I awoke to the gentle nudging from Andrea at 3:45 AM. I crawled out of the tent, being careful of the precipitous drop-off 10 feet away, and proceeded to relieve myself. I had planned to shoot the sunrise at Tsé Biiʼ Ndzisgaii (“Valley Of The Rocks” in native Navajo language). But upon exiting the tent on the cliff, I found cloudless skies and decided the warmth of my sleeping bag was a better idea.
Tsé Biiʼ Ndzisgaii is the Navajo name for Monument Valley. The Valley Of The Rocks is a Navajo Tribal Park, the Navajo equivalent to a National Park. Located on the border of southeastern Utah and northern Arizona, Monument Valley contains some of the most dramatic rock formations on the Colorado Plateau. It is a place rich in Navajo history and is still home to these native people set aside in 1884 as part of the Navajo Reservation.
I eventually crawled out of my warm cocoon at 8:00, packed up, had some oatmeal and was on the road at 9:00. With a cloudless sky, the “Valley Of The Rocks” would not be as dramatic as my previous visit. But for $5, one can hardly pass up the opportunity. After all how often do you find yourself passing this way!
The road through the valley is a 17 mile dirt loop and Navajo tribal regulations prohibit you from exploring on foot without a native guide. I did find a few new locations to shoot, but still have a couple locations that I would like to explore but would need to hire a guide to reach. One is the sand dune area surrounding “Totem Pole”, best photographed in the early morning hours. And the other being Hunts Mesa which would be best at sunset and require an overnight stay on the top of the mesa.
At a location where I could photograph Totem Pole in the distance using my telephoto lens, I stumbled upon a local, Black Raven Soaring (but goes by the name of Ron), selling his handmade turquoise jewelry. I spent some time talking with him about his life on the reservation. And after trying to get some information from him on the sand dunes and Hunts Mesa, he offered his guide services to me at a discounted price. Unfortunately, I did not have the extra cash, but took his business card and told him I would look him up when I was back here again.
After a couple of hours meandering through Tsé Biiʼ Ndzisgaii, I headed for Page Arizona, where I would spend the only night of the trip in a hotel. After securing a room I went to explore the Glenn Canyon Dam, which holds back the waters of Lake Powell. And then found a nice location overlooking the lake to take in a nice sunset.
When the sun had set, it was time to get cleaned up, get some rest and prepare for the main reason I was this far south…Antelope Canyon…a photographers dream…
As you could probably guess, I loved the monochromes – they look like what the early photgraphers took back east to show. But the color shots do show the beautiful variations in the rock formations. Lake Powell water level looked a little low. Enjoyed them all.
Thank you, I thought the monochromes turned out pretty well. And Lake Powell has been pretty low for many years now, just over 50% full.