Jason_W, aug. 2023
To be honest, I chose this booking because, at the time, it was the cheapest. We were flying to Las Vegas and I wanted to visit Monument Valley, so I booked the cheapest "Navajo Backcountry" tour I could find.
On the day of our tour, we arrived at the designated spot and saw that our guide was already there, so I went to greet him. He introduced himself as Richard and offered to start the tour right away (in spite of the fact that he was eating lunch). I told him that we knew we were early and to "go ahead and finish your lunch," but he saw that we were eager and insisted that we hop in. And so, our wonderful backcountry tour of Monument Valley began. As we would see, those first few moments of meeting Richard were a foretast of the warmth and kindness he extend to us throughout our time together.
Richard grew up in Monument Valley, and shared some childhood stories with us. Later, he demonstrated how the mesas and other unique rock formations may have formed over time. He sang Navajo songs and played the flute for us. He showed us petroglyphs, took some amazing photos for us, brought us to visit a hogan where we met Elvina - who fixed up my nieces hair in a Navajo style while explaining its significance. He introduced us to Violet and Linda, from whom we purchased beautiful handmade souvenirs and delicious Navajo tacos, respectively.
In all, we spent two and a half hours exploring the backcountry of Monument Valley, and it was truly an amazing day!
My dad is a big John Wayne fan, so I had seen Monument Valley on-screen multiple times and had some idea of what we would see on our visit. Even so, it was so surreal to stand at the base of those buttes in person and gaze up at their beauty. A sense of awe settles on you. It's hard to explain.
Although our trip "out west" included visits to Las Vegas, some towns on Route 66, Sedona, the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park, on our way home we asked the group to name their favorite part of the trip and the consistent response is "Monument Valley!"
There are so many things that you get experience during these guided tours that are simply not available when visiting on your own. If you make the trip to Monument Valley, book a tour!
We will definitely return to this beautiful place for a sunset tour, and when we do, we will definitely book it with Simpson's Trailhandler Tours. And we hope Richard will be available to act as our guide.