This post has been a long time coming. For the 12+ years that I’ve been managing our office’s social media, rarely a post about Monument Valley goes by where someone doesn’t comment that Monument Valley is in Arizona, not Utah.
Sometimes the comments seem to be by people who are genuinely trying to be helpful by letting us know that we’re posting about something that (they think) is not in Utah, but often the comments lean toward being rude, (if they’re not outright rude!) sometimes resorting to calling us names for our alleged mistake.
Well, today’s the day I am finally addressing it! Where is Monument Valley located? Arizona? Utah? Both? If you answered ‘both’, you are correct! But there’s one more layer to this that we became aware that people were confused about during the beginning of COVID- Many people only think of Monument Valley as a park, and they’re unaware that there’s also the community of Monument Valley.
When people from all around the world think of Monument Valley, most likely they’re thinking about Monument Valley Tribal Park- the area managed by Navajo Nation Parks & Recreation with the free-standing rock features that have become synonymous with the American west thanks in large part to the many John Wayne/John Ford westerns that were filmed there. For those who think that Monument Valley Tribal Park is in Arizona, it is true that the majority of the park is in AZ, but a portion of it is in Utah as well.
Here’s a list of the named rock formations in Monument Valley that are located in Utah: Eagle Rock, Setting Hen, Brigham’s Tomb, King on His Throne, Stagecoach, Bear & Rabbit, Castle Butte, Big Indian, and Sentinel Mesa.
In the spring of 2020 when COVID hit the US, the Navajo Nation was hit particularly hard with COVID cases and deaths, and the Navajo Nation implemented tight restrictions on travel, both for its residents and for visitors, and even put curfews in place for their residents in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID. During this time the Navajo Nation closed all of their parks and monuments, and asked for visitors to please not come.
It was during this time that we started receiving what ended up being hundreds of phone calls from confused travelers stating that they had heard that Monument Valley was closed, and they were trying to figure out if they could pass through the area on Hwy 163. Although Monument Valley Tribal Park was closed, Hwy 163 which passes through the community of Monument Valley, does not enter the park and remained open. I can’t even tell you how many times I repeated this on the phone over the next 16 months while Monument Valley Tribal Park was closed.
Now let’s address the second part to the confusion- the community of Monument Valley. In addition to Monument Valley Tribal Park, there’s also the community of Monument Valley which is listed on the United States Postal Service’s website as a community & zip code associated with Utah. If you look up, ‘Monument Valley, AZ’ on this website, nothing comes up. (See images below)
In addition, if you look on unitedstateszipcodes.org, you’ll see that the majority of the area covered by the zip code associated with Monument Valley is also in Utah. For many years, Goulding’s Lodge which is located on the Utah side of the border, was not only the only hotel located in Monument Valley, but it also had the only RV park and restaurant. Goulding’s still runs the community’s only grocery store, gas station, laundromat, and a number of other services, all of which are located on the Utah side of the border.
Every so often someone who leaves one of the comments I mentioned previously, will state that they’re aware that a small part of the park is in Utah, but will point out that a majority of the park is in AZ, and question why Utah is promoting something that’s mostly in another state.
The reason our office, San Juan County Economic Development & Visitor Services, as well as the Utah Office of Tourism, promotes Monument Valley is because there are many Utah residents who are operating their businesses from the UT side of the border so we promote those businesses, and we promote Monument Valley Tribal Park since visitors to the park bring money to the Utah businesses located in the community of Monument Valley. Also, the park itself and many of the businesses providing services for visitors to Monument Valley provide jobs for residents of the area, both those on the Utah and Arizona side of the border.
The sole reason any Destination Marketing Organization (which is what the Visitor Services department of our office is), Convention & Visitor’s Bureau, or Chamber of Commerce promote pretty much anything, is to bring more business and money to the businesses in the areas they cover, and that is why we promote Monument Valley Tribal Park.
I hope that helps shed some light on the fact that Monument Valley is more than just a park- it’s also a community, and also on why we continue to promote visitation to the area. Please know that we’re well aware that the majority of Monument Valley Tribal Park is in Arizona, and for the reasons listed above, we will continue to share photos of Monument Valley since visitation to that area, both the park and the community, benefits our southern San Juan County, UT residents.
