United States 2005

Short hike in this small park before joining Monument Valley: the view of the valley and its cliffs is superb.

The Colorado also visits the area... not bad at all tell me... yes, really, but really very pretty.

It is also in this park that John Woo shot "Mission Impossible 2" with Tom Cruise in the memorable climbing scene at the beginning of the film. But watch for yourself this video extracted from the first minutes of the film:

We camp at the Grounding Campground in Monument Valley.

The opportunity for me to take a night photo (Enlarge the photo to see some stars including the Pleiades in the center and the planet Mars on the right above the bush).

We get up at 6 am to see the sunrise

Monument Valley Park is not managed by the government. It belongs to a few Navajo families. The Navajos, Amerindian people of the Athabaskan language family, are related to the ancient Apache tribes.

the surroundings of the Goulding's Museum with Monument Valley in the background. It is thanks to Harry Goulding that Monument Valley is known to all. Indeed, he introduced the filmmaker John Ford to this park through some photos. Neither one nor two, the latter shot many films in this mythical place with his favorite actor John Wayne ("Stagecoach", "Fort Apache", "Rio Grande", etc.). We will also remember the films "Back to the Future 3" and "Forrest Gump", also shot here.

West Mitten Butte

In the background, The Sisters, and in front, the car and dogs of the Navajos, Navajos that we regularly find in the park selling souvenirs.

The Navajos also offer a horse ride

Our faithful Toyota nag looks great in this (very real) Wild West setting... On the left, the Rain God Mesa, on the right the Thunderbird Mesa.

In the background, Totem pole and Yei Bi Chei.

PANORAMIC

THE photo in front of the East Mitten Butte 

Last look in the rearview mirror before leaving for Grand Canyon, but we will still take a little sand with us as a souvenir...