Tuesday 17 June – Dust storms in Monument Valley!

We set off soon after 7 am for Monument Valley, a round trip of 360 miles. Behind Flagstaff, where we are staying, are the San Francisco Peaks, a mountain range reaching to 12,000 feet at its highest point. We soon leave this scenery behind and are travelling for mile after mile of desert scrubland, as we drive across the Colorado plateau. There are occasional trees, but it's a very bare, bleak landscape. Now and again there's a group of Native American (Indian) homesteads, and one or two petrol stations along the way, but it's about 70 miles before we reach the outskirts of Tuba City. We don't go into the city, as it will take us off our route, but we stop at a “Denny's” (a popular American restaurant chain) for breakfast. It's then another 70 miles or so before we reach the next town, Kayenta, and soon after that we are on the edge of Monument Valley. We've noticed extremely gusty winds on our drive here, sweeping up the pink dusty soil across the road and making it necessary to use headlights. As we enter the valley, the dust storm worsens by the minute, and our car is covered in pink dust as we arrive at the “Welcome Center”.

It's not the ideal day to visit Monument Valley as visibility is poor, but we're here now! Monument Valley is an area of about 15 miles by 18 miles, and it's part of the “Navajo nation” a vast area of Arizona and Utah, where the Navajo tribe of American Indians live. Tourism is virtually the only industry in Monument Valley. At the “Welcome Centre” we find that we can go on a Navajo-guide led tour of the valley, which has huge, spectacular, odd shaped rocks rising out of the ground. The tour is quite expensive, but if we want to see everything, we can't do it in our car; some of the trails are very rocky and will only take a 4- wheel drive type vehicle. Not only that, some of the trails are only open to the Navajo people, as they are on private land.

We book our own personal tour for an hour's time, and go to nearby “Gouldings Restaurant” for a some refreshment. “Gouldings” was the original trading post for the exchanging and buying and selling of Western/ Indian goods in the early 1900's. Also, Harry Goulding introduced film director John Ford to Monument Valley, where he filmed many of his great Western films, such as “Stagecoach” and “The Searchers”. Since then, we learn that many films have used the Monument Valley landscape, one of the most recent being “The Lone Ranger”, with Johnny Dieppe, released in 2013.

Our guide Toney leads us to his 4x4 vehicle, and I'm very glad it has windows, as some of the tourist vehicles in the car park are open-sided. The dust storm is worsening, and it's quite difficult just to walk in the wind. Our hair and clothes and skin are covered in pink dust. It's a relief to get inside the 4x4..

As we are driving around, Toney tells us quite a lot about the history and culture of the Navajo Indians, and I make notes in my little book. Some of the tracks we drive along are extremely bumpy and I'm not a good car passenger at the best of times. However, the worst of the dust is on the top of the plateau, and as we drive down into the valley, we're able to see the rock formations, or monuments, much more clearly. It's still a dusty battle against the wind when you get out of the car though, so I'm leaving it to Reg to take most of the photographs, while I stay in the vehicle.

All the rock-shapes, or monuments, some of which rise several hundred feet into the skyline, have names; some of these are “Sentinel Mesa” (“mesa” and “butte” mean small and large table) “King on his throne”, “Castle Mesa”, “Elephant Butte”, “Camel Butte”, “Three Sisters”, “Moccasin Arch” , “Left Mitten Mesa”, “Right Mitten Mesa” and “Medicine Man”.

Two “mesas” are of particular interest; called “Mitchell Butte” and “Merrick Butte” they are named after 2 white men who were killed in the early 1800's by the Navajo tribe for stealing silver from the Navajo land. Their bodies were never found, and no-one was brought to trial for their murder.

I ask Toney about the monuments, as all the names are in English; do they have Indian names? Toney says they do, all related to water, air, earth and fire.

Toney tells us that the name “Navajo” means “edge of knife” or “cut-throat knife”'; and was given to them by the Mexicans/Spanish settlers. He says their real name though is the “Diné” tribe.

“But we're used to being called Navajo, and we don't mind,” he adds.

The Navajo's history is similar to that of many Native Americans; slaughtered and evicted from their lands by the white pioneers, they were eventually able to sign treaties with the Federal American government, which gave them back some of their homeland, and enabled them to live in peace with the white settlers.

Toney tells us interesting facts about the culture, traditions, food and natural medicines used by the Navajos, about the poisonous plants they used on their arrowheads, and about the animals and insects which can be found in the valley. Surprisingly, the soil which looks barren has mud underneath, and Toney says that the Navajos grow much of their own food, their staple diet being corn … but they do enjoy a pizza too.

We're at the end of our 3 hour tour, and, back on the top of the plateau, where the “Welcome Centre” is, the dust storm is still raging. I'm feeling quite queasy from the bumpy journey around the Navajo trails; we says our thankyous and goodbyes to Toney, and I'm really glad to get back into our car, and to be driving on smooth roads once again.

It's a long drive back to Flagstaff, but the trip was worth it.

“The sandstorm made it more exciting,” says Reg. “I loved it.”