The Monument Valley (part 2)

In mid-September, Pat and I made a whirlwind road trip to see the Monument Valley in Arizona and Utah, the Four Corners, and Mesa Verde National Park. It was incredibly fun! I posted a photo from the Monument Valley yesterday, and today I'm posting a few more images from our day exploring this extraordinary place. I really can't describe the beauty of the Monument Valley. I spent most of the time just... dumbfounded. It was breathtaking, magnificent, awe-inspiring. I was actually at a loss on how to capture it in pictures. Truly, no photo can do justice to the majesty of it, so if you ever get a chance to go there, just go, and see it with your own two eyes.

I do not consider landscape photography to be my strong suit, but I really had fun taking these pictures. Poor Pat had to stop the car every 20 feet for me so I could take more and more! He did some wonderful photography there too, including a breathtaking time-lapse of the sunset, which I'll put at the bottom of this post. Enjoy!

Here's me, snapping away in the very spot where THIS picture was taken! Yes, I'm in the same place where Johnny Depp stood, how cool is that? (And yes, that is a huge drop-off and I didn't really notice it too much until I looked down, and uh... yikes!) This spot is called John Ford Point. Ford brought the Monument Valley into the public eye by directing some of his most famous western films there.

You are on Navajo tribal land when you're in the Monument Valley. There are Navajo vendors in many places throughout the park, selling jewelry and other handcrafted goods. We purchased an ankle bracelet and a necklace for me.

I was struck by the beautiful symmetry of this spot.

Mitten Rock, probably the most well-known and recognizable rock formation in the Monument Valley.

The colors of the rock formations change as the day wears on, becoming redder in the afternoon and early evening. As the sun sets, the larger rocks cast ever-lengthening shadows upon their neighbors.

Looking in the opposite direction.

Nightfall.

And last but not least, HERE is Pat's gorgeous time-lapse sequence of the sunset. It's only about 23 seconds long, but contains hundreds of pictures. He set his camera on a tripod and programmed it to fire every two seconds. The result is breathtaking.