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Monument Valley
All roads lead toward the same blocked intersection
Somewhere around the artificial borders of four states (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona), where two lanes roads are regularly subjected to (rarely observed) 65 mph speed limits, things start to get interesting. Monument Valley is west of Four Corners and technically hundreds and hundreds of miles out of the way from just about everywhere but still certainly worth the trip. Approaching from the north, US Highway 163 looks as if it about to merge into the infinite somewhere near those really interesting rock formations, while in reality it manages to skirt them just close enough for you to realize that all of those really interesting rock formations are (still) just out of reach.
Wow. If you wanted to see the American West, to see the wide open desert, to stand somewhere between imagination and reality, then Monument Valley might just be the place for you. On the Utah and Arizona border but mostly in Arizona, it is a series of iconic and often dramatic rock formations contained within a tribal park operated by the Navajo Nation, a once proud people who now are, well, I guess still proud but not too proud to beg (and by beg I don't really mean begging in the traditional sense but rather setting up lots of shantytown type booths to sell various crafts at just about everywhere you would need to get out of your car).
A close up, driver side view of the generally unmaintained road that takes you from the calm of the visitors center to right down into the valley (for scale purposes don't forget to look for the same super wide road in the previous picture). The rental car I ended up driving those 2400 (or so) miles last month was a Chrysler Pacifica (primarily because I refused to accept the horrid PT Cruiser the Thrifty Rental Car wanted to give me), a reasonably comfortable although clearly overdone car in most aspects. In addition to amenities like Sirius satellite radio and a powered sun roof, it also came equipped with all wheel drive so I thought that the advertised warnings about the Monument Valley dirt road would be no issue, especially since it was drive-able for "most" cars as advertised by the Navajo. The road was drive-able though bumpy, and not just I-80 New Jersey bumpy or Pulaski Skyway bumpy or Cross Bronx Expressway bumpy but more like apocalypticly bumpy. Still I drove (slowly) on and through the valley, although eventually I chose to skip the full circuit as road conditions past John Ford Point seemed to deteriorate even further than I could have ever otherwise imagined.
Ah, John Ford Point, named after the famous director who filmed ten (or so) movies in the valley. Adding a slight bit of staged scale to this photo is not John Ford (although I guess his name could be John Ford) but instead a local Navajo man posing on a local Navajo horse, gazing off into the distance but missing the good view himself.
Right at the point where four generally orthogonal states collide is the Four Corners Tribal Park, another Navajo gated attraction and one that is way more fun in an abstract sense than it is on the ground. Look I'm in Utah! No, Arizona! No, New Mexico! No, Colorado! No, all four! You get the idea.
Not pictured is the circular (in plan) head on parking lot surrounding the monument and the circular (in plan) shopping bonanza desert shantytown of Navajo crafts that await you in all four states and at all four corners (and seemingly at all attractions throughout the Navajo Nation).
