As the sun started to rise, the silhouettes of the valley turned into a dull red, backlit by the sunrise.  The sun ended up rising right behind Merrick Butte.  

    

    We made our way to the restaurant for the included breakfast.  It was surprisingly good for a free hotel breakfast.  We had a sunset tour booked for 4:00PM, so we decided to take our car down into the valley on the 17 mile drive.  The Navajo Ranger who checked our ticket told us to be very careful as we drove into the valley.  They had a car lose an oil pan the day before.  We decided to push forward in a 2019 Ford Mustang convertible.  The first 5 minutes of the drive had me thinking I had lost my mind.

    The 17 mile loop starts and ends at the Monument Valley Tribal Park Visitor Center.  It is a rough, ungraded road with several steep switchbacks at the beginning.  They recommend you do the drive in a high-clearance SUV or 4WD, but you dance with the one your brought.  After the initial 5 minutes, the drive was rough in places, but overall not that bad.  We spent about 2 hours traversing the bottom of the valley and made our way back to the hotel around 11:30AM.

    Ryan crawled back in bed to take a nap, and I did some work on my photos.  My eyes started to get heavy around 1:00PM, so I closed my laptop and closed my eyes.  I woke up at 3:15PM, 45 minutes before our sunset tour.  I wasn't sure if it was going to be a solo tour or my partner was going to go.  As I was walking out the door, Ryan decided that he would take the tour with me.  We met our tour guide Carlos who worked for Carl Phillips Photography.  When he heard that we had already driven down to the valley, he suggested a tour of Mystery Valley.

    

    While the 17 mile loop in Monument Valley is famous for towering buttes and Hollywood history, Mystery Valley offers a much more intimate, archaeological experience.  Locals describe it as the "soul" of the region, focusing on traces left behind by the people who liver there long before cameras arrived.  The rock formations are primarily De Chelly Sandstone, a rock layer that reveals the environmental history of the region from nearly 275 million years ago.  The De Chelly sandstone is "cross-bedded", meaning the layers are highly inclined rather than horizontal.  This structure indicates the rock was formed from massive sand dunes blown by prevailing northeasterly winds across the supercontinent Pangea.

    The deep red and orange hues are caused by iron oxide coating the quartz grains.  You can also see the "desert varnish" - dark, shiny streaks of manganese and iron oxide that often coat the alcove walls where water typically seeps.  Mystery Valley is geologically distinct from the main park because of its "backcountry" features, which are more similar to the landscapes found in Arches National Park.  There are several key geological landmarks found in the valley. Honeymoon Arch, a massive natural bridge that demonstrates how wind and water can wear through a sandstone to Crete a sky-lit opening.  Skull Arch is a prime example of differential erosion, where harder cap rock protects the softer sandstone beneath it, resulting in a shape that resembles a hollowed-out skull.  The final landmark is Square House and Ancient Ruins.  While these are cultural in nature, these cliff dwellings are geologically significant because they were built within natural "seep lines" - geological layers where groundwater hits an impermeable surface and flow out, providing a permanent water source.

    Three hours went by fast, and before we knew it, we were back at our hotel.  We headed up to the restaurant where Ryan ate chicken fried steak and I settled on a green-chile cheeseburger. We went back to the room, watched some Twilight Zone and were out before 10:00PM.  I had a morning sunrise tour booked for 06:30AM.