Monument Valley: An open-air Museum of Mesas, Buttes and Spires

After our dreamy yet rushed tour of the gorgeous Antelope Canyon, we headed further east to an open-air exhibition of mesas, buttes and spires of the red rock country. Monument Valley is what the place is called. And it lies on the Arizona – Utah border.

The drive from the Page, (AZ) area was a scenic one like most of the drives through the Colorado Plateau. And that means many a long straight road through the high plains often curving past table mountains and smaller eroded remnants of once gigantic rocky structures. With just about one lane in each direction, the highways through these rocky deserts showed very little signs of habitation except for a few small towns here and there. 

As we neared our destination we began to see some signs of snow and there was ice in the parking lot of the visitor center. While the kids got busy getting their hands cold and wet in the white goodness I headed over to the edge of the hill on which the center stands and there in front of me sprawled a familiar scene. There was that much-photographed sight of 3 red buttes standing tall and proud in the middle of a very orangish-red plain.

And nature had added a sprinkling of snow to remind us that winter was just around the corner. 

I spent some time taking pictures of the beautiful picture spread out before me and would have liked to just stand there and gaze at it. But we had to do the drive through the valley and head back to Page by nightfall. It was a November evening and the day seemed to be in a hurry to wind up. We did a part of the 17-mile drive through the unpaved roads and when we got back to the top of the hill, we were just in time to catch the shadows of the buttes falling on the flat red rock beds. 

Monument Valley Loop Drive

During the drive through Monument Valley, we got a closer look at the West Mitten, East Mitten and Merrick Butte from the floor of the plain and also drove past the enormous Mitchell Mesa, spotted the evening sun peeking at us through the Three Sisters and captured snapshots of Rain God Mesa, Camel Butte and a couple of other popular rock formations of the valley. 

The natural Monuments of Monument Valley

These skyscraping natural structures of the Colorado Plateau owe their creation to a series of natural phenomena like the uplift of the earth’s crust, effects of the movement of tectonic plates and erosion. 

This part of the plateau itself is said to be over 5000 ft. above sea level and believed to be a result of magma pushing up the surface of the land. And the towering sandstone reliefs we see on the tableland are said to have been shaped by water, wind and snow erosion. And they continue to be redesigned by the forces.

A few geological terms for you to better appreciate the rock formations of Monument Valley

Plateau – Raised table land created by geological forces, often spreading to miles.
Mesas – Wide yet large pieces of table-like rocks, almost always one of the first few stages of erosion of a plateau. 
Buttes — Smaller than the mesas, often an eroded version of a mesa. Eg: The East and West Mittens in the picture above. 
Spires — (As the name suggests are) stripped versions of buttes. 

—-

You might also like —
Lithic Landscapes
More from the Colorado Plateau

Linking to —
My Corner of the World

For pictures from the road, Like/Follow Tipsy From The TRIP on  Facebook. 
 Come, Trip with us. 😉