Tear Drop Arch and Hidden Ruin

Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Arizona

Tear Drop Arch and Hidden Ruin, located close to the Arizona-Utah border near Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, offer the hiker and photographer the perfect place to experience a monumental, no pun intended, sunset.

In order to visit this special place, you must obtain the service of a Navajo guide, a guide is necessary because access to the arch and ruin require crossing private land—4WD is also required, since the dirt road has pockets of deep sand.

After researching possible guide services, we chose Tom Phillips’ Kéyah Hózhóni Monument Valley Tours—a highly recommended hiking and photography guide service. Our guide, Carlos, picked us up at The VIEW Hotel in Monument Valley and drove us to the ruin and arch late in the afternoon. Our hike to Hidden Ruin was a surprise bonus, one that we truly enjoyed—Carlos led us to the small ruin tucked away in a cliff. To access Hidden Ruin, we scrambled up the cliff and then squeezed through a tiny opening in the cliff wall to emerge directly into the alcove housing the dwelling—a privilege indeed.

After a brief exploration of Hidden Ruin, we retraced our steps to the car and headed for Tear Drop Arch—a fantastic tear-shaped opening in a rock face that perfectly frames the buttes and mesas of Monument Valley in the distance. We arrived approximately 45 minutes before sunset in order to capture the walls of the arch turning a deep shade of orange and the monuments in the distance glowing red under the setting sun.