Best Places for Photography in the Four Corners 

Four Corners Photography: Landscape and Wildlife Tips

The Navajo, or Diné, are not the only Indigenous people who call this region home. You may cross into the lands of the Hopi or Ute and many other tribes in the Four Corners. This cultural weaving adds another layer of depth and intrigue for photographers seeking to capture the spirit of the region.

Whether you’re drawn to the dramatic sandstone formations, the vibrant colors of the desert, moody shadow formations for black and white photography, or the ancient ruins that whisper stories of the past, the Four Corners will ignite your creativity and challenge you to capture its essence through your lens. 

From wide-angle vistas to intimate details, every frame tells a story of this land’s enduring power and captivating beauty.

Four Corners Photography Gear and Tips

The adage goes that the best camera is the one you have with you. With the advances in cell phone cameras, you can create beautiful photos with your smartphone. As you travel through popular Four Corners photography locations from Arches to Zion, you’ll see the gamut of photography equipment, from pricey DSLRs (Digital Single Lens Reflect cameras) to cell phones mounted on selfie sticks.

What should you bring on your Four Corners road trip to capture the best images? First, think about your goals. Professional photographers hoping to sell their work will bring all their best equipment. But if you are simply trying to get memorable photos of your trip, something less expensive will probably suffice.

You also need to consider your activity level. If you’re hiking challenging trails, you may not want to carry a heavy camera with an assortment of lenses. In those situations, a lighter camera with a built-in zoom lens will be easier to tote and make you less likely to burst into tears if it is damaged. A good cell phone camera also works well for landscape photography.

In these vast, dramatic landscapes, a wide-angle lens might be used more often than a telephoto lens. That said, a telephoto lens will come in handy when photographing an Ancestral Puebloan structure across a canyon, as you do at the Navajo National Monument Sandal Trail overlook for Betatakin cliff dwelling. A telephoto lens will also be important if you want to do some wildlife photography.

Know Your Camera Settings

Before leaving on your trip, make sure you know your camera’s settings. In many situations, perfectly adequate photos can be taken by putting your camera on the auto setting and letting the camera choose the ISO, shutter speed, and aperture (the size of the hole in the lens that lets in light).

However, those who want to make the background behind an object blurred with the subject in sharp focus will need to be able to put their camera in aperture mode and increase the size of the opening (which is confusingly enough, the smaller number).

If you’re photographing subjects in motion, you’ll want to know how to put your camera into shutter priority mode to set a fast shutter speed to freeze the action or a slow shutter speed for an artistic blur. Bringing your camera manual along on your trip would be a good idea if you decide to try something you haven’t done before.

Tripods

Should you bring a tripod on your Four Corners photography adventure? Some places don’t allow them, so check before visiting. It is one more thing to carry with you, of course. If you’re shooting in the middle of the day, the exposure will likely be so fast you don’t need one.

But when you’re shooting in low light situations, a tripod can help keep your camera steady and your photos sharp. Just don’t let the splayed legs of your tripod get in anyone’s way and create a trip hazard, as some destinations can be quite crowded, especially at peak photography moments like sunrise or sunset. A monopod can also help support your camera, but doesn’t give as much shake-resistance as a tripod.

Check Your Photos

No matter the camera equipment you use, be sure to check your images before you move on to a new location. You wouldn’t believe how many people snap photos and walk on without ensuring that they’ve captured what they had hoped. You may need to change settings or try a different camera angle before you’re happy.

Good photography requires patience and creativity. It’s an art, knowing how to compose the photo the way you’d like, and a science, using the camera’s settings to create the image of your dreams.

Best Four Corners Parks & Monuments for Landscape Photography

There are so many fantastic places for landscape photography in the Four Corners that it’s a challenge to narrow it down to just a few. These are some of the more popular Four Corners landscape photography destinations that offer a diverse range of subjects, from dramatic natural formations and vibrant colors to historical sites that tell the story of the region’s ancient past.

Antelope Canyon, Arizona

Antelope Canyon near Page, Arizona, is famed for the mesmerizing dance of light and shadow within its sculpted sandstone walls. The play of light changes throughout the day and seasons, with sunbeams sometimes hitting the colorfully layered walls and at others reaching the canyon floor.

While you may dream of spending hours inside either Upper or Lower Antelope Canyon to compose your photos, the reality is that you can only visit with a tour company and your time will be limited. This is also one of the destinations where it’s unlikely you’ll be allowed to bring or use a tripod.

Several authorized companies offer tours of Upper Antelope Canyon and only two give tours through Lower Antelope Canyon. Read our article about Antelope Canyon to plan your Arizona photography visit to this iconic location.

