Monument Valley Totem Pole and Yei Bi Chei
— — a line of dancers stopped in the stone.
Not only on a wall.
“A spire and a row of slender pinnacles standing together in the eastern end of the valley. The Totem Pole rises about 450 feet from its base, one of the narrowest free-standing formations on the Colorado Plateau. The pinnacles beside it carry the name Yei Bi Chei, after the Navajo Nightway dancers. Both stand on Navajo land and are reached only on a guided tour through Mystery Valley.
Monument Valley Totem Pole and Yei Bi Chei, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Totem Pole stands in the eastern portion of Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, in northern Arizona on the Navajo Nation. The spire rises roughly 450 feet from a sand dune base and is among the most slender free-standing rock formations on the Colorado Plateau. Adjacent to it, the Yei Bi Chei formation is a row of pinnacles named for the masked dancers of the Navajo Nightway ceremony. Access is by guided tour only, departing from the Monument Valley visitor center off U.S. Highway 163. The Totem Pole appears in the closing scenes of the 1975 film The Eiger Sanction.
The spire is De Chelly Sandstone, the same Permian unit that built the Mittens and Merrick Butte, but here the surrounding rock has eroded almost entirely away. What stands is the core of a much larger formation. Clint Eastwood and a small climbing crew ascended the Totem Pole in 1973 for the film, and after that climb the Navajo Nation closed the spire to all climbing. The pinnacles of Yei Bi Chei carry the same caprock but break into a row rather than a single tower.
This part of the valley sits east of the main loop road. The standard self-drive tour does not reach it, and guided tours through Mystery Valley pass the formation in small groups. The sand dune at the base of the Totem Pole holds wind ripples through most of the year, and the late light catches the eastern face of Yei Bi Chei first. Outside of tour hours the area is closed. The quiet is part of what the Navajo Nation has chosen to preserve.