If you haven’t heard of Monument Valley, I can guarantee you’ve seen it in a movie or music video. Part of the Canyonlands of Utah, Monument Valley National Park is a must-see on your America bucket list.
Forming part of the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, it’s the equivalent to a National Park, it soars a whopping 6,000 feet above sea level.
The thing you notice about Monument Valley is the colour. Cameras and Phones just simply cannot do the place justice. Rich, bright bold oranges give way to crisp blue skies. The tallest of the sandstone formations reaches over 1,000ft high and it’s a whopper.
We visited the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park Visitor Center to pick up some information and set off on our off road route around the famous buttes and formations. We chose the self guided method with an informative map. Each butte has a pull off parking spot to make sure you get the best photos – there’s room for everyone!
If you are in a car that’s not quite suited to an off road adventure, you can take a guided tour around the key sites. In cooler months, you can even walk round the route. Of course it gets hot hot hot so do plan ahead!
So, does Monument Valley look familiar? This famous orange expanse has been in music videos by Metallica and Soulfly, numerous country + western films as well as Transformers – the age of extinction, Mission Impossible 2 and Back to the Future. And that iconic running scene in Forrest Gump where he is running with a group of followers? Oh that was only filmed on the highway too!
One of the more breath taking things we have seen in America and if you are in the Arizona / Utah area, I fully recommend you take the time to visit.
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The landscape looks beautiful. I’ve previously visited Bryce Canyon, which is also gorgeous.
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Bryce is definitely on the to-do list if we make it back to the area!