We visited Monument Valley in April 2016, during Big Trip #1.

At first glance on the internet, it seems that if you don’t do a guided tour of Monument Valley, you can’t really do anything at all there. So we lined up a guided tour with Black’s Monument Valley Tours, arranging a private tour for just the three of us. Yes, three: Bugsy went too! We three rode on bench seats in the back of an open truck on a COLD day in Monument Valley, but it was a fun and impressive tour. You may know Monument Valley from Forrest Gump, when Forrest decides he’s done running. Here, our friends at 59in59 reenact the scene. So great–click that link. Anyway, Monument Valley was fantastic: cliffs, buttes, spires, long views, cultural history. Our guide is part of an Ancestral Puebloan family that lives in Monument Valley and told us stories and sang us songs.

So it turns out if you don’t take a tour, you can still drive the scenic drive, but the tour took us to places off the beaten track. We’re honestly not sure it’s worth it to take a tour (especially when you pay extra for a private + dog). Use your judgement.

Also, does anyone out there actually pronounce “butte” the correct way? It occurred to me that anyone listening to our conversation at a brewery tonight would think that we were incredibly uneducated, because we were talking about “butt”s. I mean, come on.

Here are some pictures from Monument Valley:

We toured Monument Valley from our base in Bluff.