"TEARDROP WINDOW"
Totem Pole
I was in a quandary at the Durango Airport in Colorado that welcomed me to many parks and monuments in the so-called Grand Circle. The problem was that I could select only one to visit on this trip. The decision might have been made in the spirit of an old Japanese proverb: "Whether to go east or west depends on one's mind or feet." Or it could have been made just on the basis of childhood memories of movies. I remembered seeing movies that had been filmed in this area and had introduced me to Monument Valley. My choice was the valley, leaving such places as Mesa Velda, Petrified Forest, and Grand Canyon national parks as well as the Canyon de Chelly National Monument for future visits.
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| Antelope Canyon |
Monument Valley is in Arizona and extends into Utah. It is part of the multi-million-acre Navajo Indian Reservation. Millions of years ago the Indian tract was lowland into which flowed water with sediments that eventually hardened into sandstone. All was uplifted as the natural forces of erosion-wind and water-carved the orange-red sandstone cliffs and other formations. The region is arid today.
While driving and also observing an isolated butte, or a hill with steep sides, I became excited with expectation. It was great to approach the settlement from where an ancient people known as the Anasazi had disappeared before the coming of the Navajo Indians. Today the settlement is called the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. The park is not part of the United States National Park Service, because it is controlled and managed as an independent entity by the Navajo Nation.
Just beyond the town of Mexican Hat the road ends in the wilderness. Here are three well-recognized big buttes. They are both beautiful and breathtaking. The area is also known as the site of movie locations where John Ford directed the filming of such cinema masterpieces as Stagecoach and Fort Apache. Visiting the area renewed my excitement with Mountain Valley. In short, I was reminded of my boyhood fascination with John Ford's movies filmed in this part of the west.
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| Monument Valley |
Goulding's Trading Post and Lodge provided me with a room from where it was possible to view Monument Valley in the distance. On the morning of my first full day there I woke up early to see the sun rising from behind the three hills. When I stood quietly and felt a gust of wind brush my check, it seemed as though the spirits of the ancient ancestors of the Navajos were speaking to me. While the eastern sky was pink, the rising sun bathed the tallest butte in red colors. From top to bottom, the butte kept changing color as if it were a wildfire engulfing the grass. The color spectacle came with increasing speed, and it seemed as if each butte was given a new lease on life. Similarly, the people renewed themselves for work in the valley. Another new day had started again.
The park, too, prepares for a new day. Navajo gift shops open up outside the entrance of the park's visitor center. Eager Navajo guides solicit visitors to join their tours traveling a system of unpaved dirt roads that extend seventeen miles within the park's boundaries. Navajo families still live in scattered locations within the park. Some areas are off limits to visitors. Local people are happy to guide visitors and tell them about scenes made famous in movies.
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| Teardrop Window |
Goulding's Lodge gave me the best opportunity to view the valley bathed in the colors of dawn and sunset. The lodge is closest to the park while other housing is in places such as Mexican Hat and Kayenta that are as far away as twenty-five miles or more. To look at the sunrise in the valley, an earnest visitor must rise early. There is also a museum at Goulding's Lodge that displays memorabilia from the making of recent movies such as Back to the Future and Forrest Gump.
Navajo culture is become what "marginalized" as scholars might say. The Navajo community is beset with social tensions, unemployment, and alcoholism. The forces of acculturation such as consumerism and English-language schooling also challenge cultural maintenance. Young people often ignore Navajo traditions. A "pure" Navajo Indian, who served as my guide, recognizes the problems of cultural survival, but admits that there is no easy remedy. I can sympathize with his outlook because in my old homeland the sense of a traditional link with the past is also eroding.
Before the sunset ended my first day at Monument Valley, I climbed the mountain to see the teardrop window formation. The formation was the result of a falling rock that had wedged itself between other rocks to make a seven-foot-high triangular opening. From this opening one can view a butte located inside the park. Long ago someone described the opening as a teardrop. Legend explains that the opening is a symbol of the tears that Indian ancestors are shedding over the disappearance of their culture. I left the mountain site ever more sentimental after viewing the sunset-colored butte through the teardrop window.
Goulding's Lodge: P.O.Box 1, Monument Valley, UT 84536
Phone: 801-727-3231
Fax: 801-727-3344