Southwestern Souvenirs

It’s all my fault, I should have told you earlier. I was whizzing by there this early June in our rental Toyota Camry, enjoying the power of the six-cylinder engine, and saw out of the corner of my eye that the gates were closed and locked. It took an article in the New York Times to re-remind me of this fact. The Times also reminded me of what I don’t like about my local national newspaper: the reporter had the effrontery to say that “Four Corners is not particularly beautiful.” This, of course, is an East Coast writer’s idea of being snide and “factual” at the same time. I guess this is the sort of reporter that, if you take him away from his Starbucks and cozy, noisy city, he gets a panic attack…

Four Corners Monument, when it was open (we visited there in Oct. 2007)

Yes, until September the Four Corners Monument is closed on Mondays through Thursdays for construction, and this information can be found on the Navajo Nation’s website. Unfortunately, many tourists driving through the Navajo Reservation don’t bother with checking this site. I’m sorry for the families that wanted the joyous experience of standing with a limb in four states at the same time (I did that, too, a long time ago), but in terms of Indian arts no one is missing a thing. Twelve miles down the road is Teec Nos Pos Trading Post, and there’s a genuine, delightful shopping experience.

Who says Four Corners isn't beautiful? (Shiprock in the distance.)

It used to be that there was only one place to stay the night and have a view of Monument Valley. Goulding’s Lodge was built in the 1920s, initially as a trading post, by Harry and Leone (known as “Mike”) Goulding, and overlooks one scenic portion of the Valley. Over the Depression years, as a means of drawing people and wages to their remote beauty spot, the Gouldings induced film director John Ford to come out and visit. The rest was history, as so many classic Westerns attest. Frankly, we’ve had a laugh about some of the movies, when the action opens with one of the Mittens in the background and ends at a supposedly faraway location with a famous butte still in the background!

One of the views from Goulding's Lodge.

Nevertheless, we’ve stayed at Goulding’s since the late 1980s and always enjoyed the facilities. This year, when deciding to home back to one of our favorite places in the world (and it does have healing powers), we had to choose between Goulding’s and the new Navajo-run hotel, The View. I picked Goulding’s because they have a pool, which The View doesn’t, since they claim in their advertising that they couldn’t have one in good conscience when so many Monument Valley residents still don’t have running water.

The View Hotel, Monument Valley

We were eager to acquaint ourselves with The View, however, with an eye to future visits. After hiking, we planned to eat at their restaurant and then ask if we could look at a room. Things went downhill from there. The restaurant was situated in an area between the visitor’s center and the hotel. Inside the restaurant, which had a surprisingly limited menu, was a large sign proclaiming that the doorway that led to the hotel was for registered guests only. We obediently strolled outside and over to the entrance to the hotel, walking inside to find a lovely, well-decorated lobby. But the first thing we saw— placed prominently in our way—was a sign declaring that this narrow strip of entranceway was the lobby for visitors and the rest of the lobby was open to, you guessed it, registered guests only. Needless to say, we left without visiting the off-limits hotel desk and asking to see a room. We’re sure the view is spectacular, but we hope the proprietors rethink their hospitality…