The Great Valley is said to be the most beautiful and perfect place in all the leaf-eater dinosaurs world. Littlefoot's reaching it is the goal of the first film and it has been his home and the home of his friends ever since. According to dinosaur legend, the Valley is said to have an unlimited supply of food, with the sequels and television series also stressing that it is safe from predation by Sharptooth. With how the first film closes with the narrator stating that Littlefoot's descendants would live in the Great Valley for generations, "each passing on to the next the tale of their ancestors' journey to the Valley, long ago," it can be assumed that the Great Valley dinosaurs would be safe and happy for centuries to come.
In the first film, the land is said to be changing, and the dinosaurs endure drought and famine, as well as increased predation. (The geologic and ecological upheavals, such as the Great Earthshake, are mentioned in later films. Another example is how Ali's herd's matriarch remembers that her home too suffered due to the land changing--in her case, from flooding.) The leaves upon which they feed dying, some herbivorous dinosaurs travel westwards past the Great Rock that looks like a Longneck and past the Mountains That Burn in search of the Great Valley. It is a march of many dangers with Sharpteeth stalking the herds. Even so the dinosaurs go on because it, according to legend, is "still lush and green. It was a journey towards life."
Information[]
Littlefoot and his friends and their families find the Valley at the end of the first film and have lived there ever since. The Great Valley is surrounded by the Great Wall, a mountain chain that keeps out nearly all predators. Watching over the Valley is a rock formation the looks like a longneck, Saurus Rock. (It should not be confused with the Great Rock that looks like a Longneck that serves as a guide to the Valley.) Ruby's Thinking Place is located on the Great Wall.
The Valley has waterfalls and a wide system of fresh water. One of the most significant waterfalls is the Thundering Falls, which provides the majority of the water to the Valley. Another named waterfall is the Roaring Falls, which feeds into a pond. A few volcanoes are located around the edge of the Valley, including the Smoking Mountains (and an individual volcano of the same name), Threehorn Peak, and the Mountains that Burn. Lava is prevented from flowing into the Valley by a series of steep ravines, beyond which tar is also common. One of the smaller ravines in this area is the Canyon of Shiny Stones. One of these ravines is bridged by the Great Stone Walkover.
Though many of the dinosaurs currently in the Great Valley belong to the combined herds that traveled together after the Great Earthshake, some dinosaurs, such as Mr. Thicknose, lived in the Valley long before the events of the first movie. Even afterwards, the Great Valley's residents sometimes encounter visitors who stay for a short while before moving on. Such nomads include Ali's herd, Doc, and Tippy's herd. Although Sharpteeth are not allowed in the Great Valley, the herds have allowed Chomper and Ruby to live in the Secret Caverns, as they wish to learn how different dinosaurs can work together. This makes Chomper the only known Sharptooth living in the Great Valley.
Geography[]
Most depictions show that the Great Valley is circular in shape. However, the mountains around the Valley that make up the Great Wall are shaped differently in various shots (see the Gallery), suggesting that the circular area seen in most vistas is not actually the entire Valley and that there are actually several areas connected by canyons. Nearly every depiction shows at least one waterfall cascading down the Great Wall and feeding into a river that flows across the Valley.
Locations[]
The Great Valley has many landmarks within boundaries, including:
Beyond the walls of the Great Valley lies the the Mysterious Beyond. Glimpses of these lands show it to largely be desolate and inhabited by Sharpteeth and Fast Biters, like Red Claw and his two henchmen Screech and Thud. It is unknown what factors prevent overpopulation in the Valley with its lack of predators; it is possible that Great Valley dinosaurs only have few children.
The Great Valley is located within a few days' walking distance of the Big Water. At least one of its borders is so close that a powerful enough storm was capable of washing Mo and a Sharptooth Swimmer into the Valley, but as it took some time to reach the Big Water on foot, it can be assumed that the floodwaters were the only reason these two actually reached the Great Valley unscathed and that the Big Water is not directly next to the Valley at all.
Residents[]
There are many species of dinosaurs and other creatures that live in the Great Valley. They consist of the following:
A deleted cel of the Great Valley from the opposite side. It is from one of the books, possibly "The Search For The Great Valley". The waterfall that Littlefoot played in is all the way across.
Second film (II)
Another shot from the second film
Another shot from the second film
Dusk shot from the second film
Third film (III)
Burnt great valley (III)
Fifth film (V)
Thirteenth film (XIII)
Trivia[]
Ashley Valley, Utah, one of the possible locations of the Great Valley
A fan theory has been proposed suggesting that the location of the Great Valley is in northeast Utah, in a place now known as Ashley Valley.[1]
In the films themselves, three rough locations for the Great Valley, and the setting of the series in general, have been given over the course of the series. These locations are suggested by the visuals of the opening narrations that take place in outer space, and what part of the Earth is focused on by the camera:
