Artist’s Point - Monument Valley
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West and East Mitten Buttes - Monument Valley
A Spiritual Adventure Amongst the Giants
Monument Valley is a Navajo Tribal Park, which means it’s similar to a National Park but on Tribal Land. Honestly, this is desolate land. There’s hardly any vegetation, water is scarce, there are no nearby bustling towns or cities, and even places to simply stop and gas up your car or grab fast food are few and far between in this part of the country. But these huge towering stones, some more than 1,000ft tall, cast humbling shadows and stick out in such an awe-struck manner against a background of flat sandy soil. People travel all the way through the desert to see these giant rocks at Monument Valley because they are so inspiring, they are sacred. Along the bumpy 17-mile loop drive, you will feel small, and I think that feeling is why people are drawn here.
Monument Valley at Sunrise
Same view as above in the full sunlight
As you can see in the pictures above, the land surrounding these huge monuments is simply flat dirt, which makes these natural monuments all the more puzzling and thought-provoking.
Planning Your Trip
If you plan to explore Monument Valley on your own, expect it to take a half day, as there is just one hiking option and a loop drive with multiple places to stop. There are also excursion options with tour guides that involve additional hikes or horseback riding, which may add time. Typically though, this is a place that can be seen in just one day, so planning your trip really just involves figuring out where you are going to spend the night before and after, where can you eat, potentially booking a tour, and deciding what other things you want to do on your road trip.
Views of the monuments along the loop drive
Where to Stay?
My recommendation is to spend one night on your trip to Monument Valley at Monument Valley. That way you can experience a sunset and sunrise. There are two hotels - Goulding’s Lodge and the View. I’ve stayed at Goulding’s Lodge twice. Once in March 2016 when we explored Monument Valley, and again in March 2023 as it was a useful place to stop between White Pocket and the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park. It’s a decent hotel, clean, with very nice people. The benefit to staying at the View for a little bit more money is simply the view, as it’s almost inside of Monument Valley. Goulding’s Lodge is about 5 miles away.
Where to spend the other night depends on where you are coming from or going. Nearby smaller cities with great hiking options are Page, AZ (just over two hours away), Durango, CO (just over 3 hours away), Kanab, UT (3.5 hours away), and Sedona, AZ (under 4 hours away). Note that Monument Valley is in Arizona, right at the border of Utah, and close to the 4-corners region with New Mexico and Colorado. Arizona is in Mountain Standard Time (but does not honor day light saving time) so when day light saving time is active, Arizona is an hour different than Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado. However, the Native American reservations in Arizona do honor day light saving time so in Monument Valley you will be in the Mountain Time Zone. It doesn’t matter what time it is when you are exploring on your own, but if schedule a tour, just make sure you know which time zone your phone is in and which time zone the tour is in, as it’s overly complicated…
View from the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park Visitor Center
Where to Eat?
As I mentioned earlier, this part of the country is really barren, and where you are going to eat does take a bit of planning. The hotels offer meals, so that’s your easiest option. There are no nearby fast food places. To save on money while traveling, I travel with a cooler (I have a collapsible one that I use if I’m flying), and I stop at grocery stores along the way to purchase easy-to-make breakfast and lunch meals (when breakfast isn’t included at the hotels). If you want ideas for meals, this is my go-to list - obviously if I’m staying in hotels instead of camping, I ignore from the things that require a fire, but most hotels include a microwave so a little bit of cooking for breakfast does work. Lunches I pre-make in the morning before we head out, and we either eat on a hike or find a nice place to stop our car.
For supper, we ate at Goulding’s Lodge, and it was very nice.
West and East Mitten Buttes - Monument Valley
Other Logistics
There is an admission to Monument Valley and the charge is per person rather than per car, so it’s a little different than our National Parks. As of 2023, it’s $8/person. You’ll pay as you enter, and they will give you a map of the loop drive with the stops indicated along the way. There is also a visitor center. There are several stops where you can buy crafts made by the Navajo, so this is a nice extra way to provide some financial support as you visit.
The last logistical consideration for planning your trip is what kind of car you need. The loop drive is a dirt road that is maintained to the best of the park’s ability. A rainstorm can quickly damage the road and there are likely going to be some pretty big potholes and tire ruts. The park does not recommend you take a regular car, RV, or any vehicle that has low clearance. Having driven on the road, that seems like good advice. If this trip involves car rental, it’s best if you upgrade the vehicle you pick to have larger wheels. If you don’t have access to a higher clearance vehicle, there is a tour that you can pay to go on instead, just consider booking that ahead of rime as there aren’t many other options in the nearby area for how to spend your day if you planned on taking the tour but it has filled up.
View from the loop road in Monument Valley
Things to Do
You’ve pretty much got 4 options for things to do in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park.
