We are hanging on to our hats as we speed south on Highway 163 on the west side of Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park in northeast Arizona. The open seating up behind the cab of the Chevy truck makes for a great view, but the wind-chill factor is fierce. It’s worth it, though, because the valley’s other-worldly topography is mesmerizing and I wouldn’t want to miss a thing.
In the driver’s seat is Navajo guide Garry Holiday, and our passage into an area called Mystery Valley (named for the 700-year-old petroglyphs here) would not be possible without him. Visitors to the valley can navigate its 17-mile scenic drive on their own, but other areas in the park are off-limits without a Navajo guide.
Here on the back roads (at times nothing but exposed rock), Holiday gets us up close and personal to the history, culture and artifacts of the Navajo people. He weaves stories and legends of those who have inhabited this area for 700 years and talks about the remarkable forces that created this terrain.
Earlier, we made the slow and bumpy 17-mile drive that takes visitors to the iconic, 1,000-foot-high sandstone towers, buttes and formations we all know from Hollywood and Madison Avenue – the Mittens, Elephant Butte, Three Sisters and John Ford’s Point.
They are spectacular, absolutely, but there is something special about the isolation and intimacy of the 3½-hour guided tour with Holiday and the closer-to-the-ground sandstone formations, cliff dwellings and petroglyphs that he shows us.
“I think what strikes people is that we are one of the last places in the U.S. that has an ancient culture that feels intact,” Holiday says. “It’s been here for thousands of years. We have a lot of our traditional ways. They speak to how we can live our lives in balance with the people of the earth and within our surroundings. Our mission is to teach as much as we can.”
Holiday, founder and owner of Navajo Spirit Tours, was born and raised here and explains how he and tribe members identify their ancestors. His wife, Michelle, a non-Navajo from Washington state, met Holiday in Montana and they married at age 18. Both artists, they raised 10 children here and, “Now I’ve spent more of my life here than in Washington,” she says.
“I love living here…the Navajo humor…the beauty all around me. Living without water and electricity was part of my young life as was learning the ways. It was an adventure and when you are with the person you love most, that’s all that counts. I wouldn’t trade my life for a million dollars.”
There are many stops on this drive. We get out and walk the ground where geological events created strange formations, see pottery shards of long-ago inhabitants and try to decipher their petroglyphs.
Throughout this 92,000-acre park, a sense of peace prevails.
“We feel that this beautiful land was given to us by the Creator,” Holiday tells us at the Pancakes formation, one of the highest points in Mystery Valley and his favorite place. “It feels like you can reach into the sky connecting heaven and earth,”
You can’t visit Monument Valley without feeling affected, Holiday adds.
“People… tell us that it is one of the most wonderful experiences of their life. It is a healing experience. It energizes their lives.”
The Holidays have taken on another project: the restoration of the 104-year-old Oljato Trading Post in northern Monument Valley. In 2021, the post was named one of the most endangered historic sites in America by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Once an important hub for commerce and community, “the post was the first business in Monument Valley,” Michelle says. “We are really excited about the opportunity that has been entrusted to us. There are a lot of repairs to be made, but little by little, we are finding a lot of them are cosmetic. Our idea is to bring back history and connect it with present day.”
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