Monument Valley. A Slice of Hollywood

Above, filming of The Searchers takes place with the Three Sisters in the background.

Three years ago, I paid my second visit to Monument Valley. I stayed there several nights at Goulding's Lodge Campground. Although the days were brisk with a cold wind and the nights got down into the 20s, it was an enjoyable experience.

For those who are movie buffs, particularly westerns, a visit to Monument Valley is a must-do.

Australia's New Idea website has an article on Monument Valley's place in Hollywood history.

Above, John Wayne's Cabin from She Wore A Yellow Ribbon in 2016. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Here's a snippet:

I’m on Utah’s Highway 163, with the majestic Monument Valley rising up like a red-rock metropolis behind me as I attempt to capture my own slice of movie magic – mindful of the cars, of course. 

Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, to use its official name, is huge – 371-square-kilometres – and it’s seriously remote. To get here, I fly into Utah’s capital, Salt Lake City, hire a car and drive south. For hours. Because the journey is more than six hours, you might want to break it up with a side trip to a place like Moab (see box, right, to find out why this is worth your while). And although I approach the valley from Utah, Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, is actually in Arizona – about a three-hour drive from the Grand Canyon. 

It’s hard to escape that eerily familiar feeling as you arrive at the valley. That’s because you’ve seen it before in numerous US westerns, with director John Ford using the valley as the backdrop for movies such as Stagecoach (1939), Fort Apache (1948) and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949). Ford’s vision became our impression of the American West. 

But saying you know Monument Valley from the movies is a bit like saying you know Italian food because you’ve eaten a tin of spaghetti. Nothing can prepare you for its sheer size. It’s a panorama of pinnacles; a marvellous monument to the eroding power of wind and rain over time. You can drive yourself around, but the best way to explore this iconic spot is with a local, so I book in for a sunset Jeep tour of the valley with Gouldings Lodge on the Utah-Arizona border. It was original owner Harry Goulding who introduced Ford to the valley. I meet my Navajo guide at Gouldings, and, during our winding 27km trip through the valley, check out some of the area’s highlights including East and West Mittens, the Three Sisters, the Totem Pole, Artist’s Point, the North Window and, of course, John Ford’s Point.

Above, the Three Sisters in 2016. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Ford also used Monument Valley as a backdrop in My Darling Clementine (1946) and in The Searchers (1956).

To read more, go here.