Page 224 - WDT INTERACTIVE

One of the first things we realized when we planned a like a knife blade jutting up through the earth’s skin.
trip to this iconic place is how remote it is. Even today, This peak was a mere preview of what was to come.
with interstate highways crisscrossing the country and When we drove past the gate and into the park, the
airports in seemingly every city, Monument Valley is a valley’s colossal buttes seemed to fill our entire wind-
challenge to get to. It is located in northeastern Arizona shield. Little compares with Monument Valley’s buttes
on the Navajo Nation just west of the Four Corners, and mesas for scenic grandeur. We stopped at the
where Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico meet. first opportunity to take them in, and before us stood
Part of it spills into Utah. Merrick Butte, the park’s most recognized formation. It
My wife, Kathie, and I approached Monument Valley was a heart-stopping moment. We visited in January,
from the southwest on US 163, and the closer we got and snow covered the ground and filled cracks in the
the more buttes and spires popped up in the surround- red rock, highlighting the buttes’ corrugated walls.
ing landscape. It is one of those places that, as you Stepping out of the car in the presence of these
get close, has warmup acts. Just south of Monument massive mesas, I was overcome by their force. No
Valley Navajo Tribal Park is a volcanic plug, Agathla matter how often I had seen this place in photographs,
Peak, rising 1,500 feet above the surrounding desert nothing compared with the real thing.

224 WDT MAGAZINE WINTER 2018