Monument Valley is a center for activities on the Navajo Indian Reservation. It is home to the Navajo Tribal Park Headquarters. Access to the area is found in San Juan County, through Mexican Hat.
Monument Valley lies on top of a major region of uplifted strata, the Monument upwarp, which extends for approximately 100 miles southward from the Needles region of canyon lands in Utah. This uplifted region has been heavily eroded along its axis, exposing very old strata in the canyons of major drainages.
Where the San Juan river cuts across the Monument Upwarp the entire set of Permanian red beds are gloriously exposed, as well as several hundred feet of the older Pennsylvanian Honaker Trail and Paradox strata.