Monument Valley - Utah, Arizona

This region of spires, buttes and mesas straddles the Utah-Arizona border near Four Corners, where Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico meet. I was just driving through as my appointment in Los Angeles to have the RV worked on was fast approaching. I did camp nearby for the evening and was able to see many of the formations from a distance.



Monument Valley has been the setting for countless western movies and TV commercials. On a visit here some years ago, our Navajo guide told of an automobile commercial in which a car was airlifted to the top of one of the chimney-like buttes. Then a young female model was flown up to sit in the car and wave as the scene was filmed from a circling helicopter. Unfortunately, the helicopter later developed mechanical problems and the young woman had to sit in the car on the pinnicle overnight before being rescued the next day. I hope she got paid for the extra hours.



If you saw the movie "Forrest Gump" you may remember Forrest and his followers running up this road near the end of the movie. It was here that Forrest announced that he was finished with running and just stopped. One of the followers said "What do we do now?" Priceless.



This pattern in the mountainside is reminiscent of some patterns in Navajo rugs. Monument Valley and much of the country surrounding it, including Four Corners, is on Navajo land. While driving through the Navajo Nation I enjoyed listening to NPR -- Navajo Public Radio.



P.S. It's Sunday a.m. and I was just reading the blog of a fellow RV traveler. He was writing about how much work went into getting a certain photograph, work that the viewer might never appreciate. I'm sure that's true. But serendipity also plays a role in photography. That was true with the photos at the top of this posting, two of my favorites on the trip so far. The first one, the horses at Monument Valley, happened as I was pulling out of the Goulding's campground. I was heading down the gravel road toward the main highway and admiring the formations in the distance. Suddenly there were these horses standing along the side of the road. I brought the RV to a stop, rolled down the window, and snapped the shot. That's all there was to it. The sunset shot occurred the night before. I was heading over to the laundry room when I saw the great lighting. I ran back to the RV and grabbed my camera. A moment later the whole scene had dissipated. I guess serendipity is another word for dumb luck.