Forrest Gump Point Monument Valley November 2018 001

The View Hotel in the Monument Valley Arizona

Monument Valley ( nv, Tsé Biiʼ Ndzisgaii, , meaning ''valley of the rocks'') is a region of the Colorado Plateau characterized by a cluster of sandstone

butte __NOTOC__ In geomorphology, a butte () is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from a French word me ...

s, the largest reaching above the valley floor. It is located on the

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

state line, near the

Four Corners The Four Corners is a region of the Southwestern United States consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico. The Four Corners area ...

area. The valley is a sacred area that lies within the territory of the

Navajo Nation The Navajo Nation ( nv, Naabeehó Bináhásdzo), also known as Navajoland, is a Native Americans in the United States, Native American Indian reservation, reservation in the United States. It occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwe ...

Reservation, the Native American people of the area. Monument Valley has been featured in many forms of media since the 1930s. Director

John Ford John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...

used the location for a number of his Westerns; critic Keith Phipps wrote that "its have defined what decades of moviegoers think of when they imagine the

American West The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...

Geography and geology

The area is part of the Colorado Plateau. The elevation of the valley floor ranges from above sea level. The floor is largely

siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.Blatt ''et al.'' 1980, ...

of the

Cutler Group The Cutler Formation or Cutler Group is a rock unit that is exposed across the U.S. states of Arizona, northwest New Mexico, southeast Utah and southwest Colorado. It was laid down in the Early Permian during the Wolfcampian epoch. Descri ...

, or sand derived from it, deposited by the meandering rivers that carved the valley. The valley's vivid red color comes from

iron oxide Iron oxides are chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen. Several iron oxides are recognized. All are black magnetic solids. Often they are non-stoichiometric. Oxyhydroxides are a related class of compounds, perhaps the best known of wh ...

exposed in the weathered

. The darker, blue-gray rocks in the valley get their color from

manganese oxide Manganese oxide is any of a variety of manganese oxides and hydroxides.Wells A.F. (1984) ''Structural inorganic chemistry'' 5th edition Oxford Science Publications, . These include * Manganese(II) oxide, MnO * Manganese(II,III) oxide, Mn3O4 * Man ...

. The

s are clearly

stratified Stratification may refer to: Mathematics * Stratification (mathematics), any consistent assignment of numbers to predicate symbols * Data stratification in statistics Earth sciences * Stable and unstable stratification * Stratification, or st ...

, with three principal layers. The lowest layer is the Organ Rock Shale, the middle is de Chelly Sandstone, and the top layer is the

Moenkopi Formation The Moenkopi Formation is a geological formation that is spread across the U.S. states of New Mexico, northern Arizona, Nevada, southeastern California, eastern Utah and western Colorado. This unit is considered to be a group in Arizona. ...

capped by Shinarump Conglomerate. The valley includes large stone structures, including the "Eye of the Sun". Between 1945 and 1967, the southern extent of the Monument Upwarp was mined for

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

, which occurs in scattered areas of the Shinarump Conglomerate; vanadium and

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...

are associated with uranium in some deposits. Major formations include

West and East Mitten Buttes The West and East Mitten Buttes (also known as the Mittens) are two buttes in the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park in northeast Navajo County, Arizona. When viewed from the south, the buttes appear to be two giant mittens with their thumbs ...

Merrick Butte Merrick Butte is a butte located in Monument ValleyMitten Buttes Quadrangle, Arizona-Utah, 7.5 Minute Series, US Geological Survey, 1738 ed. and is part of the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, similar to its neighbors West and East Mitten Butte ...

, and Hunts Mesa.

Tourism

Monument Valley includes much of the area surrounding Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, a Navajo Nation equivalent to a

national park A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual ...

. Oljato, for example, is also within the area designated as Monument Valley. Visitors may pay an access fee and drive through the park on a dirt road. Parts of Monument Valley, such as Mystery Valley and Hunts Mesa, are accessible only by guided tour.

Climate

Monument Valley experiences a desert climate with cold winters and hot summers. While the summers may be hot, the heat is tempered by the region's high altitude. Although the valley experiences an average of 54 days above annually, summer highs rarely exceed . Summer nights are comfortably cool, and temperatures drop quickly after sunset. Winters are cold, but daytime highs are usually above freezing. Even in the winter, temperatures below are uncommon, though possible. Monument Valley receives an occasional light snowfall in the winter; however, it usually melts within a day or two.

In visual media

Monument Valley has been featured in numerous computer games, in print, and in motion pictures, including multiple Westerns directed by John Ford that influenced audiences' view of the American West, such as: ''

Stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are dra ...

'' (1939), '' My Darling Clementine'' (1946), '' Fort Apache'' (1948), '' She Wore a Yellow Ribbon'' (1949) and ''

The Searchers ''The Searchers'' is a 1956 American Technicolor VistaVision epic Western film directed by John Ford and written by Frank S. Nugent, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May. It is set during the Texas-Native American wars, and stars John W ...

'' (1956). Many more recent movies, with other directors, were also filmed in Monument Valley, including Sergio Leone's '' Once Upon a Time in the West'' (in 1967), the first

Spaghetti Western The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...

to be filmed outside Europe, and Gore Verbinski's '' The Lone Ranger''. In Airwolf: The Movie and the subsequent series, a hollow mesa in Monument Valley was the hiding place for the fictional helicopter. It was referred to as 'Valley of the Gods'.

Gallery

File:Monument Valley Anticipating Sunrise.jpg, Monument Valley before sunrise File:Mittens and Merrick after Sunset.jpg, West, East Mittens and Merrick Butte after sunset File:Monument Valley (34283289923).jpg File:Snow covered Monument Valley sunrise in January.jpg, Snow-covered Monument Valley sunrise in January File:Monument Valley, 6AM.jpg, Monument Valley West and East Butte at 6 in the morning File:Sandstorm in Monument Valley, Arizona - Utah, USA.jpg, Sandstorm in Monument Valley File:Monument Valley, Utah, USA - 23638754781.jpg, Vegetation of Monument Valley File:Monument Valley, Utah, USA - 23426578800.jpg, Monument Valley landscape File:Golden_Monument_Valley.jpg, View on the Monument Valley from Hunts mesa File:Mitten Shadow Event, September 13, 2013.jpg, Mitten Shadow Event, Sept. 13, 2013

Panorama

References

External links

* * * * * * * {{Authority control Native American culture Buttes of Arizona Landforms of Apache County, Arizona Landforms of Navajo County, Arizona Colorado Plateau Regions of Arizona Valleys of Arizona Rock formations of Arizona Valleys of Utah Rock formations of Utah Regions of Utah Landforms of San Juan County, Utah Religious places of the indigenous peoples of North America Protected areas of Apache County, Arizona Protected areas of Navajo County, Arizona Protected areas of San Juan County, Utah Sacred mountains Sacred rocks Tourist attractions in Utah Geography of the Navajo Nation