Monument Valley

Cowboy in Monument Valley

Below are pictures of Monument Valley

Window View of Monuments

Mystery Valley

Anasazi Indian Ruins

MonumentValley

Navajo Weaver

Merrick Butte

Candle

Hogan Hut Navajos Lived in

Three Sisters

Indian Ponies in Monument Valley

We left the Grand Canyon on the day of the Government Shutdown and traveled east on 64 through the Kaibab National Forest enroute to the Monument Valley in Utah.  The land was desolate and for 177 miles we traveled through Hopi and Navajo Indian lands.  Monument Valley and Mystery Valley are sacred lands for the Navajo Indians.  On the reservation the Indians still live in many ways as they did 100 years ago.  they are weavers, silversmiths, farmers and now tour guides.  The Gouldings made Monument Valley a renown tourist area after they took their last $60 and traveled to Hollywood to enlist movie producer John Ford to come to Monument Valley to make western movies.  Harry Goulding and his wife, Mike, came to Monument valley in the 1920s to open a trading post with the Indians.  Harry would buy the wool from the sheep of the Indians and go to Flagstaff and resale it and then buy dry goods to sell in his trading post to the Indians.  During the depression the indians and the area suffered greatly and that is why he went to Hollywood, to bring some economic opportunity to the area and the Indians.  Today it is one of the top tourist attractions out West.  Stagecoach was the first of many westerns that Ford made starring John Wayne.  Henry Fonda starred in the western, How the West was Won.  The  area is truly western and the pictures I have shared to not do the area justice.  We spent two full days here seeing the area.