Monument Valley

16 Ballooning www.bfa.net Ballooning 17May/June 2012
By Paul D. deBerjeois
S
traddling the Arizona-Utah border about
60 miles due west of the Four Corners is a
region of the Colorado Plateau known for
its striking topography. Sandstone buttes
and mesas glow pink, red, orange and rust
as they tower 1000 feet over the valley floor.
Against this majestic backdrop, twenty balloon pilots from
Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah came to fly in late
February at the second annual Monument Valley Balloon
Event.
The part of Monument Valley in which we flew is just a
small section of the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. At
just over 5500’ MSL, Monument Valley Tribal Park encom-
passes more than 91,000 acres. In this place the Navajo call
“Tse’ Bii’ Ndziagaii”, or “Valley of the Rocks”, the valley
floor is loose orange sand dotted by Yucca, Russian Thistle
and ancient Juniper trees. This terrain sees little more than
four inches of precipitation a year. Half of that moisture falls
in just four months - July through October - during the sum-
mer monsoon.
Monument Valley is the ultimate paradox. The landscape
is as arid and inhospitable as any. Yet the Navajo to whom
“I think you can say that the real star of
my Westerns has always been the land.”
John Ford - Oscar winning film director, 1894-1973
973
Photo by Bill Noe

18 Ballooning www.bfa.net Ballooning 19May June 2012
this is home are warm,
generous and welcom-
ing. The Valley con-
tains little in the way
of improvements or
conveniences, but to
both the Navajo and
their guests, the land is
priceless.
Bryan Hill of
Page, AZ served in
his second year as
Balloonmeister. Geri
Hongeva was the bal-
loon event coordinator
from Navajo Parks &
Recreation. The ballooning schedule
for the extended weekend included
ballooning activities and educa-
tion at the Monument Valley High
School, three sunrise flights and two
night glows. In addition to balloon-
ing, activities including concerts,
craft shows, Navajo story-telling,
and even a volleyball tournament
filled the hours between morning
and evening ballooning.
The first annual event held in
2011 event was almost as hectic.
Unfortunately for the 16 pilots, only
one of the three scheduled flying
days was actually flyable. In 2012,
we had better, though not perfect
luck.
The fun started with the first
bell the morning of Thursday,
February 23 at the Monument
Valley High School. New Mexico
balloonists Glenn and Cookie See,
assisted by Bill and Suzie Forward
of Cortez, CO and Paul and Patricia
deBerjeois of Colorado Springs, CO
(my parents!), joined Principal Pa-
tricia Seltzer and about 80 students
at 8am for a class on advanced tissue
paper balloons.
These student-created master-
pieces would eventually stand about
five feet tall and span almost three
feet around at the equator. Stu-
dents divided up into teams of four.
Cookie, Suzie and the other bal-
Launch and landing was restricted to roadways or parking areas forcing pilots to abandon the
concept of a launch field and separate in order to line up with the wind. Photo by Paul D deBerjeois
The event began with a lesson in the design,
construction, flight and retrieval of hot air bal-
loons. Photos by Paul D deBerjeois
loonists helped the students select
about two dozen colored sheets of
tissue paper panels per team. Once
they had color patterns established,
students cut and glued the panels to
create long rectangular strips. When
they had enough long rectangles to
make a circle, it was time to cut the
rectangles into a nearly oval shape to
create the gores.
Having made tissue paper bal-
loons for years at schools across the
southwest, Cookie and Glenn broke
out their well-worn fiberboard gore
templates. Students traced and cut,
traced and cut until they had seven
colorful gores per team.
The school lunchroom where all
this took place was alive with energy.
Balloonists and students worked
together building, asking, answer-
ing, teaching, learning, and best of
all smiling and laughing.
Gluing the gores into a fin-
ished envelope involved learning an
accordion-like folding technique.
After gluing all the gores in place,
students folded a thin wire ring
into the mouth of their envelope
and glued it in place. Many of the
students continued to decorate their
finished envelopes until it was time
to go outside and fly.
Cookie and Suzie turned leader-
ship over to Glenn and Bill as more
than one hundred students, teach-
ers, staff, parents, relatives and bal-
loonists went to the school’s football
field to launch their creations. By
late morning, the winds had kicked
up and were gusting from the north
at 15 kts. Glenn and Bill found a
suitable launch location along the
southeast wall of the school. Here,
thirty feet of concrete and brick of-
fered the fragile paper balloons some
measure of protection from the stiff
desert wind.
