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Monument Valley, meaning “valley of the rocks”, is a region of the Colorado Plateau characterized by a cluster of sandstone buttes, with the largest reaching 1,000 ft (300 m) above the valley floor.1 The most famous butte formations are located in northeastern Arizona along the Utah–Arizona state line. The valley is considered sacred by the Navajo Nation, the Native American people within whose reservation it lies.2

Major rock formations include West and East Mitten Buttes, Merrick Butte, Hunts Mesa, Eagle Mesa, Sentinel Mesa, Brighams Tomb, Castle Rock, Stagecoach, Big Indian, Rain God Mesa, Spearhead Mesa, Mitchell Mesa, Mitchell Butte, Gray Whiskers, Elephant Butte, Camel Butte, Cly Butte, King-on-his-Throne, Rooster Rock, and Setting Hen. Another notable formation is Totem Pole, a highly eroded butte remanent. The valley also includes large stone structures, such as the “Eye of the Sun”.

Geography and geology

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Monument Valley is part of the Colorado Plateau. The elevation of the valley floor ranges from 5,000 to 6,000 feet above sea level. The floor is largely siltstone of the Cutler Group, or sand derived from it, deposited by the meandering rivers that carved the valley. The valley’s vivid red coloration comes from iron oxide exposed in the weathered siltstone. The darker, blue-gray rocks in the valley get their color from manganese oxide. For tourists doing a national park tour, Monument Valley is situated between Arches National Park and the Grand Canyon.

The buttes arising from the valley floor are clearly stratified, 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 capped by Shinarump Conglomerate.

Between 1945 and 1967, the southern extent of the Monument Upwarp was mined for uranium, which occurs in scattered areas of the Shinarump Conglomerate; vanadium and copper are associated with uranium in some deposits.

Tourism and media

Monument Valley includes much of the area surrounding Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, a Navajo Nation equivalent to a national park. Oljato, for example, is also within the area designated as Monument Valley. Visitors may drive through the park on a 17-mile (27 km) dirt road. Parts of Monument Valley, such as Mystery Valley and Hunts Mesa, are accessible only by guided tour.

Monument Valley has been featured in many forms of media since the 1930s. Famed director John Ford used the location for a number of his Westerns. Film critic Keith Phipps wrote that “its five square miles [13 km2] have defined what decades of moviegoers think of when they imagine the American West”.3

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  1. Scheffel, Richard L.; Wernet, Susan J., eds. (1980). Natural Wonders of the World. Reader’s Digest. p. 255. ISBN 978-0895770875. ↩

  2. King, Farina (2018). “Náhookọs (North): New Hioes for Diné Students.” The Earth Memory Compass: Diné Landscapes and Education in the Twentieth Century. University Press of Kansas. pp. 142–74. doi:10.2307/j.ctv6mtdsj. S2CID 135010884. ↩

  3. Phipps, Keith (November 17, 2009). “The Easy Rider Road Trip”. Slate. Retrieved December 16, 2012. ↩