19 Valley Of The Gods Monument Valley - 2022

Vacation 2022

Valley of the God’s & Monument Valley

We stayed in the Aquarius Hotel in Kendall, Utah last night. Today, we finish up touring Capitol Reef and the drive to Page, Arizona. Along the way we will drive through the treacherous road at the Valley of the God’s and then tour Monument Valley, which is on Navajo tribal land. Neither Valley of the God's or Monument Valley belong to the National Parks System.

Start – driving back to the Capitol Reef’s visitor's center.

38:28 – Thus far, we have been skirting the Capitol Reef NP. Now we’ve away from it and are headed to the Valley of the God’s. You’ll notice a terrain change.

1:04:32 – Terrain Change.

1:09:11 - We’ve arrived! The Valley of the God’s.

In the valley below are two very structures (the gods). To get there, you descend down a very curvy, treacherous, rock road with several switchbacks on it. That’s about it for the Valley of the God’s.

1:23:03 – Sideways video #1.

1:32:10 – We leave the Valley of the God’s and drive to the Navajo Tribal Lands.

1:33:13 – The Mexican Hat rock.

1:42:04 – More interesting rock layers.

1:50:47 – A round about. In the middle of the dessert!

1:56:13 – The fleecing, er, ticket booth for entering the tourist trap, er, scenic opportunity that is Monument Valley.

2:02:59 – Let’s get dduussttyy! We’re actually starting the loop that goes around/through Monument Valley now.

2:25:20 – Tired of getting jarred, bounced and beat to death, we decided to not finish the tour (we hadn’t even made it to the loop yet) and head back while there were still nuts and bolts that hadn’t been loosened up in the car.

2:34:57 – I finally clean the windshield with the wipers. Sorry for the big smear/blob that has been on the camera this whole time.

2:41:07 – Dad and stop for a selfie.

2:48:39 – We can see it. We can see it!

2:55:14 – Back to the round about. Bye Navajo lands and on to Page, Az.

The drive between Valley of the God’s and Monument Valley isn’t that interesting but the drive between Capitol Reef and Valley of the God’s is incredible. There are numerous places to stop and hike and visit, though they are purposely not very well marked (they are getting more and better protection for the Native American dwellings and such).

I wouldn’t put Valley of the God’s or Monument Valley (at least the paid loop drive) on my list of have to go to’s. However, the drive down the cliff face in Valley of the God’s is fun so if you’re close to it, I’d definitely take it in.

You can the rock structures of Monument Valley from the paved roads around it. You just can;t get as close to them as you can on the pay loop road. The road is rough and dusty and will beat you and your vehicle to death. Honestly, there’s really no way to make it better other than to pave the whole thing which would be very expensive and would increase the ticket cost. Most of the road that you drive on is a sheet or layer of natural rock. It would be impossible to just smooth it out with a bulldozer or earth mover and the like. My recommendation is to just drive the outskirts of Monument Valley and do your site seeing. The rock structures are pretty great and worth seeing. Unfortunately, there’s nothing else around, no other site, o your basically taking a half a day or better to see this one thing.

I’d recommend seeing Monument Valley if your somewhat close to it. If you have to drive 2 or 3 hours out of your way, I’m not so sure I would recommend it.