For many, Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park is the American West. It’s been the backdrop to countless movies and the subject of some spectacular landscape photography over many decades, Monument Valley on the Arizona Utah border is a destination that requires some research if you are to get the most out of it.
The classic view in Monument Valley is of three Navajo Sandstone buttes called West Mitten Butte, East Mitten Butte and Merrick Butte. There are many other compositions to try your hand at, but the view of these three buttes – as captured while standing next to the visitor center, of course – is the image most photographers want to capture. The joy is to get that image on your own terms, both at sunrise and sunset, and possibly at night, too, without ignoring the rest of the richly photogenic area.
