Mitten Buttes, Monument Valley, Arizona
Monument Valley is a Navajo Tribal Park. Many families live simple lives there as shepherds, campground and visitor center operators, or tour guides. The wealth of their setting is, however, considerable. The visual power of the place can be well judged by the huge number of commercial film and photography projects which employ it as a backdrop for their various products, fortunately, with remuneration to the tribe. It was also used a lot for old Westerns and in a sense may be regarded as the classic Western landscape. Twenty-four hours earlier, I failed to render the same scene, completely blanketed in white. It was dusk and the view was north and east. Sadly, someone of highly questionable character has since carved his name (illegibly) in these boulders, probably the most famous and sacred in America, save Plymouth Rock. —from Natural Light, published in 1990
