RCLCOLPB

My wife and I will be staying at The View Hotel in Monument Valley for a conference of hers in May 2010. The hotel is arranging horseback and jeep rides operated by Roy Black's. http://www.blacksmonumentvalleytours.com/ The reviews on TripAdvisor are very favorable, but there are not very many reviews. I can't find any mention of them on Fodor's.

Does anyone have experience with Roy Black's tours? If so, would you recommend them? Do you feel strongly that we should arrange our own trip with another company?

Whether with Roy Black or not, do you think we should opt for horse or jeep? How long a trip would you recommend, or there any areas we should aim to have included in our trip? I assume that if we opt for a horse ride we will also drive through where we can without a guide, or does it make sense to take both horse and jeep rides?

Thanks very much,

Len

joeyi

We didn't use Roy Black's for horseback riding so I can not say anything about his company. I was searching last night for the name of the company we used but did not find it. I will try to make more time tonight to look again. We did make the arrangements ourselves when we arrived in the parking area. The company had one of the first boths. I was kind of skeptical at first and hadn't been on a horse in over 15 years but like I said in your other thread this was the surprise highlight of our trip. Their stable is just beyond the parking lot and it was just my husband, myself and our guide. We dropped down into the valley floor and rode around some of the monuments.
After we did our horseback ride we drove ourselves around through the monuments and did see a group of riders. I was glad we were not in that group on the road.
But I would really recommend doing both a drive and a horseback ride it's a great way to see the valley.

Bill_H

I used to photograph up there quite often and I've met Roy but didn't use him as a guide (I had two other guides that I became friends with). Everything I've heard about him and his tours was positive so I'd recommend using him.

does it make sense to take both horse and jeep rides?

Sure, if you have time to work in both. The jeep tours will cover more area and maybe a good idea to do a sunset jeep tour the first day, then one of the horse tours to a specific area you particularly liked if you want more. Just looked at what's on his site and I think the 2 1/2 hour horse tour with a stop for the rug weaving demo would be about right.