We’ve all been to Monument Valley, whether in person or in our imagination.
The landscape is one of the most recognizable in the world, primarily due to the many Western movies filmed here, including John Ford’s Stagecoach, starring John Wayne.
But no matter what you think you have seen, photos or movies cannot hold up next to reality.
And that is where we headed in early March, to see it for ourselves.
It was quite a drive from the SF Bay area, but we wanted to see this beautiful part of the country, to learn a bit about Navajo and Hopi history and culture, and we wanted to go in the off-season when crowds would be smaller and temperatures cooler than in summer.
After a night’s stop in Needles, CA, we continued to our first destination of Navajo National Monument. This park has several hiking trails, including an overlook to the Betatakin cliff-dwelling ruins:
Betatakin from the overlook. The ruins are in the large shadowed cave in left-center.
NOTE: If you head to this area, do NOT use Google Maps to get directions to our destination for the night, Kayenta, AZ. When we first scoped out the route online, Google was sending us many miles to the south of Kayenta through a coal-company road, instead of simply offering directions off of Highway 163. Seriously…. if we had used the online map instead of a good, old-fashioned paper map, we would have gotten seriously lost.
NOTE #2: The areas I’ll be describing now are very rural. Of course, that is the whole point. Still, we had no cellphone service because apparently Verizon was not offered in this part of the Navajo Reservation. Yes, we could have used roaming service, but nothing was so important to have needed that.
One of the reasons we chose to visit the high desert of northeast Arizona in early March, close to the “Four Corners area,” was not wanting to be caught out there in the heat of summer. Records showed that it should be nice during daytime, though likely cold at night. And it was.
Some type of storm was blowing through this first night, and winds were blowing at 30-40 mph on the way to Navajo National Monument and thence to Kayenta. In fact, winds had blown the satellite dish off of the hotel roof, so we had no TV that first night, but no big deal on that. Still, I was hoping that the weather would be nicer the next day, as we went to Monument Valley.
Alas, that was not to be, as it barely broke above freezing, and the winds still howled, making it too cold to get out of the car and do the hiking we had wished to do. Still, there was a 17-mile-drive through Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park along a fairly decent dirt road. There were plenty of pullouts and chances for photos, and we took full advantage.
Rain God Mesa
View from North Point
Next day we drove the back roads to the town of Chinle, location of Canyon de Chelly National Monument (btw, “Chelly” is pronounced “shay”).
There are two roads around the canyon, north and south rim drives, and both offer spectacular views.
Mummy Cave ruins, off the North Rim Drive
View from Antelope House Overlook, off the North Rim Drive
People lived in cliff dwellings in these canyons for hundreds of years, and many Navajo still live along the bottom of the canyon. Those residents desire their privacy, so visitors must hire a Native guide for escort to the canyon floor. We chose not to hire a guide but were content to view the canyons from above. There is one trail to the bottom that you can take without a guide, the White House Ruin Trail, but we thought it might have been a bit too strenuous for us that day, so we only hiked a short way on that trail.
The next morning, we drove a bit south to the town of Ganado and the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site.
Exterior of Hubbell Trading Post
Interior of Hubbell Trading Post
Hubbell is still a viable store for locals, but the main interest for visitors is a large rug and arts room, specializing in Navajo weavings, pottery, and artwork from local artists. After some serious browsing and digging, we found a beautiful rug that is now at the side of our bed.
We left Ganado and drove west across Arizona on Highway 264 to the Hopi Reservation, where we enjoyed a visitor center and museum on Second Mesa. From there, we drove south to stay a few days with my father in the city of Surprise.
By now you are probably wondering: This is Dawn Chorus. Where’s the birds?
Up north, we actually didn’t see too much. Maybe too much desert, maybe the weather was still too cold and migrants weren’t moving through. As far as birdlife, there were Common Ravens everywhere, and I mean everywhere! We got a Rock Wren near the Rain God Mesa. I’m pretty sure I saw a Gray-crowned Rosyfinch on one of the canyon rim parking areas, but it got away before we could get a positive ID.
