OptiCole Loc: Fresno, CA

We are going to visit Monument Valley in Utah in a couple of months. For those of you who have visited there, do you have any photo tips to offer that will enhance our experience?

orrie smith Loc: Kansas

it is all good. if you get a chance drive to canyonland, arches national park, and zion, they are all gorgous and worth the time to travel. I do not know how old you are, but if you are 62 or older, you can get a national park pass for 10.00 and it is good for all national parks and is good for the rest of your life.

mcveed Loc: Kelowna, British Columbia (between trips)

I think you'll find very little of Monument Valley in Utah. The Reserve and the sites you are looking for are in Arizona. Biggest Photo tip - "Get up early." Take the four wheel drive trip with a Navajo guide - you'll see sites that are not accessible to the public.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

I agree with the guided van, but self-guided in our own car is a valid option as well, particularly if you like to move at your own speed. Bring both a wide angle and something long. I was there in January 2016 using a 16-35, 50, and 70-200. The areas you can get close to allow for the wide view, the zoom or a prime in the 100 - 300 range works for everything else. It's dusty, if you can use multiple bodies and not change lenses (or only change inside the car), that will be your best choice for multi-lens.

dmeyer Loc: Marion, NC

First, I encourage you to take a guided tour. The road is extremely hard on passenger vehicles and much of the park is off limits.
Navajo Spirit Tours have several guides with different talents--some more in photography, some share more about the culture. I have been out with Miesha and was privileged to have her perform two beautiful songs under one of the acoustical alcoves at night--a very transforming experience. I will be returning next month and this time will be guided by Ray Begay with Phillips Photography Tours--he was highly recommended.
You can arrive before sunrise and go to the far left of The View Lodge and get the composition of the Mittens--that won't require an entry fee into the park.

the hiker Loc: San Diego

Take plenty of m/cs and batt.just about everywhere you look will be a good photo op.I hope you have a Great trip.

DerBiermeister Loc: North of Richmond VA

Absolutely correct. Called the Golden Age Passport, it is the ONLY good thing for reaching the age of 62. And if you visit a lot of Natl Parks or Natl Monuments, it will eventually save you hundreds of dollars.

Monument Valley is knock-your-socks-off stunning. You've seen pictures of it I am sure -- but nothing beats being there. So you will want to try to capture it all with your photos. Wide angle shots will prevail.

All the roads in the valley (and there are only a few) are two-lane. However, as I remember it, there really isn't any traffic. You might spot one car a few miles away -- that kind of thing. I found it to be very safe to just pull off on the shoulder and take pictures.

One other thing I always tell people when talking about Monument Valley: Watch the movie WindTalkers (with Nickolaus Cage). In the opening and closing scenes you'll see the best video on the valley that I have ever seen.

dmeyer Loc: Marion, NC

Be prepared to pay an entry fee at Monument Valley as it is a Navajo Tribal Park, not National.

waykee7 Loc: Cortez, Colorado

The Valley is fine, but if you can get a guide to take you up on Hunt's Mesa, which overlooks the Valley, it's wonderful. I was stationed for six years in Tuba City, and made several trips up to Hunt's Mesa, which in those days was a rowdy 4-wheel drive road. I am told they've improved the road a bunch. If you want a more solitary experience go across the San Juan river and drive the Valley of the Gods road, a dirt road but passable in a passenger car in decent weather, and you won't run into many people, similar geology to Monument Valley, but no one lives there. It's BLM land so you can camp there if you want. . .

I shot the picture in 1985 with a Pentax 6x7, a 135mm lens, refrigerated Ektachrome ASA 64 film. We spent the night on top of Hunt's Mesa, which wasn't allowed, but my Navajo wife took a dim view of anyone telling her where she could go on her own reservation. We were awaken in the middle of the night, sleeping in the back of our pickup, by the most thunderous racket imagineable: a B-52 on a low level simulated night bombing run. The bombers would come out of a base in Washington State and fly their simulated missions and return to WA. A year or so later I was working in the ER when a B-52 crashed in Monument Valley; remarkably most of the crew got out, but their parachute landings in the dark resulted in multiple injuries, and we prepped to receive them but the US Air Force stepped in with choppers and evacuated the survivors to a military hospital.

mikegreenwald Loc: Illinois

Agree with dust & lenses - I used two cameras, 24-105 on one, 70-300 on the other. A couple of times I wished I had a macro along, and next time I will.
I've not experienced the tours though - sounds fine. Most tours I've taken move far too fast for the needs of a careful photographer.

hawaiidave Loc: Honolulu, HI

But if you are going to be there for a couple of months why not check out Bryce Canyon (my favorite) Mt. Zion, Arches and Mesa Verde and Grand Canyon?

NorthPacific

We always stay at The View Hotel..link at bottom.....first cabin way to do this but get your reservations in ASAP Pricey but you are right there.

Get a tour in an OPEN type vehicle since some will try to put you inside an SUV and say it is air conditioned etc. That is not the way to do it. You want to be in the open...Take a tour that goes out for at least 4 hours..Spend the money and do it right...You need to take THEIR tour however since driving your own vehicle down there is a MESS.

Thess tours go way the heck and gone deep into Monumment Valley basically towards the East....I am always amazed how far out you get.

Take cold water and put your cameras in plastic bags inside your camera bag..very dusty.

Be prepared to clean them them a few times so take those soft clothes... Keep cleaning your lenses...YOU MUST have Polaroid filters on all your camera lenses. Wear a broad brim hat with a chin strap and bring SPS 50.... Tip the guide.

The ride is bouncy but they have specific stops...Talk to the driver to see if you can tell them to stop a few extra times if you see something you like and ask them how to signal that to them.

