Monument Valley's Hollywood Skyline

Monument Valley, straddling the Arizona-Utah border entirely within the Navajo Nation, is one of the most recognized landscapes on Earth. Its towering sandstone buttes, including the iconic pair known as the Mittens, rise up to 1,000 feet from a vast red desert floor. They are remnants of an ancient plateau slowly eroded over 50 million years. Director John Ford filmed Stagecoach here in 1939 and returned seven more times, cementing the image of Monument Valley as the definitive backdrop of the American West. It has since appeared in hundreds of films, commercials, and photographs. All tourism is managed by the Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation department, and Navajo families have lived in the valley continuously for generations.