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Image Gallery: Majestic Monument Valley
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Lesson learned
Aptly named
This formation is known as The Boot. Some suggest that this just might be the most accurately named rock formation found within Monument Valley.
Record-setting spectacle
The Totem Pole is one of the most spectacular of the monuments. Navajo tradition says that it is a god held up by lightning. It rises 450 feet (122 m) into the open sky. It just might also be the thinnest tall sandstone tower in the world, as it measures just 40 feet (12 m) in diameter at the base and 14 feet (4 m) in diameter at the top.
Great heights
The top of Rooster Butte rises some 5,643 feet (1,719 m) above sea level and some 500 feet (152 m) above the valley floor. Rooster Butte is located in Apache County, Ariz.
Nature's power
The power of wind erosion is evident all throughout the valley. Here the sandstone has been worn away to create an open known as the Eye of the Sun. Other such openings in the valley carry such colorful names as Ear of the Wind and Big Hogan Arch.
Hollywood history
Hollywood discovered Monument Valley in 1939 when producer John Ford came there at the request of Indian trader Harry Goulding and filmed "Stagecoach," the first Western movie filmed in the valley. Over the next three decades, Ford returned to Monument Valley and filmed some of his most famous Westerns, including "My Darling Clementine," "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon" and "Fort Apache." Moviegoers throughout the world were now seeing Monument Valley. Visitors began to flock to the valley to see firsthand the magnificent monuments and awe inspiring views.
Where God hid it
A young actor by the name of John Wayne starred in five of John Ford's Monument Valley movies. On his first trip in 1939 to this spectacular land to shoot "Stagecoach," young Wayne just might have given the best description of the incredible beauty and marvelous views of this land while standing at the end of John Ford's Point, shown above. Wayne simply said, "Now I know where God hid the West!"
