Customer Reviews

Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park and The Navajo Reservation

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

An excellent book for preparing for our adventure! Wounderful pictures. Includes nearby attactions to include along with Monument Valley. Helpful maps. Exactly what I expected and needed.

Amazon,
The book was colorful and informative. BUT, it did not have enough detailed information (maps, etc) on the Monument Valley area itself.

Steve Miller
Phoenix, AZ

Big book (10"x13"), Big disappointmet. I was looking for a book to tell me the best sites to see and the best way to visit Monument Valley. The book gives you this information in about two pages. The rest of the book gives you the history and geological background of the area. The book gives you information on other sites which include Antelope Canyon, Rainbow Bridge, Canyo De Chelly and several other sites. I did not find this book vey interesting. However, there were a few good pictures.

The only issue with this book is the title, which is slightly misleading. Its subject matter is not exclusively Monument Valley (mainly in Utah but spilling over into Arizona) but the wider region around the Four Corners and the ancient Native American stone-built ruins to be found there as well as the spectacular natural geology. Apart from that, it's pretty good.

Large-format illustrated books like these are on sale in national park information centres. You can buy this one at the Navajo Tribal Information Centre at Monument Valley, at Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde and in The Grand Canyon National Park as well as other sites in the SW. However, buying online through Amazon will likely save you money.

The author of the text is a Brit now living in Santa Fe NM, who studies and writes about the Native American cultural sites and artefacts in the region. This book contains chapters about the Navajo tribal lands which are mainly in AZ but spread into UT and NM (but not CO). The histories of the Anasazi and other Pueblo tribes like the Hopi are all written about, and the maps include Chaco Canyon in NM, which incidentally is well worth seeing despite its extremely remote location and few visitors. So it's important to realize this is not a guide book to visiting Monument Valley National Park, which some other reviewers seem to have wanted and expected. If it's specifically a visitors' guide book to Monument Valley you want, then go elsewhere.

The publisher is California-based Sierra Press, who specialise in high quality photographic material about America's National Parks and beauty spots. The photo-images are really outstanding, with full-page rich hi-def color plates of the rugged red-sandstone landscape and the Native American sites like Chaco in different seasons, including some covered in snow.

Monument Valley itself is located mainly in Utah about 30 miles or so from the Four Corners Monument. The site is remote from any town or facilities except the Navajo Tribal Information Center, well managed and full of intelligently written and even-handed information about the Navajo with a good restaurant featuring tribal dishes served at reasonable prices. The huge shop has an enormous number of tribal artefacts to suit every budget, from a 50-cent fridge magnet to high-quality one-off fine art pieces costing thousands of dollars. The place is usually very busy, and you can drive through Monument Valley into AZ from there which on a clear day is truly spectacular.

The book has 64 pages and is very professionally produced. In summary, don't expect just a book confined to Monument Valley, as the text covers a larger geographical area to put the site into a wider context and if you appreciate this before purchase, you won't be disappointed.