Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park: A girls’ weekend in the View Hotel Cabins

Sometimes I forget I live in the southwest.

I mean, Flagstaff – with its snow-capped mountain peaks, towering Ponderosa pine trees and rolling meadows — is definitely not the first thing that comes to mind when someone says “southwest.”

But you know what probably is the first thing that comes to mind when someone says “southwest?”

Monument Valley.

I mean… it’s literally this () emoji.

Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, located on Navajo Nation along the Arizona and Utah border, has been on my to-visit list for years.

As a millennial, I don’t really know it from the old Western films, but I more associate it with Forrest Gump.

And, of course, the indigenous Diné (Navajo) people of the Colorado Plateau, who have had much of their land mercilessly stolen with no notable recourse.

So, when my friend Jenni asked back in January if I had any interest in getting in on a cabin rental inside the park the answer was a very-fast “of course.”

A huge shout-out to Jenni, who took the initiative to research, book and plan everything! I’ve had very little time over the past month and she did not hesitate to wrangle all of our asses up and make plans for the entire weekend.

We (myself, Jenni and Yuri) left Flagstaff at about 1 p.m. and got all settled into our cabin at about 6. The drive is about three hours, and there’s a one-hour time change between Navajo Nation and the rest of Arizona, since Navajo Nation participates in Daylight Savings Time and the State of Arizona does not.

Admission to Monument Valley is $8 per person for non-tribal visitors. The three of us paid our admission fee before driving over to our cabin.

A quick note: If you’re interested in staying the night in Monument Valley, you have three options: A cabin, a hotel room or a campground.

Jenni booked us one of the smaller cabins with a premium view, which means we were front-row to the sunrises over the sandstone formations of the valley.

We dropped our belongings off at our cabin and wandered around the area.

We ogled the sandstone formations, perused the Trading Post (full of handmade art), peeped the museum (heavy on Navajo Code Talker history) and checked out the menu for The View Restaurant.

We retired to our cabin at sunset, ate our packed dinner and spent our evening playing games before going to bed early.

We woke up the next morning, had our packed breakfasts and wandered out for a quick hike.

There are two short trails in the park — we opted to take Lee Cly Trail, which was a really quick 1.5-mile hike south of the hotel.

The hike leads up onto the base of one of the sandstone formations, and gives a wide panoramic view of many of the formations.

After our quick hike, the three of us went back to our cabin to wait for our friend Lauren to arrive.

Lauren arrived just in time for the four of us to head out to our planned 4×4 excursion.

Jenni had booked us an off-road guided tour with Dineh Bekeyah Tours. The four of us piled into the center row of a 12-seat tour vehicle, and rolled down to Loop Drive for our very windy tour.

At the center of Monument Valley is the 17-mile Loop Drive. It’s an unpaved road (high-clearance 4×4 recommended) that brings you into the heart of the mesas, buttes and spires of the park.

While anyone who’s paid the entrance fee into the park can access the drive, booking a guided tour gets you off of Loop Drive and into some of the more remote areas of the park that can only be visited while accompanied by a Navajo guide.

Our guide, Elvis, was phenomenal. He stopped at all the view points and at all the arches, and gave us quite a bit of history about the land and its inhabitants.

In addition to pointing out the various formations, he also brought us to some petroglyphs, and pointed out scars left on the land by uranium mining.

After our tour, the four of us wandered back to our cabin to shower and change, and then piled into Jenni’s car to go grab dinner.

There isn’t much in the way of restaurants around Monument Valley. We opted for Goulding’s, which had a bigger vegan and vegetarian menu selection.

Dinner was frybread on frybread!

I had a vegetarian Navajo taco for dinner…

…and cinnamon apple-filled ice cream-topped fry bread for (shared) dessert.

After dinner, we went back to our cabin for another night of games and conversation.

We woke up early the next morning to catch the sunrise.

Sunrise is probably the biggest attraction at the park. The sun rises behind the towering sandstone buttes and spires, and gives quite a show.

The four of us made coffee, wrapped ourselves in blankets, and spent about an hour on the porch watching the sun rise along with all of our neighbors.

Once the show was complete, we readied ourselves for the day, packed up our car, checked out of our hotel, and went to cross a few more things off our list.

We hopped back into Jenni’s car and went back to Loop Drive. We stopped back at John Ford Point, where we took a few more photos.

John Ford Point has a few shops, stalls and vendors set up, including Linda’s Fry Bread, which is (to my knowledge) the only restaurant inside the park.

We had some fry bread topped with honey and powdered sugar as a little pre-lunch snack.

Then we hopped back into the car to complete the Loop Drive, since our prior day’s excursion only involved part of it.

Afterward, we exited the park and made our way to Forrest Gump Point for one last round of photos.

Forrest Gump Point is actually located outside the Tribal park on U.S. route 163. It’s well-marked, labeled with signs and easy to get to. There are several pull-off spots for vehicles, and we were one of about a half-dozen cars stopped to take in the views and grab some photos.

With that said — it is an active roadway. Even though the speed limit is lowered to 45 miles-per-hour for a good stretch route 163, be super cognizant of traffic if you’re taking photos in the road.

And… that was it for our trip! We piled back into Jenni’s car and began our drive back home.

Overall, it was a really great trip. The iconic sandstone formations were breathtaking, and the four of us had a great time hanging out.

Thank you so much to Navajo Nation and the Diné people for allowing us to visit and admire Monument Valley.

A few more notes about our cabin:

Our room had one large bed and two smaller bunks, so it was a cozy (but perfect) fit for three of us one night and four of us the second. We also had a table with four chairs, which was perfect for our game night. We did end up bringing two camp chairs which came in handy to watch sunrises because the outdoor deck only had two chairs.

We had a kitchenette with a microwave, fridge/freezer and Keurig. We had plenty of empty cabinet space but no utensils/ dinnerware/serveware, so if you’re visiting, make sure you bring plates/ forks/ knives/ etc.

Our bathroom was fully-equipped with a sink, shower and toilet, as well as towels for the four of us and complimentary travel toiletries. Cabin guests are asked to limit their showers to five minutes out of respect for the land and its water resources.

We also found out that as a group that booked our cabin for two nights rather than one, we were an anomaly! Most visitors book a single night as part of a larger road trip through the Southwest.

Have you been to Monument Valley? Would you visit?