After Vesa Merde national park my next stop is Monument Valley. My final national park is Grand Canyon, that’s why I am driving from Cortez over Monument Valley to Page, from where I will then continue to Flagstaff and then Grand Canyon. I planned 3-4 hours for Momument Valley and would like to provide you a short review of Monument Valley.

Here a Monument Valley picture (click to enlarge):

For more information about historic background of Monument Valley or geographic aspects, please check out this and this link.

When entering Monument Valley there were so many cars in front of me that it took me almost an hour to get to the fee station. I asked myself several times if I should really wait, or just continue to Page directly. From the outside Monument Valley did not look that special….. Anyways, be glad I entered, because I can now provide you with a review =].

The entrance fee was 5$ per person an no you can not enter with your national park pass. I was excited to see the Monument Valley visitor center, but guess what, it was closed… If you are looking for an Hotel around Monument Valley, consider an hotel directly in the park. I am not sure about the quality of the hotel and can unfortunately not provide a review of it.

Anyways, I drove on a 17 mile offroad tour. It took me 2 hours in total and I can only recommend you to do that. You will see special and unique rock formations. It’s an amazing landscape and you ask yourself – huh? How is this possible?

You will need four wheel drive for that road, it has a lot of holes and will shake your car to the wheels…. Was very exciting and I can only recommend you to take that central road in Monument Valley. Oh, and if you like, do as I did and take a picture on a horse for 3$. Very good picture to show friends.

Hope you enjoyed my Monument valley review. If you like you can check out my following reviews of Page and Grand Canyon. My rating: 8/10

Leaving Arches and Canyonlands national park behind I am leaving the town of Moab, heading towards Cortez. Cortez is my next stop as it is relatively close to the Mesa Verde national park. I would like to provide you a short review of Mesa Verde national park.

At first I felt relatively unexcited because I have seen so many national parks in the past weeks. But then when entering Mesa Verde I quickly noticed it would be another unique national park. Mesa Verde is not focused on the nature, but on the people that lived in there. You will encounter a lot of remains from native Americans.

Here a Mesa Verde national park picture (click to enlarge):

For more information about the park, please click this and this link.

And let me tell you, it is amazing, I took a ranger tour down to a small town that was build in an alcove. You will want to see this inside Meda Verda national park because there is no other place on earth that has 800 year old buildings from past peoples in a that good condition. The tour was relatively difficult but still a very extreme experience, we walked down the cliffs with several ladders to the Cliff palace. The cliff palace is a small cliff dwelling consisting of several spruce tree houses built by Ancient Puebloan Indians. I have never seen that before and you can only see that in Mesa Verde national park.

I rate the park with 10/10 points because of its landscape, the ranger tours and the historic background. Check out my next review of Lake Powell. Hope you enjoyed my short review of Mesa Verde national park.