New hotel opens in the midst of Navajo Nation

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MCT) - Naming the Navajo Nation's new hotel at Monument Valley Tribal Park was easy.

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The View Hotel looks out on one of the most spectacular vistas in the Southwest, the red-rock monoliths rising from the desert floor of Monument Valley. The hotel is the only lodging inside the valley, which straddles the Utah-Arizona border on reservation lands. Each balcony at the hotel frames three of the most famous of the formations, the two Mittens and Merrick Butte.

The enchanting landscape is one of the most photographed in America, and not just by tourists. Visitors to the valley some 60 years ago could have watched John Wayne chase Indians for the filming of John Ford's epic westerns.

Fifteen years ago, you could have seen Forrest Gump stop running.

The View Hotel was the midpoint in a 900-mile scenic drive that began, and ended, in Phoenix. Thirty minutes after picking up a rental car at the airport, I had left the billboards, buildings and busy interstate behind. I was heading north on Highway 87 with nothing but saguaro cacti and buttes and mesas like giant slabs of chocolate fudge on the horizon.

During the next five days, I would visit many of the iconic spots of the Old West _ the vintage railroad town of Winslow, the Hubbell Trading Post, the villages of the Hopi, the Betatakin ruins at Navajo National Monument _ with The View Hotel as the newest addition.

Before The View's opening in December, the only lodging near the valley was established by the late Harry Goulding, who earned the trust of the Navajos and set up a trading post in 1928. In the 1930s, Goulding sold director Ford on the idea of Monument Valley as the perfect backdrop for his westerns, and he put up the stars during filming.

The trading post is now a museum, with a display paying homage to Wayne, and a motel, restaurant and gift shop have been added to the site. Goulding's Lodge has rooms with balconies that look out onto Monument Valley, but it is on private land just outside the entrance to the tribal park.

The Ortega family, Navajos with a longtime reputation as entrepreneurs, built The View Hotel and pay a guest tax to the tribe. The hotel is an effort by the Navajo to bring jobs and visitors to their land. The Hopi, whose reservation is surrounded by the Navajo Nation, also are increasing tours of their villages and building their own hotel in Tuba City.

Harold Simpson, 42, is a Navajo who was born and reared in Monument Valley and now owns a company that gives driving tours of the tribal lands, including areas that are off limits without a guide. "That's our sandbox out there," Simpson said, as his brother, Richard Frank, drove a van over the rutted red-dirt road. "We played in the rocks, climbed in the sand dunes. I was the cowboy, he was the Indian."

Simpson welcomed the opening of The View as a boost to his business.

"We get about 300,000 visitors a year _ the Grand Canyon gets into the millions, but that's too much, too overcrowded," he said. "They built the hotel on the perfect spot. Environmentally, they've tried to do the right thing with it. Visitors didn't have a lot of choices out here. Most people would drive in for the day and move on.

"The hotel is a good thing. Monument Valley is a special place. It's home, for us."

Yep, you can stand on the corner in Winslow, Ariz., right next to a flat-bed Ford. The city fathers created a plaza, with a bronze statue, to give a photo op to the tourists who detour off Interstate 40 with the Eagles' song "Take it Easy" ringing in their ears. On two of the opposite corners, dueling Route 66 souvenir shops do a brisk business.

Winslow is billing itself as the little town that could as it wages a comeback. The town withered when the interstate was built a mile away and drained off the Route 66 traffic. But the Burlington Northern Sante Fe trains still chug through, and two of the railroad's byproducts are in the midst of revivals.

La Posada Hotel opened in 1929, the last great railroad hotel built by Fred Harvey, who hired architect Mary Colter to create one of her Southwestern wonders. The hotel closed in 1957, and its fate was in the air until 1997, when it was purchased by Allan Affeldt and his wife, artist Tina Mion. The two are committed to returning La Posada to Colter's original concept, and it is a work in progress. The interior was complete, my room comfy and the food in the Turquoise Room excellent.

Winslow's second revival is going on down the street at the old distribution center built by John Lorenzo Hubbell, who began trading with the Navajo in 1876. He used the center to acquire wool from the Indians, which was weighed, cleaned and loaded into rail cars. The Winslow Chamber of Commerce now owns the building and is creating a visitors center and museum scheduled to open in the spring of next year.

"This building was crammed with stuff, we saved it all," said Bob Hall, the chamber's director. "We have the original tables, old saddles, wood carts, ledger books, pottery, baskets. The main room has the original wood floors and tin ceiling."

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Another Hubbell trading post is now a national historic site near Ganado, about 90 miles northeast of Winslow. The post is still in operation; you can buy a dill pickle from the jar on the counter, a bag of flour or a Navajo weaving from the stacks in the Rug Room. I coveted an antique Moki-style blanket, but the price tag of $18,500 exceeded my budget.

