Jun 25, 20193 min read

Monuments and Mysteries

Monument Valley is a special place. The scenery is stunning and the Navajo people are genuine and hospitable. But there was something more than that which is hard to describe. We think it might be that a core tenet of the Navajo is to live in harmony and, through their living and hospitality, they passed that on to us. Regardless, we all felt more relaxed than we had in a while.

View from our cabin, taken with cell phone

We stayed at The View Cabins which are right in Navajo Nation and, as advertised, have a spectacular front- row view. We arrived in time to grab dinner on premise and witness probably the best sunset we've seen our whole trip so far. We only had one full day (and there's not a whole lot to do there) so we took two tours: a morning tour of Monument Valley, including a visit to a Navajo hogan (/hOg-un/) with a rug making demonstration and a then a rough and tumble back-country sunset tour of Mystery Valley where we saw petroglyphs and ruins from the Anasazi tribe which roamed the area 700 years ago.

Monument Valley Tour:

We found the Navajo to be welcoming and very humble

Our tour guide, Joe, explained a million things about the Navajo such as: "Navajo" vs "Dine' ", The Long Walk (1863), the Navajo Code Talkers in WWII (the only code that has never been broken), their traditions such as the Summer Healing Ceremony and marriage traditions and much more. All the while he would point out all the places where movies and commercials were filmed in this iconic landscape- over 100 movies have been filmed here- Lots of westerns but also Indiana Jones (snakes scene!), National Lampoons "Vacation, Transformers and, of course, Forrest Gump. He had some great stories about a super-model getting stuck on a high point overnight due to winds, meeting Metallica (who made a video there) and how Jeep got their trucks up top. Towards the end we were taught how the hogans were built (amazing!) and we were invited into one for a wool and rug-making demonstration. It was pretty incredible to see how the rug-maker take a very small handful of wool into several feet of yarn! (Note for Bobby: The Navajo also build their doors pointing East...)

Mystery Valley Tour:

The average adult Anasazi was only about 4'6" (Grandma Mimi, you're a giant!). These hand-prints from 700 years ago were only a little bigger than Josie's.

At 5 pm we hopped into a Chevy Suburban and headed over to neighboring Mystery Valley. Not only was our guide, Commisheena, super-knowledgeable, open and giving, she could DRIVE. We mean over big rocks, into gullies, between narrow rock/ tree lanes - the Jeep tour we took in Zion had nothing on her- it was FUN! Along the way, we made a number of stops to climb more amazing rock formations or check out ruins and petroglyphs. This tour was much less scripted- Commisheena shared about her life growing up in a hogan (no electricity until she was 18), about the spiritual Navajo beliefs and how she and her husband raise their children. Many of her stories were very personal and we are very appreciative. This tour felt like the heart of the Navajo and was the perfect complement to our morning tour. Together, they gave us an enormous respect for the Navajo and a curiosity to learn more!

On our way out to Durango, we made the obligatory stops at "Forrest Gump Point" and the Four Corners Monument (the place were UT, AZ, NM and CO meet).

ANA SAYS:

I loved everything. I love how everything was handmade, unique and beautiful. I loved seeing how they lived and what they lived in. I liked seeing the comparison for how the Anasazi ate and lived versus the Navajo.

JOSIE SAYS:

Monument Valley was a very special place that you don't get to see every day. You could see the Anasazi hand-prints on walls and little picture messages on rocks made from different tribes. The huts are really cool and it's kind of hard to believe that people still live in these type of houses (editor's note: by choice).

NEW PICTURES IN GALLERY!