1) Go to the Park’s website and book a bus / hiking tour or a horseback riding tour
2) Hike the Wildcat Trail around West Mitten Butte
3) Drive along the 17-mile loop road
4) Stop at mile marker 13 on US-163 known as the “Forrest Gump Stop” where Forrest stops running in the movie “Forrest Gump”
It’s hard to find a map of Monument Valley online, so I’ve done my best to create one for you below. You will receive an actual map when you pay for admission the park, but sometimes it helps to see where you are going before you get there.
Map of Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park
Wildcat Trail
3.9 miles loop hike / 380ft in elevation gain
View of West Mitten Butte, East Mitten Butte, and Maverick Butte from the Wildcat Trail - Monument Valley
When I hiked the Wildcat Trail in March 2016, I was traveling with my parents, my seven-year old son, and our exchange student from Sweden. We made a good effort to hike the whole trail, but if you look in the picture above, there was a deep ravine that we couldn’t figure out how to get across. The trail wasn’t marked very well at the point in time we travelled. It looks like several people have recently posted on AllTrails though that the hike is beautiful, so perhaps it’s better marked now, or maybe we just never found the true trailhead and headed off in the wrong direction to start with.
We still enjoyed getting out of the car and walking amongst the huge monuments. It’s also a way to add a little more time to your visit to the park.
Hiking with my parents
The coolest thing we saw while hiking was these horses, which were not fenced in. So they were either extremely well-trained or wild.
Horses along the Wildcat Trail - Monument Valley
Monument Valley Loop Drive
17-mile loop drive with 11 stops - minimal walking is needed
West Mitten Butte, East Mitten Butte, and Maverick Butte - Monument Valley
My favorite thing about huge rock formations is figuring out what they look like - like clouds, except these rocks don’t change near as fast. The West and East Mitten are the main formations that you will see from the Visitor Center. First, it’s crazy that these two rocks have the almost exact same shape except that they are opposite directions - what was the chance of that? Second, we thought they looked a little more like hens sitting on their eggs instead of mittens.
Three Sisters - Monument Valley
Each of the 11 stops have a parking lot. Some you can wander a little further than others to see different views. Some stops have some nice places to sit for a bit as well. At John Ford’s Point you can also pay to take a picture of a man on sitting on a horse. This is one of the spots where old western movies were filmed.
Chilling along the drive - we stopped for a snack and simply to enjoy being here for a bit
Also along the drive, there were be several spots where you can purchase crafts made by the native people. I purchased some beautiful bracelets, ankle bracelets, and a pottery water pitcher that has monument valley stones painted on it.
Totem Pole - Monument Valley
Probably overkill on all of the pictures here, but I wanted to provide several as there are so many things to see on this drive. It’s a really special place to visit, and I’m trying to convince you it’s worth your effort in driving out here.
Monument Valley Loop Drive
I unfortunately only remember some of the rock formations and their formal names - there are so many to keep track of. But I do have these pictures in order of what you will see along the drive.
Monument Valley Loop Drive
Below is Artist’s Point, and this was one of my favorite stops. As we sat here for a bit, there were tumbleweeds blowing around.
Artist’s Point - Monument Valley
Forrest Gump Stop
In Forrest Gump, Forrest runs back and forth across the country, and he suddenly decides to stop running, here at mile marker 13 on US-163 with Monument Valley in the background. The picture is from 2016. I just drove on this road in 2023, and it’s quite a bit safer now. There are formal places to park and cross the road, and the posted speed goes down well before this mile marker in both directions with signs stating to watch for people.
It’s a fun / silly place to stop on your way to or from Monument Valley.
Forrest Gump Stop - US-163 outside of Monument Valley
Other Things to Do Nearby
I haven’t yet been to Bears Ears or Natural Bridges National Monuments. Natural Bridges is approximately 1.5 hours away, and Bears Ears is approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes away. Canyon de Chelly National Monument is also 1.5 hours away. I don’t have a blog post on Canyon de Chelly, but I did have the opportunity to travel here during college, and I visited the White House Ruin Cliff Dwellings. The trail was nice, though it goes down about 500ft into the canyon, so you’ll need to hike that back out. This was the days before digital cameras though, so I don’t have any pictures to share.
There are lots of cool things to do in Page, AZ, which is just over 2 hours away. Here is a link to my blog on Page:
The Needles district of Canyonlands National Park is another great destination, especially if you are on your way to Moab. The Needles is a little over 2.5 hours away, and Moab is 2.75 hours (note that driving to the Needles is a detour on your way to Moab).
Here is my blog post on Canyonlands:
And here is my post on Moab:
The Grand Canyon South Rim Visitor Center is 3 hours away. I haven’t created a blog post yet on viewing the canyon from the top, but here is my story of hiking the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim:
Posts on Kanab, UT and Sedona, AZ, both about 3.5 hours away are coming, as well as St. George, UT which is a 4.5 hour drive.
Capitol Reef National Park is a little more than 3.5 hours away, and this is my post:
The Zion Springdale entrance is 4.25 hours away, and here is my post on hiking in Zion:
Other Hiking Options
If you are looking for more hiking suggestions, please check out my below map with more of my posts linked to each pin.