Moenkopi, one of 12 Hopi villages, is near Tuba City on U.S. 160, the doorway to the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. The Moenkopi Legacy Inn, a three-story hotel to be built in the pueblo style, is scheduled to open Sept. 1 and will offer 100 rooms, as well as storytelling, art demonstrations and dancing by tribal members.

Daniel Honahni, a businessman and tribal leader spearheading the project, said the hotel, and a travel center already built, will bring jobs to the Hopi and keep them on the reservation.

The hotel will also provide tourists with information on the annual dances held at other Hopi villages, including the historic rock structures atop the mesas. In the mid-1600s, the Hopi revolted from Spanish influence, burning down the missions and chasing off the padres. The Hopi fled to the tops of the mesas fearing a retaliation that never came.

Today, the older villages like Walpi, on First Mesa, are living relics of the past. With no running water or electricity, Walpi looks much like it did in 1900, when photographer Edward S. Curtis arrived to capture what he considered a vanishing race. Walpi has been open to tourists for many years; for $15, a guide leads you through the stone houses and plazas. Now, other villages are offering similar access.

Dorothy Denet, who is helping develop the walking tours at the village of Sipaulovi, said visitors can come during the dances and see ceremonies that have changed little in the last three centuries.

"Other tribes look to the Hopi because we still have our language, we still have our traditions," she said. "Yes, our children play with video games, but we retain our ways, while a lot of other tribes have lost them. One reason for this is our isolation. We didn't have anything that anybody wanted, so they left us alone."

Most of the residents of Walpi have relocated to lower villages but retain their houses on the mesas for stays during the dances.

On a visit, I met one of the three residents who still live here.

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Bertha Kinale, 83, invited us into her tidy home and showed off the pottery she makes. We bought a small painted ladle for $20.

Although she is blind in one eye and walks with a cane, Kinale said she was going to hike the steep stone path that leads down from the mesa to stay at her son's house on the desert floor.

"It is getting cold, and I'm out of firewood," she said. I offered her a ride and waited at the car while she bundled her things.

With a red wool scarf around her head, Kinale limped alone across the land bridge that leads from Walpi. The afternoon sun silhouetted the solitary figure and lit up the stone buildings as the desert glowed far below. Curtis would have loved the shot.

The Hopi allow no photography, so I captured this enduring scene only in my mind's eye.

For $5 a person, you can enter Monument Valley Tribal Park and drive the 17-mile loop through the red-rock monoliths on your own. Or, you can pay $60 a person and let Harold Simpson and his brother, Richard, negotiate a van over the washboard roads and into the areas restricted without a Navajo guide.

The two showed me ancient rock art and arches they climbed over as children. We walked back to the alcove under Sun's Eye Arch and Richard sat down on a boulder, pulled out a flute and played a wondrous song that reverberated off the canyon walls.

We also visited a hogan, a traditional Navajo structure made of logs, covered with earth, round with five or eight sides. Simpson's company, Simpson's Trailhandler Tours, has eight hogans that it rents out to visitors. For $155 a night, a guest gets dinner and is treated to performances by the hosts.

"The majority of our clients are Japanese," Simpson said. "Europeans and Asians keep the Southwest alive."

Imagine a tourist from Tokyo spending the night in an authentic hogan in Monument Valley, hearing only the rustle of the wind and the howl of the coyote.

"Everybody who stays here is taken by it," Simpson said. "There's no neon lights, just the moon and the stars. And when we do the flute-playing and dancing, they're so in awe of that."

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IF YOU GO:

NAVAJO TOURISM: Call 1-928-810-8504. For information on Monument Valley Tribal Park, call 1-928-871-6647 or visit www.navajonationparks.org.

HOPI VILLAGES: For information on tours and a schedule of dances call 1-928-737-5426 or visit paulovihopiinformationcenter.org. Information about Hopi tourism and the tribe's new hotel also is available at www.experiencehopi.com.

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WINSLOW CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: Visit www.winslowarizona.org.

LA POSADA HOTEL: 1-928-289-4366 and www.laposada.org.

THE VIEW HOTEL: 1-435-727-5556 and www.monumentvalleyview.com. The hotel has a restaurant that features Native American dishes and a gift shop with authentic rugs, pottery and jewelry. Alcohol is not allowed on tribal land. The Wildcat Trail, a four-mile loop around the Left Mitten, is one of the only trails visitors can walk without a Navajo guide. Room rates from $95.

GOULDING'S LODGE: 1-435-727-3231 and www.gouldings.com.

MONUMENT VALLEY SIMPSON'S TRAILHANDLER TOURS: The company has a variety of tours available through the valley, ranging from a 90-minute visit to an overnight stay in a hogan with dinner and entertainment. 1-8435-727-3362 and www.trailhandlertours.com.

HUBBELL TRADING POST NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE: 1-928-755-3254 and www.nps.gov/hutr.

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Tom Uhlenbrock: tuhlenbrock@post-dispatch.com

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© 2009, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.