Monument Valley

Like every true cowboy we road into Monument Valley at sundown.
I know you’re supposed to leave town at sundown but arriving at sundown still had a certain western theme.

Not being able to find the local saloon we tried the RV Park to feed, water and bed down our trusty RV for the night whilst we rustled us up some bacon ‘n beans.
It was good to see the people here were into the spirit of the Wild West too as they fleeced us just like any crooked gambling house would to a couple of green horns new to town. They made the casinos in Las Vegas seem like amateurs as far as squeezing tourists go.

Our opinion of the US being third world remains.
Here they have converted old pickups into tour vehicles. The conversion consists of bolting three rows of old school bus seats to the back, that’s it, not even seat belts are added.

There is a part of Monument Valley that is a loop road, this has been closed off with a gate and entry booth as this is all traditional land.
It costs $US20 to pass here and go a 100 metres to a car park.
Here for the privilege of paying $US80+tax per person first you make sure you are rugged up against dust and the cold before climbing aboard one of these rat rod limousines that travel over roads so bad they must be deliberately made that way so no other vehicles can use them because even nature can’t be that mean.

This tour lasts for a couple of hours and most of it seems to be taken up watching some poor Navajo woman who has been roped into weaving traditional Navajo rugs, using traditional Chinese wool on a traditional loom made in Taiwan.
This is unless for $US140 + tax, you take the all day tour. I couldn’t find any sadists, well still alive that is, to find out about this harrowing experience but it didn’t matter as we left all this stuff pretty much alone.

What we did do though was to drive along the public highway that runs through Monument Valley, pulling over every few hundred metres for photos, tea and meal breaks or just to stop and gaze.
Thats the way to do it and at one stop we were approached by an American family asking us if we knew about the tours. This was our big chance, having been done over in Deadwood we decided to return the favour and put the boot in.
A few others picked up on the conversation and in the end we had a small crowd gathered around listening to us describe the best way to tour Monument Valley.
They all took us seriously and said how fortunate it was to run into us for advice. This made us realise how easy it is to get tourists in, just like the locals have been doing for years with their over priced junker tours.

With the aura of Las Vegas still around and dollar signs spinning like slot machines dials in our eyes we couldn’t help but think of the possibles in the tourist trade here. One thing our friendly crowd said was how funny it was that we Australians were telling Americans how to tour their own country, they thought that was great.
Now this gave us a great idea. Our company has to have an Australian flavour yet be relevant to what people are use to here... you’re already guessed it, Ned Kelly Tours.Read more