View from our hotel room at The View Hotel
Note: This post is off topic, referencing a road trip outside of Colorado to nearby Utah and Arizona).
Pulling into the parking lot, I wondered if it really would be as spectacular as billed. Waiting at the front desk, I felt as if I had crashed a United Nations conference. It seems everyone around me is speaking a foreign language — French, German, Japanese, everything but English. Finally receiving our keys, we lug our suitcases up the flight of stairs and locate our room. Opening the door, I am confronted with Native American photos on the white walls. But the thing I immediately focus on is the maroon curtain at the far end of the room.
Briskly walking across the room, with bated breath, I grab the curtain and pull it aside. I gasp in disbelief, simply saying “Wow!” The view is everything I had imagined and more. It really is a “room with a view.” And it couldn’t be more breathtaking or spectacular.
Seven years ago while working at Capitol Reef National Park as a Park Ranger, I met a lot of visitors heading down towards Monument Valley. The Grand Circle, a popular route for touring Utah and Arizona’s most scenic national parks such as Zion, Arches, and Bryce Canyon, frequently includes a sojourn through the Navajo National Tribal Park for visitors driving from Mese Verde or Canyonlands to the Grand Canyon.
If not for the fact that Monument Valley is located within Navajo Nation, a swath of Utah and Arizona encompassing more than 29,000 acres, it probably would be a national park. The red rock buttes, mesas and spires create awe in just about everyone who sees them. Instead, the Native Americans have created their own park whom visitors can pay a fee to view upon its natural wonders.
But for a price, you can have all of this to your own, your own private and personal experience in the valley. As I looked into visiting Monument Valley for myself, I found out about a very special place to stay, a place whose very name says it all. The View Hotel is the only lodging inside the tribal park and the valley. Built so that every room looks out upon the majestic monuments, it is especially unique to red rock country.
As spectacular as the scenery and the view at The View is, I would have stayed there if the rooms were spartan and bare. But it’s not. Colorful turquoise bedspreads of Native American design decorate very comfortable beds. Granite counter tops and travertine floors provide for luxury in the bath. The flat screen television seems almost excessive in that it encourages anyone to stay inside, when all that natural beauty awaits you right outside your door.
The abundance of nature doesn’t stop after dark either. Sunsets create their own special “oohs and aahs” as the setting sun bathes the monoliths, bringing out the reds and oranges. And as darkness descends on the valley, one by one stars illuminate the dark skies overhead. With so little ambient light, a journey out to the patio made me feel as if I had my own personal planetarium, with the Milky Way arcing brilliantly over my head.
Sometimes, spending money on extravagant lodging makes me question whether it’s worth it. I’m often at my happiest camping in a national forest. After all, in the end, you’re still sleeping in a dark room with the lights out. But a night at The View Hotel really is one of those memorable, priceless experiences that creates memories for a lifetime.