Glenn and Bill filled the bal-
loons with hot air using a small
propane cook stove on which they
placed a tall sheet metal chimney.
The top of the chimney stood at
head height. Team by team, students
brought their creations to Glenn
and Bill to be filled with hot air. Af-
ter a few seconds over the chimney,
the students counted their balloons
down to launch. Glenn and Bill
released the balloons. Almost im-
mediately, the balloons were pulled
up into the gust over the school and
took off to the south. It worked!
After most of the balloons had
flown, been retrieved and flown
again, one of the students remarked,
“You really have to run to catch
up with your balloon!” If he only
knew...
Friday morning opened with a
mostly cloudy sky and light and vari-
able winds. Balloonmeister Bryan
Hill set pilot briefing at 6:30 am at
the Monument Valley Visitor Center
located west of the launch area on
the rim high above the valley floor.
Joining the balloonists for the open-
ing morning was Navajo Nation
Vice President, Rex Lee Jim.
Land on the floor of Monument
Valley is actually a combination of
Navajo Nation park land and Navajo
private property. Monument Val-
ley is a place of reverence for the
Navajo. In spite of the harsh grow-
ing conditions, native plant species
thrive. For these reasons and rightly
so, the Navajo Nation asks visi-
tors to respect the Park and tread
lightly on its resources. One of the
conditions of flying in the Valley
is that all vehicles must remain on
established roads and in designated
parking areas. Inflation and launch
had to take place on a road or in a
parking area. Road landings were
all but required. Pilots could land
off the road if absolutely necessary,
but they had to walk the balloon
to a road or parking area to take
it down. In this terrain, that could
present a significant challenge.
Because of this, the concept of
a ‘launch field’ in Monument Valley
is quite a bit different than that of
a typical balloon rally at the local
park. In a typical rally, pilot briefing
takes place on the launch field and
balloons layout and inflate within
a few dozen yards of each other.
Many times, envelopes touch as
adjacent balloons inflate at the same
time. Not so in Monument Valley.
Two launch areas are designat-
ed - in and around rock formations
known as ‘The Mittens’ and in and
around a rock formation known as
‘Rain God Mesa’. The Mittens are a

pair of buttes that look like a giant
right and left hand sticking out of
the ground separated by about a
mile. This area is private land not
open to the general public. Togeth-
er with Merrick Butte to the south,
the formations mark the vertices of
a triangle inside of which a group
of seven pilots were assigned to
launch. There are only a couple of
roads in this area, so pilots had to
spread out from one another to find
an unused section of road running
in the right direction to layout in
proper relation to the wind. Bal-
loons assigned to this area ended
up being hundreds or thousands of
yards away from each other when
they launched.
A few miles to the southeast
of the Mittens in publicly acces-
sible terrain lies the Rain God Mesa
launch area. Rain God Mesa has
a few more roads than are found
near the Mittens, slightly wider
roads and also offers a couple of
small parking areas in which one or
two balloons can layout in proper
relation to the wind. The remaining
thirteen balloons were assigned to
launch from Rain God Mesa sites.
As balloonmeister Bryan Hill
explained, the pilots invited to fly
at this event had specific qualifica-
The Back Story...
H
arry Goulding and his wife, nick-
named ‘Mike’, founded the resort
now known as Goulding’s Lodge
at the western edge of Monument Valley
Navajo Park in 1924. As the Great Depres-
sion took its toll, Harry became concerned
for the well-being of his family and his
Navajo neighbors. Legend has it that Harry
set off to Hollywood with a satchel full of
photographs of Monument Valley’s spec-
tacular scenery.
Having his initial requests for an ap-
pointment with the famous director, John
Ford rebuffed, Harry spread his bed roll on
the floor next to Ford’s receptionist’s desk
and refused to budge. The receptionist re-
lented and allowed Goulding in to see Ford.
Ford was impressed enough by the photos
to take a trip to Monument Valley. Ford
later choose Monument Valley for the loca-
tion for his 1939 epic, “Stagecoach”. Ford
returned to Monument Valley nine times
to film his classic Westerns, including “She
Wore A Yellow Ribbon”, “Wagon Master”
and “The Searchers”.
