Detour #189: Monument Valley, USA

Photo Halie West / Unsplash

monument valley is surely the ultimate backdrop to any great american driving adventure.

You’ve seen it on the big screen, in classic John Ford westerns like Stagecoach and The Searchers. You’ve seen it on billboards looming large behind the Marlboro Man. It is the symbol of the American West, of true grit.

To see it for real, to drive beneath these incredible sandstone behemoths, is a humbling experience. To feel small and insignificant against the majesty of nature.

It’s a must-add item to the bucket list of Awesome American road trips.

Photo Clay Banks / Unsplash

Despite the monumental (pun intended) scale of the great rock buttes Monumental Valley is actually quite small, at just five square miles across, straddling the Arizona-Utah border and sitting within the Navajo Nation’s land.

To reach it from the Arizona side you’ll first head to the town of Kayenta. Only established in 1986 it is unique in being the only such township to exist under the laws of the Navajo Nation. As the gateway to Monument Valley it’s a touristy place with plenty of fast food and motels to attract travellers.

Take the two-lane Highway 163 out of Kayenta and you’re straight out into the high desert where the road soon narrows to a single lane and you begin to see the outlines of the huge sandstone piles in the distance. It’s typical desert road, with an endless vanishing point and not a curve in sight, just the promise of the Valley ahead to keep you motivated.

Eventually you’ll arrive at the visitor centre where you’ll have to pay $8 per person to take the 17-mile dirt road that loops between the rocks which tower up to 1,000 feet above. Despite being unpaved the route is drivable in most cars, although if your American odyssey is in a Corvette convertible you’ll want to take a guided tour instead.

Photo Justin Roy / Unsplash

Sunrise or sunset are the best times to visit as the golden hour light turns the buttes a beautiful red hue and there are 11 evocatively-named places to stop and take it all in, from Elephant Butte to Artist’s Point and The Thumb.

Back on the highway you’ll soon cross the border into Utah and the town of Bluff. Home to just a couple of hundred hardy residents it’s most notable for its own extraordinary geological formation – The Navajo Twin Rocks.

Words Nik Berg Twitter | Instagram
Additional photography Donal Giannatti / Mar Bocatcat / Nik Shuliahin / Unsplash

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ROADBOOK

CLASS: desert drive

NAME: monument valley

ROUTE: Kayenta, ARIZONA to Bluff, UTAH

COUNTRY: usa

DISTANCE: 68 miles

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