Monument Valley

Sentinel Mesa, the two Mittens and Merrick Butte at sunset in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, on the Utah and Arizona border. John Ford made the valley the face of the American western, starting with Stagecoach (1939), the film that made John Wayne a star, and coming back for The Searchers (1956) and more besides. A 17-mile dirt road loops past the buttes on a self-guided drive, and John Ford's Point, named for the director, is the stop where you can stand where his camera did.