If you can ...just go on a tour for your party only...or as a couple. You want to enjoy the experience ..it is truly amazing and still very primitive since there is no development inside Monument Valley other than the View Hotel which is at the western rim.

There are nice patio areas where the restaurant is on the north side of the hotel and sitting there as the night comes on as the moon rises out of the desert and stars come out is about as good as it gets...and then your lodging is right there so it is a very elegant way to stay there without having to drive miles to room at a regular travel hotel. The entire staff I found to be first rate, professional, and courteous to a fault.

Monument Valley must be absorbed ....it is so beautiful and so majestic..and SO WESTERN!!!! .

Try to time your visit for 4 to 1 day/s before the night of the full moon...You basically are looking east so this is a perfect place for moon rises...

Also one of the best pictures of the place is to go north on HWY 163 like you were headed to Mexican Hat...From the Monument Valley Road and 163 intersection as you go north on 163 it goes up a rise...only about 4 miles from this intersection....

There you turn around and look south towards Monument Valley and you get a very unique cross section look of the buttes rather than looking straight east since the buttes basically are scattered out in an EAST-WEST orientation...So by being north you see all of these formations from Left to right instead of in a receding sequence looking East. Hard to describe but it will hit you right away....

A lot of people come into Monument Valley from the south and leave to the south....So they don't bother going the 4 or 5 miles further north on the 163 to get this view which for a lot of professional photographers IS one of the best since it is a profile shot of ALL the formations vs a receding easterly sequence of buttes type of shot.

Heck..just drive the 4 or 5 miles north up that rise in the road.....Of course there are is just gobs of things from there to see all the way into Moab but I don't know what your concentration will be. I would certainly give it two full days at Monument Valley minimum...

The View
http://monumentvalleyview.com/the-view-hotel/

I have included some stylized photos taken there....be sure on your tour you take plenty of cards and all your batteries are charged... The tours are not mass produced but feel like independent operators so they have an innocent feel to them rather than some kind travel crusade feel..

At one point our female Native American tour guide stopped at a kind of a grotto place and we all got on our backs and she chanted some of her tribal songs with the echo in the there....Just three of us...That was kind of unexpected of course..

The guides live in the area so you get the impression it is one big family affair.... and they are very, very proud of where they live and genuinely eager to show you around their "neighborhood".

You add in some summer monsoonal convective TCU's and what more could you ask for? Making this a full two day destination rather than an in and out drive by is best....but to each his own...

This is a "destination" now especially with the View Hotel. there for the last 6 years or so.

One more thing...the sunrises are really good vs the sunsets since the sun does not set across this valley...it is the sunrise that is kind of your sunset photo if you want a low on the horizon sun in the photo vs just the lighting effect...So you might want to keep that in mind to find out exactly what time sunrise is. All the rooms of the VUE face east into the valley and have balconies.

one more thing so you can avoid some clean up in photoshop is when you are in a sand dune looking area, kind of hunt around where there might not be any footprints if you don't want that in your shot....So there are mini sand dunes and mounds of sands that are pretty nice accessories to the big butte structures..a little added bonus that you might not have expected...and the sand piles up here and there so add that in if you think it willl enhance your shots.....In the middle is a horse corral and those make great foreground subjects .....Look for that corral.

It seems 18mm ..24 mm and some sort of zoom up to 200mm on a DX/APS-C sensor camera works ..a bridge camera with very wide 24mm to 600mm lens would be nice (re a moonrise crossing some of the buttes to give you that compressed look..works for the sunrise also). So you can use all kinds of different focal lengths out there...

Also I would bring at least 2 to3 cameras with you in case one of them tanks since you ARE paying money for this once in a life time tour..

If a camera stops working and you only have one camera then you are not going to be happy.

Carrying your cell phone as the last ditch backup is an excellent idea as well since most newer smart phones take terrific shots now though retro die hards like myself can barely admit to that.. So make sure when you start your tour you indeed HAVE your cameras and your cards ARE loaded already and you have your smart phone. Gotta have those cards!!!

I have wanted to go back there and take my medium format Mamiyas and my F5's and F2S's and try some film work just to compare it with the digital format and kind of get all retro feeling about this place since a lot classic western movie films were done here. Kind of a nostalgia effort to see if you still got it in ya in a dusty field environment like that to be able to fiddle around with 120/220/35mm film....back to the future stuff.

Anyway have a wonderful time....don't rush through Monument Valley.. ..set aside a good two days for this.....good luck on the weather conditions...drive safely. .

.p.s. r.watch out where you walk re snake season...and scorpions (I never wear anything but Levis and long sleeve shirts and tennis shoes and socks)...having one of those inexpensive red or blue western bandana scarfs actually do help keep the dust off of you and protects your neck from sun....sorry for the typos

The View
http://monumentvalleyview.com/the-view-hotel/

the lower photo is taken from the room balcony of the View..to the left would be the buttes you normally see but by this point there was no sunlight hitting them thus this shot of with the cliffs on the south side of the valley.

ofwiah Loc: NC via MD

The national park pass is good for those over 62...However...Monument Vally is not a national park. You will have to pay the Navajo to visit Monument Valley.

Monument Valley

(Download)

NorthPacific

correction...i meant View not VUE which is my Saturn sports SUV...sorry.

Jandjcs

Great choice, photographers paradise.
Did it twice.
Not far from town of Mexican Hat is somewhat forgotten Valey of Gods, state land. Amazing and usually not people around. Drive through is about 17 miles. On other end is bed and breakfast running on SOL-r power. Great people and you are in center of desert with view of monumental rocks.
Do not forget tripod for amazing sky pictures.
In Moab,we rented Jeep for 24 hrs ( very decent price) and drove into Canyonlands and Arches, both places are gorgeous.
Enjoy.