| The Background is our favourite view of Monument Valley |
Monument Valley, which straddles the Arizona and Utah border is famous for where John Ford made so many Westerns. He and his star John Wayne used to stay at the Gouldings Lodge Inn, where we visited the museum dedicated to them. We also visited a nearby Navajo Hogan - a room used nowadays for ceremonial and religious functions . The Valley is home to many Navajo Native Americans and is on the edge of the Navajo Nation itself. The man who took us on our tour was a retired miner having worked at the nearby Black Mesa open-cast coalmine that provides an important source of revenue to the Navajo people. Our bumpy ride took us past John Ford point, his favourite spot in the valley, and we saw several small settlements of trailer homes with Hogans and Sweathouses nearby. After lunch we visited the jewellery stalls and wished we had bought the lot; it is so delicate and distinctive and reasonably priced. On our way to Lake Powell we had a short stop to view the Navajo National Monument - Betatakin. We've provided a link as our photos are not worth showing here. It is a fantastic example of Native American cliff dwellings. Then we hit the trail again for Page at Lake Powell.
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