Monument Valley Tour from Flagstaff

The drive was long as expected. Roads are rough - unavoidable. Try not to sit in the back of the van. Th guide was very knowledgeable and entertaining. The monument itself is spectacular. I am so happy we did this. It is well worth the time and the money.

I enjoyed the tour very much. My tour guide J.R. who worked on some the motion pictures filmed at Monument Valley, told great entertaining stories abut his experiences. I was picked up at my hotel on time in clean, comfortable van. J.R. was a very good driver and gave us info facts as we traveled. After a great meal, we went into the park, only an indigenous person could guide us through there. Our guide was “Larry”, a member of the Navajo tribe. Larry was friendly and knowledgeable about the history of his people. For the entire trip, I had the “I can’t believe I finally made it here”, feeling since I had been trying to get there for many years, and it did not disappoint. I would personally thank the tour, J.R., Larry, and the two people I traveled with, for making this a trip of a lifetime. The value was good for me, even though I would have spent more, but if you are a fan of classic cinema, especially westerns, it is a must see place.

I actually took this tour in June 2018, however due to travelling all over the world for the last 18 months, I am just in the process of writing all the reviews. What a fantastic day I had exploring Monument Valley. A few days previous to my tour, I received word from the tour company I’d booked with that the tour wasn’t running which send me in a massive frenzy trying to find a tour guide with availability. Luckily a very kind tour guide from Great Venture managed to get me on one of the buses! I booked with Great Ventures but my tour guide was from Red Stone Tours and when I had rang Red Stone Tours, they told me they had no availability which is very strange. It’s a long day trip; it was almost 11 hours from Flagstaff start to finish. I was picked up at 7:30 and we journeyed to Utah. Everyone else in the bus had come from Sedona which is an even longer journey. Our tour guide JR was fantastic! He actually drives for the movie business so he’s chauffeured huge celebs including Stephen Spielberg, he’s dog-sat Jodi Forster’s dog on location and he’s even been an extra in a few movies; most famously he shovelled horse manure in Back to the Future Part III! About an hour into the journey, we stopped at a rest stop/gift shop owned by the Native Americans. The entire area from Flagstaff to Monument Valley and beyond is Navajo Nation territory. We arrived at Goulding’s Lodge at about 10:45. This was our lunch stop only about 4 miles from the Valley. I thought we would have packed lunch consisting of sandwiches and crisps for lunch but instead we went into the restaurant and ordered whatever we wanted – the tour company pays for it all! After lunch and a look around the museum at the hotel/restaurant, we headed into Monument Valley. We were in the valley itself for about 2.5 hours. We drove the dirt road which is the exact road taken in Stagecoach. JR had some props with him to create some pretty interesting shots. We encountered some dust devils along the way which had to be one of the highlights for me because dust devils are dust tornadoes! We stopped at John Ford’s Point which is the iconic rock ledge featured in The Searchers. There’s actually a horse called John Wayne’s Spirit and you can pay to ride him out on the ledge; unfortunately the people who do the rides weren’t there when we were. For me though, the best moment was walking out to the open desert. It was just breath taking how real and beautiful it was! Nowhere in the world can you see this and you could honestly just stand there for hours and get lost in that view, it was spectacular. This is definitely one of the best tours I’ve ever been on!