![]() ![]() If you like old westerns, you will recognize the scenery in this tribal park. This park is very close to The Arches and Canyonlands National parks. You can get tours once in the park but check ahead about hours and need for reservations. The park has an extensive gift shop with restaurant. There are often identifying signs and additional information at some of the sites. The park is filled with many remarkable land formations - some very familiar and others less familiar but just as spectacular. It was very rough and can be a bit jarring to drive on. Unlike some national parks, the internal park road is not paved. We mainly followed the scenic road through the park which has plenty of opportunities to park and take photos or do a hike. Remember that the park is on tribal land and may follow a different time zone than where you are traveling from, so stay aware of that if you are arriving late in the day since the entrance hours are restricted. We paid $8 person to drive into the park. By late afternoon, there was less of a crowd. We arrived later on a weekday afternoon towards the end of August and were able to enter the park with just a small delay at the entrance. We made Monument Valley a destination when we were planning a trip from Tucson to Keystone, CO. If you go, have fun and enjoy the stunning views as it was a thrill to finally see this famous icon of the southwest. It wasn't crowded and I didn't have to wait to get it, but I'm sure it does get more crowded during holiday weeks and weekends so plan accordingly. The entire tour lasted just under 3 hours which included taking a lot of stops to admire the scenery and take photos. I also brought my own water and snacks which saved time from going to the visitor's center. I saw at least 2-3 portable toilets at the scenic pullover sections for those needing a bathroom break. The road is also very dusty which resulted in a heavy coat of dust on my vehicle at the end of my visit. ![]() The posted speed limit was 15 mph, but there were many times I had to drive slower than that. If you do drive a sedan, you may want to consider taking one of the several jeep tours offered by the Navajo. I do not recommend taking the self driving tour with a lower sitting sedan as you will risk causing damage to the underneath of your vehicle. In fact, an SUV in front of me (Nissan Armada) actually hit the bottom of his vehicle on a deep rut as he pulled out from a scenic pullover. The road was in terrible condition as I constantly had to slow up for potholes, dips in the road, rocky areas and deep ruts. I had read other posts about the poor road conditions, so I had rented an SUV and I was glad I did. The scenery was stunning and I repeatedly pulled over during the 17 mile course and took photos while admiring the great views. I had a pre-paid ticket ($8.00 plus $1.00 admin fee) so I entered the park and started the tour. I only had about 4 hours since I drove up from Flagstaff in the morning. Visited the week before Thanksgiving (Tuesday) and did the self driving tour. We loved the magnificent and iconic setting, magnificent in its own right, but also so iconic and famous from many Westerns. In fact, the road is extremely rough in places and even though we have a Subaru all well drive, we were thankful not to have to negotiate that ourselves. The tour was great and took us all over the place. We researched it ahead of time (given the time we had to plan this trip, a replacement for a UK trip cancelled due to Omicron), and found out about the park, scenic drive, entrance fee which we could pay in advance, but did not discover any information about the time limit for driving through the park on one's own.Įither way, if you want to see this, it is well worth it. These see to be readily available at the parking lot at the visitor centre and we ended up having to take one since we were only there for that day as we drove through. However, after a certain time of day, one may no longer drive on it and must instead pay to take a tour. ![]() Visitors may drive on their own on the drive if early enough in the day. There is a rough dirt rood loop to drive on for the scenery. ![]() We paid in advance to enter around a certain time, but still had to wait in the queue, which took some time. One must pay to enter and even if paid ahead of time must queue up to drive in. There is a hotel and visitor centre with shop. The Navajo Tribal Park in Monument Valley contains much of the most stunning and iconic scenery in the area. ![]()
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