Arches National Park, Utah

Arches National Park is home to more than 2,000 natural arches, plus other dramatic formations carved into sandstone by wind, rain, and freezing temperatures. It seems that Arches is on every Utah photography bucket list, so be prepared to deal with crowds.

Arches is so popular that timed entry tickets are required; however, for photographers seeking to take photos during the Golden Hours, you’re in luck! You can enter Arches before 7 a.m. and after 4 p.m. without a timed entry ticket.

Many of the people streaming into Arches National Park before sunrise will be heading to the trailhead to hike up to Delicate Arch to photograph it at sunrise (it is also a very popular sunset photography location).

Still,this 76,519-acre park has many other iconic formations waiting to be captured in your images. The National Park Service has even created a list of which formations are best photographed at sunrise and which at sunset.

Night photography is also popular at Arches, so if you’ll be there after dark, be sure to review the camera settings for the more advanced photography technique of astrophotography. Long exposure times, a small aperture setting, and an absolutely still camera are key here (this is where your tripod can come in handy).

Learn more helpful tips about visiting and photographing Arches National Park.

Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona

Canyon de Chelly near Chinle should be on every Arizona photography list. But to explore the ancient ruins in this stunning canyon setting where Navajo people still live and farm, you’ll need to either book a tour with an authorized Navajo tour company or take a ranger-led tour.

You can’t head into Canyon de Chelly on your own, but you can drive the canyon rim roads to capture Spider Rock, for example, from above. During the summer season, you can also take a self-guided hike to White House Ruin. Learn more about visiting Canyon de Chelly in this article.

Goosenecks State Park, Utah

If you’re near Monument Valley or Valley of the Gods, don’t miss a stop at Goosenecks State Park. Here, the San Juan River carves its way through deep canyons, creating a series of tight bends that resemble the graceful curves of a goose’s neck. Look out over this mesmerizing landscape and capture its unique patterns from the park’s viewpoints.

The vast scale of the canyon and the intricate patterns of the riverbed offer a unique perspective on the power of erosion. 

This small state park offers both day-use access and camping right along the canyon rim, so you can be ready to see which of the golden hours gives you the best photos: sunrise or sunset. The sun sets in the west, the direction you’ll be looking from the viewpoint of the park. If clouds are on the horizon, you may get some stunning photos then.

We help you plan your trip to Goosenecks State Park in this article.

Hovenweep National Monument, Utah/Colorado

Hovenweep National Monument, which is also in our article about less-crowded places to visit in the Four Corners, straddles the Utah-Colorado border. This monument protects six remarkably intact villages with unique towers, pueblos, and cliff dwellings once inhabited by the Ancestral Puebloan people.

One village is close to the monument’s campground and visitor center, with an easy hiking trail providing access to great views of these canyonside dwellings.

Then, if you’re up for navigating rough roads and doing some hiking, head to Hovenweep’s other ruins. You may even have them entirely to yourself as you compose your photos, as these beautiful locations are not nearly as crowded as other Four Corners photography destinations.

Capture the beauty of these structures, their intricate stonework, and their connection to the surrounding landscape. The remote location and well-preserved ruins offer a sense of solitude and connection to the past as you envision families living in these remote locations.

Read more about visiting the beautiful Hovenweep National Monument in this article.

Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

Less an undiscovered gem than a popular and easy-to-access destination, Mesa Verde National Park near Cortez, Colorado, offers another window into the lives of Ancestral Puebloan people. Here, you can photograph Cliff Palace, Balcony House, and Spruce Tree House to document these architectural wonders.

The park offers a variety of viewpoints and trails to explore, allowing you to capture the dwellings from different angles and in different lighting conditions.

Be aware that some ruins can only be visited on guided tours. Otherwise, you’ll be photographing them from distant viewpoints, so your telephoto lens will come in handy here again. 

While most photographers may only capture the big picture, at locations like this, zooming into the details can be quite fascinating. Photograph the way stones were used to create a wall that has lasted for centuries. Capture the details of desert plants or a butterfly pausing on native flowers. Zooming in rather than going for the big, wide-angle view helps you capture more intimate moments.

Read more about Mesa Verde National Park in our complete article.

Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Utah/Arizona

From the time that John Ford made Monument Valley famous with his many Western movies filmed here, this rugged landscape has drawn photographers to capture its iconic sandstone buttes and mesas. From miles away, the buttes call you to explore and photograph them. 

After paying your admission fee and stopping at the visitor center to learn more about this park operated by the Navajo Nation, you can drive the self-guided 17-mile loop road. To get a deeper understanding of these lands and their cultural significance to the Navajo people, consider booking a tour.

