Our final magnificent stop of the Great American West Tour Ed and I took the summer of 2019 was Monument Valley on Navajo land right at the border of southeastern Utah and northeastern Arizona.
Certainly saved one of the best for last.
The first view one gets of Monument Valley from the terrace of the visitor’s center:
If you have ever watched a Western, or even generally enjoyed a regular diet of movies, you probably recognize these iconic formations.
Monument Valley has been made famous by Hollywood Westerns as well as helped make these Westerns epic and iconic, as this excellent video illustrates.
West Mitten Butte
Merrick Butte
The three big Buttes, West Mitten, East Mitten and Merrick, are the most iconic, most photographed attractions of Monument Valley, no doubt. But there is far more to see and marvel at, and in the course of one long lovely day Ed and I got to quite a lot of it which I will share here.
In the morning we drove along the Monument Valley Loop Drive that visitors may take on their own in a regular car.
Beyond that route, to the south, one needs to hire a guide in a jeep to explore. We would do that in the afternoon.
So first, the Loop Drive. Here’s Merrick Butte’s southern facade, as seen from the road.
West Mitten Butte
Elephant Butte
Three Sisters
Musical and/or Adaptation are not listed there as regular awards. That suggests these were especially added this year. However one reads the award designation for “The Tell-Tale Heart – a musicabre”, one thing is clear: American Filmatic Arts Awards created a new category (or two?) to recognize the work, and that is a special honor I do feel sincerely, regardless of my humorous musings here.