John Ford turned to many of the same
actors in casting his movies. During this
time, an up and coming young actor from
Iowa named Marion Michael Morrison
went from obscurity to international fame
as he starred in many Ford’s Monument
Valley movies. You know this legendary
actor today by his stage name - John Wayne.
Thanks to Harry Goulding for helping bring
an iconic movie set and cast of film heroes
to the silver screen.
John Ford, Director with John Wayne, Actor
tions that made them candidates for
Monument Valley. One qualifica-
tion was to have many years of ex-
perience flying in the Four Corners
area among similar rock formations
and topography. Another charac-
teristic shared by many of these
pilots is they are balloonmeisters or
organizers of their own rallies. This
additional aspect of their experience
is helpful because of the distance
between launch areas and the vari-
ability of flight conditions from one
part of the Valley to the other. Pilot
briefing was miles from the launch
sites and several hundred feet above
the valley floor. Wind conditions
varied every hundred feet due to
the topography. Pilots talked about
the wind in general terms during
pilot briefing, but once on the val-
ley floor next to a 1000’ monolith,
pilots had to analyze, interpret and
decide independently if, when and
where to fly.
After concluding Friday’s pilot
briefing at the Visitor Center, a
long caravan of pilots and crew
snaked down the winding dirt road
from the upper valley rim into the
valley proper. At about one mile in,
those assigned to the Mittens took
the barely noticeable left turn onto
a private road and headed northeast
towards these sacred towers. The
rest of the group continued south-
east for another few miles to Rain
God Mesa.
As a media passenger for Friday,
I was fortunate to be partnered
with Arizona pilots Sally and Tom
Bartsch flying ‘Morning Glory’.
Much to my delight, Sally was
among the eight pilots assigned to
the Mittens for Friday. Frequently
photographed from a distance by
the nation’s top landscape pho-
tographers, close proximity access
to the Mittens is a rare and special
opportunity.
With winds still light and vari-
able, Sally, Tom and crew found a
suitable section of road on which
to lay out and inflate. The other
six Mittens pilots did the same,
although they were so far away that
I could not see them from our loca-
tion. At the same time, the remain-
ing pilots were now four to five
miles southeast and on the other
side of Elephant Butte and Spear-
head Mesa from us.
Sally and her crew - includ-
ing my father, Paul, who would
celebrate his 78th birthday over
the weekend - had Morning Glory
inflated and standing in short order.
From our vantage point, I still did
not see any other balloons standing
or flying yet.
As Sally and I rose above the
valley floor in “Morning Glory,”
I could see several of the other
Mittens-area balloons were in vari-
ous stages of laying out or inflating.
It really was a challenge to find a
stretch of road properly aligned
with the wind.
As we climbed into the sky, we
made our way southeast towards
the impressive Merrick Butte.
Whereas the Mittens are tall, nar-
row blades of sandstone, Merrick is
a thick, massive triangular forma-
tion. Its sides are almost vertical,
the top is nearly flat. The bottom
half of Merrick tapers away towards
the valley floor from its sheer walls
at a 45 degree angle in a complex
pile of boulders the size of build-
ings.
After several minutes of being
the only flying balloon in sight, the
other Mittens pilots began ascend-
ing. Five balloons launched to
the west. The remaining balloon,
piloted by Glenn See, drifted up
slowly to east.
As the wind brought Sally and
me closer to Merrick Butte, the
other seven balloons each took dif-
ferent paths in the sky. Eventually,
we flew to within about 100 feet
of Merrick. In the distance several
miles east, I could see the occa-
sional balloon from the Rain God
Mesa group through gaps between
Elephant Butte, North Window
and Spearhead Mesa. With our clos-
est approach to Merrick, we began
a slow clockwise orbit east, then
south, then around to the north.
We almost completed a full circum-
navigation when the wind took us
away from the butte towards the
southwest. The main road lay about
a mile ahead, so Sally lined us up
for a landing. The wind started to
pick and in ten minutes, we were
safely on the ground, dead center in
the middle of the road.
Later that morning, pilots,
crew and spectators congregated
at Goulding’s campground for a
group tailgate. Every pilot told a
great story about their flight, the
vistas, and especially how privileged
they felt to have the chance to fly
in Monument Valley in such great
conditions.
