UTAH'S MONUMENT VALLEY WOWS TOURISTS WITH WONDERS.

Byline: Carol Nuckols Fort Worth Star-Telegram 

When God puts on a show, it would be irreverent not to watch.

The show goes on daily at Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park in southeastern Utah. And if a recent evening can serve as an example, it seems that irreverence is in short supply.

Everybody watches. Travelers from around the globe huddle on the windy deck of the visitors center while photographers line the edge of the parking lot to catch the evening's entertainment - sunset.

In the valley, russet sand and rock stairstep downward from the formations that populate the austere landscape. Sparse, scrubby, gray-green vegetation dots the land. Pink sky edges it all.

As shadows lengthen, crevices are accentuated. The red of the rock intensifies. The green of the shrubs grows golden, pinks become rosier, and shadows stretch across the valley.

Now only a couple of formations remain in full sunlight, glowing with magical light. The mesas beyond are lavender, with deep blue shadows. A stream of cars, headlights on, pours out of the valley on the road below. The sun drops off the edge of the world, and the change is dramatic. All is dark: the mountains are blue, the buttes lavender, and the sky softens to a hazy pink. The show is over for another day.

Monument Valley is a geological phenomenon in southeastern Utah. The ``monuments'' are relics of the Triassic and Permian eras, eroded by wind and water. It's not a true valley; rather, it's a relatively flat area studded with mesas, buttes and pillars.

Now, the sandstone formations stand in awesome silence, towering some 1,000 feet over the plateau below. Contained within the Navajo reservation, this nearly 30,000-acre, otherworldly landscape may be viewed via a self-drive tour (two hours over rough roads, though four-wheel drive isn't required) or on a guided tour.

Some formations immediately strike visitors as resembling a recognizable person, animal or object. Among them are East Mitten and West Mitten, looking just like what their names imply.

On a morning tour, Gene Begay, a Navajo driver/guide, points out others: the Three Sisters (nuns in their robes), Snoopy on his back, an elephant, Camel Butte, an eagle, an easy chair.

``You can imagine a lot of things,'' Begay says.

The Sun's Eye, for example, indeed is shaped like an eye through which the sun could peek. Petroglyphs on the rock there date to A.D. 1300-1600, Begay says; ruins of a wall further attest to human occupation.

Rain God Mesa got its name when, ``in the early years, they had a real drought,'' Begay says. ``The medicine men came together and had a ceremonial. For four nights, they blessed the water hole. While they were doing that, it started raining, they say.'' Folks still pray for rain there, he adds.

Folks still live in Monument Valley, too. Scattered throughout the valley are the mobile homes and other small dwellings of the Navajo. Some residents work off the reservation, as welders, heavy-equipment operators or coal miners, Begay says. Others serve the tourist trade. Begay takes visitors to a hogan (earthen hut) where his aunt weaves and sells hand-made jewelry and rugs.

The hogan is made in the traditional manner of cedar poles, stripped of their bark and ``put together like a puzzle - no glue,'' he explains. In this ``female'' hogan, holes are dug, into which nine ``legs'' (posts) are inserted. (The number nine ``represents the female when she's pregnant; the woman carries the baby for nine months.'')

The logs are layered horizontally into a dome-shaped arrangement. Cedar bark is stuffed into the cracks, then the whole thing is covered with dirt, he says. It stays warm in the winter (thanks in large part to a pot-bellied stove in the center) and cool in the summer, he adds. A ``male'' hogan is a simpler, squared-off structure.

Human-built architecture aside, Monument Valley's dramatic natural architecture has served as a setting for many a movie, television show and commercial, including ``The Searchers,'' ``Fort Apache'' and ``Stagecoach,'' starring John Wayne; ``Cheyenne Autumn,'' ``Forrest Gump,'' ``Back to the Future Part III'' and ``Airwolf.''

Many of these are commemorated in a room in Goulding's Museum, across the road from the park. The museum is on the grounds of Goulding's Lodge, the only place to stay in the immediate vicinity. (There's a Holiday Inn in Kayenta, 23 miles away.)

Goulding's dates back to the 1920s, when Harry Goulding and his wife, ``Mike,'' bought land and opened up a trading post. It's the old trading post that serves as the museum, showcasing not only life in the early days but also the moviemaking of more recent years.

Not much has changed in Monument Valley since those early days. Oh, a boulder or two may break off the face of a cliff now and then. And the wind continues to scour the stone into smooth, rounded forms. But for the most part, you'd never notice the difference - not in this lifetime.

On Location

Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park is 23 miles north of Kayenta, Ariz., on U.S. Highway 163 in Utah. Admission is $2.50 for ages 8-59, $1 for those 60 and over, free for children under 7. Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Information: [phone].

Guided tours leave from the visitors center parking lot. Cost is $20 to $35 for two hours to a half-day. A map for the two-hour self-drive tour is available at the visitors center.

CAPTION(S):

Photo, Box

Photo: Ancient, intriguing sights await visitors to Monument Valley.

Box: On Location (See text)