Back to the 1950s and Monument Valley

We left Valley of the Gods because rain and cold weather was approaching.  We figured we might as well travel on this type of day rather than sit inside our camper looking out the windows and taking turns saying: “What a miserable day, we should've used the day to drive to another place."

Our general plan was to head toward southern California, stopping along the way in the St. George, Utah, area.  

Our first stop along the way was Monument Valley.  This beautiful place was the setting for many of the John Ford/John Wayne western movies of the 1930s through the 1950s, including my all-time favorite film, The Searchers, filmed in 1956.

At that time travel into this valley was fairly difficult for the stars and crew.  But Ford liked it because he liked how his films looked when filmed there.  He was famous for “filling up the screen.”  In other words, instead of focusing on just the actors and action, he wanted the background to also be worth filming.  Monument Valley, with its tall and majestic monuments, fit the bill.

The other two well-known and well respected Wayne/Ford collaborations here were Stagecoach (1939; the film that made John Wayne a star) and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1948; the second of Ford’s cavalry “trilogy”). 

When filming, the crew stayed at a small lodge called Gouldings Lodge.  It is now much larger, and more upscale, but has a museum and a small house that was Wayne’s headquarters in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

Monument Valley is on the Navaho Indian Reservation, so many shots of the monuments are not as pristine as they were 60-70 years ago because now many homes dot the area.  Ford was well liked by the Navajos because he employed as many as he could as extras.  But because it is in a reservation, one also can’t camp in the area or hike without a permit.  You can take bus tours of the area.  Commercialized.  Oh well.

At the end of The Searchers, Wayne stands at the doorway to the home where everyone but him belongs.  Unbeknownst to Ford and the crew that he was going to do this, he struck a pose in honor of an older western star—Harry Carey—who often stood with his hand on his elbow.  Before this shot, Harry Carey’s widow, Olive Carey, had previously entered the cabin, and was watching, so Wayne decided to honor her by doing this.  Everybody was very moved by the gesture.

At Gouldings there remains “John Wayne’s Cabin,” which was used for the external shots of Wayne’s character, Nathan Brittles, in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.  Here is the best I can do to imitate Wayne.  Pretty pitiful, I know,

Monument Valley is also the place where Forrest Gump runs.  In honor of that, Vicky ran too.  She had no idea what I was up to when I asked her to walk down the road and then run back up it.  But, being the good sport she always is, she trusted that there was a good reason. 

That night we spent in a dispersed site in the Vermillion Cliffs area of the Grand Staircase.  We would have spent more time there, but we rain and cold weather was still predicted. 

So we went on the next morning to the St. George, Utah, area.

And here we are now.  Weather is breaking, and should be warming.  We have a beautiful and spot and will spend a few days hiking and exploring.

What we have done is to travel below the well-attended National Parks in Utah, and above the Grand Canyon area in Utah.  There are thousands of square miles of land where we can camp and hike.  We have explored only a tiny bit, but will come back in future years and spend more time in this area.