Seniors Awed With the Beauty

Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park (Navajo Name: Tse’Bii’Ndzisgaii ) is where senior visitors will experience one of the most majestic and most photographed  sites on earth. The Navajo Nation is a semi-autonomous Native American-governed territory covering 16 million acres or 27,425 square miles , occupying portions of northeastern Arizona, southeastern Utah, and northwestern New Mexico.

Sandstone masterpieces towering  400 to 1,000 feet grace this great valley. The angle of the sun accents these graceful formations, providing scenery that is truly spellbinding. The landscape overwhelms by its beauty and also by its size. The Rock pinnacles are surrounded by miles of mesas and buttes, shrubs, trees and windblown sand, all comprising the magnificent red colors of the valley.

Seniors Meet The Navajo People

Anthropologists believe the Navajos probably arrived in the southwest between 800 and 1,000 years ago, crossing the Bering Strait land bridge and traveling south. The Navajo people call themselves Dine’ , literally meaning “The People.”

It is believed that the Navajo learned the rudiments of agriculture after arriving in the Four Corners area. The Spanish brought with them domesticated livestock and from this contact, the Navajo took on shepherding and horsemanship.

Seniors know the story of WWII Navajo Code Talkers. Still today, strangers are intrigued and mystified when they hear the Navajo language.

Seniors Enjoy Guided Tour

Monument Valley is a truly wondrous experience near Kayenta and Canyon de Chelly. From the Visitors Center in the Navajo Nation, visitors purchase guided tours from Navajo tour operators like my daughter and her family did.

A guide will take senior visitors down into the valley in a jeep for a narrated tour through these mythical formations. Places such as Ear of the Wind and other landmarks can only be accessed via one of these guided tours. You can not do it on your own.

During the summer months, the visitor center also features Haskenneini Restaurant, which specializes in both native Navajo and American cuisines, and a film/snack/souvenir shop.

Navajo land is large, l arger than 10 of the 50 states in America . This vast land is unique because the people  have achieved something quite rare: the ability of an indigenous people to blend both traditional and modern ways of life. The Navajo Nation truly is a nation within a nation .

Senior travelers, you can see for yourself a nation that lives as it did a long time ago. Meet the people and their land. jeb