Monument Valley is one of the most immediately recognisable landscapes on earth. The Mittens, Merrick Butte, the Three Sisters, the Totem Pole — these sandstone formations rising 300 metres from a flat ochre plain have appeared in John Ford's cavalry Westerns, in countless advertisements, and in the visual vocabulary of anyone who has ever imagined the American Southwest. Being here in person, especially at sunrise or sunset when the rock glows deep red, is something different from all those images.
The park is operated by the Navajo Nation, not the National Park Service, and the entrance fee (currently around $20 per vehicle) goes directly to the tribe. From the visitor centre you can attempt the 17-mile Valley Drive loop in your own vehicle, but the road is unpaved and deeply rutted — rental cars are generally prohibited by their hire agreements, and a regular sedan will suffer. A guided jeep tour with a Navajo driver is the better choice: guides explain the significance of specific formations, share Diné oral traditions connected to the landscape, and can take you to restricted areas not accessible by private vehicle.
The visitor centre has a small museum, a café, and a viewing terrace. The Navajo-run View Hotel, right at the rim, offers rooms that look out over the Mittens — pricey, but if you want to watch the sun come up over the buttes from your bed, it earns its rate. Book well ahead in spring and autumn.