When most people think of Monument Valley they see it in their mind’s eye as the place where they take those beautiful calendar pictures of the rugged reddish buttes and mesas jutting up into nearly cloudless, cobalt blue skies, or where the shots of the wide vistas often shown in the old John Wayne movies like Stage Coach, The Searchers and Fort Apache, to name just a few, were taken. There is a peace and serenity within these views that makes you feel a quietude so vast and deep, it resonates with its silence, while the distances and depth in the images show the vast panoramas of the Southwest.

But the valley has another face that is rarely shown in those images. That’s when the hot, sand-laden winds come blowing up out of the South to race through the valley blasting their names on the sides of the monoliths that mark the valley floor. This morning the sun has just risen and is shining through the sand cloud as it begins it journey. Soon even the largest of the sandstone formations will be just a pale shadow within the depths of the wind-driven storm as the grains of sand are picked up, to gather and join and rise into a huge moving cloud that obliterates the view of everything in its path.

This is a time when man and beast alike hunker down, staying out of the sandstorm’s blistering winds and the sting of the sand against their exposed skin until the storm runs its course. Today it looks like this could build into a big one. The horses will turn their rear ends into the wind, put their heads down, and wait it out huddled together for protection. The sheep make their way to the sheltered areas at the base of the huge rock formations to be out of the brunt of the wind, and the wild things each have their own ways to stay alive.  People, well people do what ever they feel like doing. The smart ones stay home though.

Even the photographers get it and seeing the magnitude of the storm stay out of weather. But not before they grab a few shots of this different look of Monument valley.