naturetraveller

We will travel to Monument Valley in a few days and plan to arrive before sunset and stay at The View. We will travel to Grand Canyon the next day, so will probably have time for a half day tour before we leave. Could someone advise me as to whether we should consider a jeep tour, horse tour or hiking tour? We like to hike but maybe we would see more if we did one of the others. We will be doing a jeep tour prior to that in Canyon de Chelly, in case that affects anyone's advice.

StantonHyde

I can't stand jeep tours but that is just me. Depends on how much work you want to do. Horse = no work, hiking =work. If you want to cover more ground, than a jeep tour is better. But as far as really experiencing what you see, hiking is the way to go!!

spirobulldog

Here is why I would suggest the Jeep Tour--Your going to see a lot of Arches and more of the park in a short period of time. The tour guides can or cannot be good. Just depends on who you get. This is operated by Indian Reservation and their English and training isn't anything at all like what you normally get at a national park. I you happen to get a good one, then it's a great tour. I'm sure this would be the case with any of the tours-whether horseback, hiking, or vehicle.

naturetraveller

Any idea how to get a good tour guide? Is it potluck or is one particularly good?

sassy_cat

I'd avoid an 'open' tour. It's a very dusty, sandy road. We self drove and kept our windows closed.
Stopping in various places we saw a few guides advertising their tours on foot and on horseback and overheard a couple of really good ones. So it's possible to start as a self drive and pick up a tour en route so to speak.
Perhaps if you go this route you would stumble upon a good guide.

The View is a nice place to stay. Great views of the Mittens at sunset and sunrise

Lexma90

We visited Monument Valley for two nights last year, and the scenery was spectacular.

We drove ourselves through Monument Valley, and while that route is more limited, we saw all that we wanted to see (we spent several hours doing this). We also took a shortish hike (this was in late May, so warmer than right now) around one of the Mittens. It was interesting, and because we are active people and like to hike, we enjoyed it. But the views weren't anything like driving through the area.

We were coming from the north, so also stopped several times as we drove toward Monument Valley, to enjoy the views from that direction, as well.

After Monument Valley, we drove down to Canyon de Chelly and had a 1/2-day guided tour there. That worked well for us - a guided tour at Canyon de Chelly, and driving on our own in Monument Valley.

A comment on the English spoken by tour guides. As Navajo (actually, Dine Bizaad) is the first language of very few Navajo (Dine), it was surprise me if anyone's English wasn't very good. Everyone we spoke to, on or off the Reservation, spoke English just as well as I do, and I'm a native speaker.

spirobulldog

You are not going to see that much hiking, horseback riding, hiking, or driving it on your own. These all are rewarding and unique in their own right.

But, it just depends on how much you want to see. Your going to miss stuff like the W, Suns Eye, Ear Arch, sitting in a Hogan and meeting a Navajo woman who can't speak English, many other arches, etc. They use what I would call covered trucks, enclosed jeeps, your 4 wheel drive vehicle, etc. There are a variety of operators operating a variety of different ways. You just gonna have to google and read each one. Look on Yelp and Tripadvisor too. Gouldings does one, The View does one too. I probably would go with more of what I would call a Private Guide. Maybe Sandstone, Blacks, or Navajo Spirits.

Here is a link to our photos from 4 corners trip with several shots of Monument Valley and tour there.
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...0IatW7FqybsWtV

spirobulldog

BTW, our tour was open tour and didn't bother us at all.

spirobulldog

Monument Valley starts on PIC #72.

Vttraveler

A word of caution: the road is very rough so self-drive could be hard on your car especially if it does not have much clearance.