You’ll not only hear about the area’s history but you’ll have access to areas that those driving the loop road cannot visit. This is one Utah photography location you won’t want to miss, and you can learn more about it in this Monument Valley article.

Forrest Gump Point, Utah

This quick stop outside Monument Valley gives you the chance to photograph the highway leading to Monument Valley from the place in the film where Forrest Gump decided he was ready to turn around and go back home. Here the road drops down and the iconic buttes of Monument Valley stand out on the horizon.

Signs at mile marker 13 on Route 163 point out Forrest Gump Point with several spots where you can pull off the road to take photos. Some pull-offs are also venues where local Navajo people set up stands to sell their wares. Read more about Forrest Gump Point in our complete article.

Best Places for Wildlife Photography in the Four Corners

The wide open spaces of the Four Corners are home to many species of wildlife, making wildlife photography a popular activity. Of all the photographic specialties, wildlife photography probably requires both the most patience and the most luck.

You also need to do your research and time your outing right. In most cases, early and late in the day offer the best opportunities to see wildlife as they seek shade and shelter during the heat of the day. 

Wildlife photography will require a telephoto lens if you want to capture more than a distant blur. This is one specialty where your smartphone’s camera won’t be much help unless you have discovered the hobby of digiscoping, which is pairing your phone’s camera with a spotting scope to capture images of distant wildlife.

Some of the best places to capture wildlife include Canyonlands National Park in Utah where you might find desert bighorn sheep, coyotes, and different species of birds. Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado is home to mule deer, wild turkeys, and a variety of raptors.

Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona offers the chance to photograph prairie dogs, coyotes, and pronghorn antelope. 

Those interested in bird photography can pretty much count on seeing ravens throughout the Four Corners region, but there are many other species to be found depending on the season. Noisy bushtits may be found finding a meal in Utah juniper and other plants.

Golden or Bald Eagles may soar high above. Many other raptors and owls can also be found in the Four Corners. A helpful resource is checking eBird for your destination and exploring which birds have been seen during the time you plan to visit.

Always maintain a safe distance from animals and never try to feed or interact with them. There are plenty of stories about people injured because they got too close to wildlife, thinking of wild animals as domesticated pets.

Feeding wild animals encourages them to get close to people, often to the detriment of both. Keep wild animals wild, don’t feed them, and photograph them from a distance using your telephoto lens.

Learn more about the wildlife of the Four Corners region here.

Four Corners Photography Tips

Here are some tips to help your Four Corners photography, but they’ll be helpful anywhere you’re taking photos.

Golden Hours

While we tend to be out and about exploring in the full light of day, schedule some photography time during the morning and evening golden hours. Sunrise and sunset photography can be the most satisfying, with soft, golden light bathing the landscape.

The harsh shadows of daytime are gone during the golden hours. Even photos of your family and friends will be warmer and softer when photographed during the golden hours. Don’t stop taking photos when the sun sets on the western horizon, as colors will continue to change.

Weather

Four Corners weather is famously changeable. You can expect hot summer days with temperatures reaching and exceeding 100 degrees depending on where you are in this vast area. Summer can also bring torrential monsoon rains.

Destinations like Antelope Canyon cancel tours when heavy rains are forecast. Winter brings snow, as can spring. Fall, which has cooler, but still pleasant, temperatures and beautiful blue skies, is often considered the best time of year to visit the Four Corners region.  

Permits

Some places require permits for any photography and others only require them for commercial photography. Check on the requirements for your destinations and obtain any necessary permits.

Respect

Treat these landscapes and cultural sites with respect and follow Leave No Trace principles. Your visit should leave no visible impact on the landscape or the ruins that have cultural and spiritual significance to today’s Indigenous people.

Don’t climb on ruins to get a better vantage point for your photograph. Pack out what you bring in. In short, take only pictures and leave only footprints. Remember, though, to be respectful and ask permission before taking photographs of Native people you may see on your visits. 

Beyond the Lens

While photography is a fantastic way to experience the Four Corners, remember to put down the camera and soak in the beauty of these incredible places. Talk to local people, learn about their history and culture, and create memories that will last a lifetime. Sometimes, we get so busy trying to capture the perfect image (that may end up living only on a hard drive) that we forget to truly experience the place we’re visiting.

Conclusion

The Four Corners region offers a wealth of photographic opportunities for those seeking to capture the beauty and diversity of the American Southwest.

This article barely scratched the surface of places you can explore, from iconic landmarks to hidden gems and you can find many more exciting places to visit and photograph on VisitFourCorners.com. This region will inspire and challenge you to create your best work. So pack your camera bag, hit the road, and discover the magic of the Four Corners.