Monument Valley & Mystery Valley

I have to admit, I was a bit bummed about no comments on my last video about Greg finding his power. So, I was hanging out feeling a bit sad, and well…. thats why the delay on this post. Not to worry this post will be awesome still I promise. But feel free to be more vocal in your response (thats too long!, thats awesome, this post sucked – ok except the last one!). Drink in hand, onwards we go to……

MONUMENT VALLEY…

The Valley will be familiar to all of you as the backdrop to the early western films including the famous John Wayne film STAGECOACH directed by John Ford. If westerns are not your thing, (you should watch that one though), then you might’ve seen the magnificent rocky outcrops against a desert landscape in various car commercials, or Bon Jovi’s music video for Blaze of Glory. (The leather waistcoat and singing on top of a mountain, with aerial photography and CG lightening…oh yeah the 80s!)

We did a full day tour of Monument Valley and Mystery Valley. Mystery Valley is not accessible to tourists unless taken by a Navajo guide who has been given permission by the Navajo Nation. Parts of Monument Valley are the same. 

We were lucky enough to be taken by a Navajo guide named Rosie, yes it is quite a English name. But Navajo people are not allowed say their own Navajo name, but in Rosie’s case she was raised by a white foster family outside of the Navajo people. This was fairly common a few generations ago.
Rosie first took us to a Navajo hut called a Hogan, where we were treated to an arts and crafts demonstration and I got my hair done, Navajo style.

A little history to set the scene:
Back in 1864 the Navajo people, and the Hopi were taken from their homes in the desert and marched to a reservation. Many died on this winter march, which they called The Long Walk. At this tiny reservation they were held for 10 years before the US Govt created the Treaty and granted them the territory back. I guess they realized the desert had no oil.

Once they people got back to their allotted area, the children were taken away and  placed with foster families, like our Rosie, they were given white names and taught only English. Similar to the aboriginals these children grew up without their heritage and so today many older Navajo cannot speak it or understand it. 

Rosie did tell us that the kids growing up today stay on the reservation and go to the local schools where they teach Navajo and other traditions like weaving, ceremonies, and history.

The Navajo Code Talkers
The generation before hers was the code talkers. I was fascinated to find out about these Navajo men who participated in WWII. Knowing little of modern history myself  (I studied ancient!) the men from monument valley were the original code talkers that helped the US to create an breakable code. They used Navajo words and created new words to describe troop movements, weapons etc and it was the only code that the Axis couldn’t break, as they didn’t even know what language it was.

Mystery valley was the highlight for us, with the sweeping vistas, blue skies and climb-able rocks!
The temperature averaged around 108F (42 Celsius!) and there are few trees and little shade as you can see from the pics above. It’s off limits to tourists unless you have a Navajo guide from this area. 
Rosie told us that her grandmother lived nearby, and so this was her backyard essentially!
She took us to see ancient Anasazi dwellings built into then leeward side of high caves. Not much is known about the Anasazi, they were one of the prehistoric Ancient Pueblo peoples that were here before the Navajo around 12th century BCE onwards.
Many of the Navajo ceremonies including the Blessing Way are actually Anasazi in origin.

We saw remains of mud brick walls inside caves, and faded rock paintings on different sites. Some of the rock paintings were of hands, just like the aboriginal  hand prints. We were told the handshake is very important to Navajo. When you shake hands you are greeting someone with your:

Thumb – towards gods

forefinger – your mother

middle finger – your father

third finger – paternal grandfather

little finger – maternal grandmother

So when you shook hands you were shaking with your whole family similar to when you painted your hand, it was marking the wall with your whole family.

Climbing the rocks was fantastic and we had a ball, getting to climb up onto the rocks, and explore all the nooks and crannies! It kept going and I didnt want to come back down! (See if you can spot me on the picture below right).

The day was beautiful, clear blues skies and red rocks so Greg was taking as many pics as a Japanese tourist on speed.

Monument Valley was next up and we got to see all the rock formations up close, with names like Rabbit and Bear, Rain God Mesa, Elephant and Camel Butte. Including, John Ford Point where he shot Stagecoach scenes.

We also got to go around the back of Monument Valley which was again closed to the public to see some more rock carvings – they are awesome. Check out the curly goats pic below – great carvings from many years ago!

Film note

We were able to watch Stagecoach at Gouldings, and it is a fantastic film with a great plot! I was totally impressed by the stunts and found it was by a famous stunt man Yakima Canutt. He does an amazing stunt of jumping onto the backs of moving horses and then falling between them and under the coach! See the video below.

He and John Wayne also created the first safe screen fighting techniques, and went on to refine stunt gear for films. Check it out from 3″51 is his famous stunt dropping between horses and the coach. Just before that you can see the horses falling from gun fire. Unbelievable.

Finally, I’ll leave you with some pics of the storm that came over Gouldings as we were eating dinner. Greg grabbed his camera and left me to get some great shots!