Monument Valley and Natural Bridges National Monument

Monument Valley was my favorite location when I toured the west 11 years ago with Bradley. I wasn't disappointed this time. We stayed at Gouldings, the same campground across the road from MV that we stayed in last time. The campground is surrounded by red rock cliffs, has a gift shop, dining room, grocery store, and a lodge. It also has the movie site of a cabin used by John Wayne while filming Stagecoach.

Monument Valley is on Navajo Tribal Lands. When you visit it, you must either drive an assigned dirt road or hire a Navajo guide who will take you to sites that cannot be seen when driving the planned loop road. Over 135 movies have been filmed here. The story is that the original Mr. Goulding went to Hollywood during the depression (1930's) with $60 in his pocket. He met director, John Ford, showed him some black/white photos of the valley and talked him into making movies in what became the "iconic west."

We chose to hire a Navajo guide who spent 1/2 day driving us around the valley, telling us about his native culture, showing us natural arches and monoliths, and taking us to a traditional Navajo home, the hogan, where we observed a woman spinning wool into yarn. At the end of the tour he sang us several Navajo songs in a beautiful setting.

The Navajo society is matrilineal. When a man marries, he moves in with the wife and pays her family a dowry. If she is a skilled weaver, potter, etc., the dowry is increased accordingly. The Navajo, or Dine, value the sky, mother earth, water, women and then veterans in that order. Elders are highly respected. The female hogan is round to symbolize the woman's pregnant belly, and has nine wooden supports which represent the 9 months of pregnancy. The door always faces the East. The family awakens at least one hour before dawn to welcome the sun. Movement around the hogan is always clockwise. The traditional hogan is made of cedar wood and is covered by a mixture of sand and water (mud). Some Navajo still live in hogans, especially elders. We were informed that the reservation is @the size of West Virginia and @75% of the Navajo live on the reservation.

The next day we decided to visit National Bridges Ntl Park which is about 2 hours away. We had to drive about 1500 feet on a dirt road that scaled a mesa. There were no guardrails and at least 10 switchbacks. The park itself had 3 natural bridges formed within the same sandstone canyon. Quite interesting.

Hogan

Me on horse at John Ford's Point