So after we got down to Surprise, we were looking forward to a nice morning’s hike at White Tank Mountain Regional Park, to the northwest of Phoenix.
Flowers in bloom at White Tank Mountain Regional Park
We first started at the Waterfall Trail, but quickly bailed on that one, as it was very crowded and there was no way we were going to see any birds with dozens of people, and their dogs, on the trail. We headed further up the park to the Ford Canyon Trail, and enjoyed ourselves immensely.
There were plenty of birds on this trail, both heard and seen. (NOTE: I did not want to carry my DSLR on this hike so, while we saw the following birds, these bird photos are not mine but are from National Audubon Society.)
First seen, in some palo verde trees on a creekbank were Verdin:
Verdin
We heard but, surprisingly, did not see, Gambel’s Quail. Note the brown on the wings and different coloring than California Quail. The Gambel’s also has a different call than the California.
Gambel’s Quail
We saw House Finches nesting in a cholla cactus, and later saw a Curve-billed Thrasher also building a nest in some cholla:
Curve-billed Thrasher
Speaking of cactus, there was a Gilded Flicker in a saguaro, but it got chased off by a pair of Gila Woodpeckers who were carving out a nest in the cactus.
Gilded Flicker
Gila Woodpecker
Note the heads on the two species. If you just see a quick look at their backs, it’s easy to confuse them.
I think my best bird of the day was three or four Black-throated Gray Warblers moving through some bush with a flock of White-crowned Sparrows.
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Also on the hike, we saw a few Turkey Vultures, and I was pretty surprised to see an Osprey fly over (“A fish-eating bird, here in the desert?”). My wife saw a White-winged Dove as we drove into the park, but I didn’t see it.
Please Help With Our Audubon Fundraiser
I hope you’ve enjoyed this bit of a tour through the northeast corner of Arizona! But please read some more, as I’d like to ask your help in supporting our annual fundraiser for the Santa Clara Valley (CA) Audubon Society.
SCVAS is one of the leading environmental organizations in the SF Bay Area, and we have been active members for many years. Each springtime, SCVAS holds a Birdathon to help raise money to support its efforts to educate kids and help preserve habitat for the birds we love.
Money raised does not go to salaries, but is used for field trips and other outdoor activities.
On April 9 we will be part of a birding team—Insider's Guide to East Bay Birding with Glen Tepke. We have not gone with him before, but he is a veteran birder with Golden Gate Audubon and winner of many Birdathons. It will be a four-hour visit through Garin and Coyote Hills Regional Parks in southern Alameda County, to the north of us, with a wide range of land and water birds.
During the Birdathon, our team will spend time running all over the county to see how many different species of birds we can identify. Our aim is to find more species than all the other teams! There is a good chance that we may even win a great prize for raising more money.
Won’t you help support SCVAS with a pledge? We greatly appreciate any amount, no matter how small. Deadline to receive donations is around May 1 since the Birdathon traditionally has a “window” by when donations must be in to count for a team or individual prize.
We ask you to either contribute online or get a check directly to us. Here is the special SCVAS
link to sponsor us. When that web page opens up, click the pink "Donate to Birdathon" button to open up a PayPal site to make your donation.
IMPORTANT: When the PayPal page opens up, look for a blue plus (+) sign where it says "Add a comment" right under the donation amount. Click the plus sign to open a comment box and please write in the name of my wife, Carolyn Straub! That way we get credit for your donation!
If you prefer not to use a credit card but would rather send in a check for a donation, please send me a Kosmail and I will give you our mailing address to send a check. Make out any check to “SCVAS” and please write “Carolyn Straub” on the memo line of the check to credit her, and we will submit your checks to Audubon with our donations. Of course, all donations are fully tax-deductible, and you will get a receipt for your records.
Readers of Dawn Chorus have been most supportive of our Birdathon efforts over the past few years, and we would not be successful without you, so I want to thank you in advance for whatever amount you can chip in. No amount is too small!
I set a goal of raising $2,000 last year, and we came up a little short of that. Won’t you please help us surpass that goal this year?