DAY 09_Part One - "Hau."

The View is the first and only hotel located inside the Monument Valley Tribal Park and we were extremely fortunate to book their last available room two days before arrival…unheard of.

The place looks like some sort of Mars Colony in a James Bond film.  One big rectangle with its back to civilization: three stories of cookie cutter rooms, each one with its own terrace overlooking the valley.

The 17-mile Monument Valley loop entrance is also located in the parking lot and, wanting to avoid any crowds, we were up before sunrise in preparation for the 2 ½ hour bumpy ride.

Creeping out onto our terrace in the silent hours of the morning, the stars seemed even brighter than they did the night before with Orion shining bright above us as Jupiter and the waning crescent moon hovered oer Merrick’s Butte.

If it’s one thing I miss about living in a small town in Oregon (besides the people), it’s being able to see the stars.

We took advantage of a continental breakfast at The View restaurant and set out for The Loop just minutes after the road opened…8:04AM.

The light was perfect.

David was at the helm of the Volvo wagon as we crept down the steep introductory descent, the red dirt road nearly obliterated by erosion in places, but for the most part, it wasn’t too bad…I can say that because we weren’t driving my car.

The trail flattened out and we continued on methodically, surrounded by the absolutely iconic landscape that we enjoyed in isolation.

Stopping at every single turnout, it felt important to get out of the car and put our feet on the sacred grounds.

Sacred in many ways. 

I understand how this could sound callously trivial compared to the relevance of the Navajo, but Monument Valley was also so special for us from a cinematic standpoint. To be wandering around the Holy Land of the American Western film genre was just astonishing.

We felt like The Searchers, you know, minus the confederate ties and Wilhelm screams…

Stagecoach, How the West Was Won, Easy Rider, National Lampoon’s Vacation, Thelma & Louise, 2001: A Space Odyssey, even Back to the Future III.

I half expected to see boxes of ACME dynamite stacked up on the road, Wile E. Coyote struggling to light the fuse.

John Ford commanding a film crew…berating us for taking photos with the horizon line in the middle of the frame.

At one turnout a private tour caught up to us and a Navajo guide with chiseled features jumped out of the driver’s side, stared at us, and gave us an earnest, “Hau.”

We froze.  He laughed.  Phew.

Purchasing ghost bead bracelets from a local, we finished The Loop and, even after nine days on the road, felt refreshed.

I took the wheel for the next couple hours as we adventured onward to Page, Arizona, the second big escapade of the day a long-awaited one: a hike through Lower Antelope Canyon.

To Be Continued…

DAY 09_Part Two