As Friday’s sunset approached,
everyone’s attention turned to the
glow scheduled at the Welcome
Center. Located at the intersection
of highway 163 and the road con-
necting Goulding’s with the park
Photo by Paul D deBerjeois

22 Ballooning www.bfa.net Ballooning 23May/June 2012
entrance, the Visitor Center and the
View Hotel, the Welcome Center
included several small Navajo craft
shops and restaurants. A sound
stage constructed in one section of
the parking lot was the focal point
of late afternoon activity. Local
musicians performing everything
from traditional Navajo music to
classic rock to top 40 pop played to
the growing crowd. One require-
ment for participation in the rally
is that pilots had to glow at least
one of the two scheduled nights.
Conditions were favorable, and by
the time the sun had set behind
Oljeto Mesa, light from ten stand-
ing balloons revealed hundreds of
smiles and expressions of delight
from those who came to witness the
spectacle.
Saturday’s schedule was a
carbon copy of Friday’s. Although
the pre-dawn sky was nearly clear,
winds were a bit stronger than they
had been just 24 hours earlier. At
the pilot briefing, Bryan Hill gave
his usual thorough weather report.
After some discussion, he decided
that Saturday flights would be at
pilot discretion. A new set of pilots
received their assignment to the
Mittens launch area, and every-
one headed down the dirt road,
through the switchbacks and into
the Valley.
Having already spent Friday in
the Mittens, I joined the group at
Rain God Mesa as they met up for a
second, smaller weather discussion.
A few pibals later, pilots headed in
various directions around the mesa
looking for places from which to
launch.
As it turned out, eight of the
twenty pilots eventually flew with
distribution about evenly split
between the two launch sites. As
was the case with the previous day,
everyone had fun, safe flights. One
pilot who I will not name here
(though he outs himself on his own
Facebook page) enjoyed a line-drive
flight out of the park and over the
Visitor Center before gracefully
touching down five miles outside of
the park at 30+ mph.
The iconic buttes of the valley make flight even a few feet off the ground a breathtaking experience.
Photos by Ron Behrmann
Continued on page 26
Monument Valley 2012 Pilots (Not shown in order)
Joining pilots at left front are: Geri Hongeva, event coordinator,
Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly and First Lady Martha Shelly
Bryan Hill (Page AZ) Bill Noe (Gallup NM)
Ric Simon (Montrose CO) Peter Procopio (Gallup NM)
Don Edwards (Albuquerque, NM) Judith Holt (Phoenix, AZ)
Graham Bell (Worcester, England) Colleen Johnson (Albuquerque NM)
Bill Lee (Gallup, NM) Glenn See (Albuquerque, NM)
Donald Stockley (Murray, UT) Jeff Johnson (Flagstaff, AZ)
Dorothy Harrison (Phoenix, AZ) Sally Bartsch (New River, AZ)
Sally Heinrich (Phoenix, AZ) Gary Woods (Ridgeway, CO)
Kent Barnes (Murray, UT) Doug Lenberg (Farmington, NM)
Phil Campbell (Bayfield, CO) Phred McAllaster (Santa Fe, NM)

The Balloonist’s Prayer
May the Winds welcome
you with softness,
May the Sun bless you
with its warm hands,
May you fly so high
and so well,
the God joins you
in your laughter,
and sets your gently back
into the loving arms of
Mother Earth.

E
xamples of how our gracious Navajo hosts embraced their balloon-
ist guests were everywhere to be found during the event. One such
example is that of Miss Western Navajo 2011, Ann Marie Salt.
At just 21 years old, Ann Marie already has a list of accomplishments of
which to be proud. A 2007 graduate of the same Monument Valley High
School where we helped students make tissue paper balloons, Ann Marie went
on to graduate from Northern Arizona University with a degree in Exercise
Science. In the meantime, she earned the title of Miss Western Navajo 2011.
This title is conferred based on exemplary knowledge of Navajo culture, lan-
guage and outstanding citizenship. She is now preparing for graduate studies
in Public Health.
On Saturday morning, Ann Marie welcomed the balloonists during pilot
briefing. Later she and her Aunt flew with pilot Doug Lenberg of Farmington,
NM. It was her first balloon flight.
After the flight, Ann Marie described her experience as “awesome”. She
said, “Growing up in this area, I’ve been here so many times. But its such a
different experience seeing it from the air. It was really spectacular.”
