2023 Monument Valley AstroPHOTOGRAPHY workshop ITINERARY

Our Monument Valley photography workshop itinerary is on a fixed schedule, but we can change some locations according to the weather conditions.

Our workshop takes place during the best time of the year to capture the Milky Way arch over the desert landscapes of Monument Valley when our galaxy is visible from around 11:00 PM to sunrise. If there are clear skies, we will spend as much time as possible shooting the night sky.

We will sleep in the morning, focus either on post-processing or scouting in the afternoon and evening, and shoot some fiery sunsets when conditions allow.

DAY 1: MONUMENT VALLEY astroPHOTOgraphy workshop

Our Monument Valley photo tour begins at Goulding’s Lodge at 12:00 PM. This historic hotel was originally a trading post and accommodated several actors while they shot some of the most famous Western films in the park. Also, the hotel is conveniently located just a short drive from Monument Valley, so it’s ideal for our workshop.

Goulding’s Lodge offers a nice view of the majestic buttes that characterize this part of the desert, and it will be our base camp during the first two nights of our stay in Monument Valley.

After a meet and greet with the rest of the group, we’ll do our welcome speech and orientation, followed by a general night photography talk and an individual gear review to make sure that everything is ready for the first night session.

Later, we’ll drive to the park to take our sunset tour. Monument Valley is located on Navajo land, and only a small fraction of the area is open to visitors. If you want to visit the best locations in the park, you need to go with a local guide.

We will take a sunset scouting and photography tour in the park with our Navajo guides. During this tour, we’ll scout out some of the most impressive locations in the park, some of which we’ll shoot later during the night sessions. We will photograph the last sun rays illuminating the iconic Totem Pole, and then head to another viewpoint to photograph the sunset.

At night, we’ll start our first astrophotography session, capturing a Milky Way arch panorama in the Totem Pole area, and later we’ll photograph our galaxy perfectly aligned with the Totem Pole, with the sand dunes as a leading line in the foreground.

After these two locations, we’ll wrap up the night in another secluded location, where we’ll have a privileged view of the buttes to capture either individual images with a diagonal Milky Way or a higher full arch with the most iconic “monuments” in the frame.