There was this idea in the head, which had nested itself through excessive consumption of cowboy films in childhood and the cigarette advertising that was still on television at the time: men on mustangs, looking pensively into the distance from a ledge, with the red ones in the background mesas. Or: men on mustangs, galloping at full stretch, with the red table mountains in the background. Then you arrive in Monument Valley and the first thing you see is: a man on a mustang, rearing his horse. There has to be a little show.
But then it’s not a cowboy, because they don’t even own the country. The Colorado Plateau is within the Navajo Nation Reservation. You can even go horseback riding with the Navajo through lots of sand and dry grass. If you want to be on the safe side and prefer to walk yourself, you can hike through the dust on the “Wildcat Trail”, and this is best done early in the morning. It’s getting western-like hot here.
Anyone who has stowed their new cowboy hat, the obligatory dream catcher and perhaps a bow and arrow in the rental car must decide: stay or continue to the next mental cinema destination? There’s almost too much spectacular nature here between Utah and Arizona. The better option is to stay, the very best is: pitch a tent! When the sun goes down, the shadows lengthen, the other tourists have left, it gets incredibly quiet, the red gets even redder, myriads of moths buzz around the campfire. The starry sky is as far as the eye can see. Just Wild West.