Asked about meeting and getting to know the balloonists attending the
event, what Ann Marie noticed most had to do with family. “At the pilot
briefing where I spoke, what I saw was a family. You had all these different
balloonists from different areas and they all knew each other. From what I
observed it was like a family. When they saw someone they greeted them with
a smile. They were very welcoming. As family in the Navajo culture, we like to
joke with each other, tease and poke fun at each other. That’s what I saw with
the different pilots and crew. They had that connection, that family aspect and
it was really good to see. It’s really strong in the Navajo culture, one of our
strongest teachings and practices we have.”
Right on, Ann Marie.
Flying a Princess...
As the day wore on, winds only
got stronger. Later that evening,
all pilots dutifully assembled in the
gusty desert breeze at the Welcome
Center for pre-glow pilot briefing.
Needless to say, Bryan cancelled the
evening glow.
In contrast to the bright bold
reds and oranges of Friday and
Saturday’s sunrise, Sunday’s colors
were muted pink and melon pastels.
The wind was blowing so hard, the
horizon line clearly visible on previ-
ous days was nearly obscured by
small sandstorm. As beautiful as the
blowing sand looked in the early
light, no one needed a pilot briefing
to know Sunday’s flight would be
cancelled.
But the weekend ended on a
high note. Navajo Nation President
Ben Shelly and First Lady Martha
Shelly addressed the pilots, crew
and spectators who managed to
pack themselves into the Visitor
Center briefing room. President
Shelly was very happy with how the
entire event progressed. Best of all,
he invited everyone back in a year
to do it all over again.
Based on the number of times
pilots used the words ‘epic’, ‘majes-
tic’, ‘memorable’ and ‘bucket list’,
its a safe bet they will make good
on that invite. As we learned in our
long weekend in Monument Valley,
recognition of family and heritage is
central to Navajo culture. From the
handshakes and hugs exchanged as
everyone cleared the briefing room
for the last time, it was clear that
Navajo and Balloonists had em-
braced each into the other’s family.
For the first flight of the Second Annual Monument Valley
Balloon Rally, 7 of our 20 pilots were blessed with the op-
portunity to fly from the Mittens launch area. My girlfriend,
Lichele Peete and I accompanied our local volunteer crew,
who work for Navajo Parks & Recreation, down to the valley
floor to find a suitable launch location. We had decided to
fly near Gary & Carolyn Woods so Carolyn could fly with me
and get some photos of their new balloon, Skywalker.
We ended up between the Mittens, just north of Merrick
Butte. The Navajo Nation Police told us it would be okay to
launch from a nearby homestead. As we pulled into the yard
area, we were met by the Matriarch, Helen Salazar, and her
family, who have lived their entire lives in this place.
Once inflated, I realized that we should move to the
eastern side of the yard, to take advantage of the early morn-
ing sunlight for our photos. I asked Darryl Begay, one of our
park service crew who is fluent in the Navajo language, to ask
Helen if she would like a ride. The smile that came across
her face was an indication that I had a willing passenger for
our 5’ AGL balloon ride across her ‘yard’. Later I found out
from event coordinator Geri Hongeva, that Helen shared her
flight experience with Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly,
and that her balloon ride took her “high into the sky!”
On the ground, our combined crews were visiting with
our new friends, learning more of the history of the area.
Helen’s adult daughter shared with Lichele and Paul Paladino
of Skywalker’s crew, an article from a book which showed her
learning to weave from her Grandmother, and other adven-
tures in photographs of a then 6 year old Navajo girl. Helen
then brought out her current weavings she had for sale, ex-
plaining that the money she made from her rugs went to pay
for the feed and provisions for their animals. They showed
each of the Mittens, and a teepee in the middle. Of course we
had to have one to celebrate our flight from her homestead.
After our flights, Gary, Carolyn, Lichele and I were
discussing how to express our appreciation for what we had
experienced. I recalled the Shiprock N.M. rallies of the 90’s,
where we had created a reverse pilot pack. The organizers
had pilots and crews purchase staples (Bluebird flour, sugar,
coffee, lard) and when we would go out to fly, we shared the
provisions with the landowners.
A quick trip to Kayenta, Arizona and the foodstuffs were
ready for delivery. That evening, while we were setting up to
glow, I glanced at a vehicle to see Helen and her family ar-
riving. Once again Darryl served as our interpreter, present-
ing our gifts and expressing our gratitude to our new found
friends.
Saying Thank You...
A Personal Account
by Phred McAllaster

Monument Valley

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