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 The Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park maintains a visitor center, campground, restrooms and a restaurant serving Navajo and American food.  It is open year-round except Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.  Monument Valley has been used frequently for magazine ads and television commercials. A point in Monument Valley was named for John Ford because of the number of movies he made here including Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, The Searchers and How The West Was Won.

This visitor center is one mile east of U.S. highway 163 on the Arizona-Utah border. As you approach the visitor’s center, numerous Navajo vendors sell arts, crafts, native food and souvenirs at roadside stands.

The major features of the park can be seen along Valley Drive, a 17-mile dirt road that starts at the center and goes south east among the towering cliffs and mesas, which include closer views of the mittens and the three sisters. Although not impossible, the road is difficult for cars without high clearance and those without four wheel drive. 

If you arrive at the visitor’s center after closing, the gate exiting Valley drive is locked.  You can reverse direction for about 1/8-mile and there is a dirt road, in even worse condition, that will take you out of the park. There is a small fee for using Valley Drive.

Tours of Monument Valley are available at the visitors’ center and at Gouldings.  Most tours are given in vans and open air jeeps.  Tour guides will take you for a narrated cruise through several features not available from the self guided tour, including ancient cave and cliff dwellings, natural arches and petroglyphs.

There is no lodging available within Monument Valley. Goulding's lodge is the nearest accommodations located just outside the park. You can also stay in Kayenta, AZ or Mexican Hat, Utah, each about 25 miles away.