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My wife and I will be in Farmington, NM for a couple of weeks in late July of this year. The four corners area and Monument Valley are not far away. Would appreciate any info on photographing in this area. Birds and landscapes are my main areas of interest.
Thanks in advance for any help.

We visited Monument Valley on the 24th of May and had a marvelous time. We didn't stay for the Sunset tours as we had a long drive to return to Kanab. They do sound attractive though but I don't fancy the open vehicles they use on the tours. Most people were wearing face masks as protecting from the extremely fine dust. I had to blow the dust out of all the crevices in my camera's afterwards so be careful if changing lenses especially if a vehicle is approaching.

We also visited Horseshoe Bend just outside Page. This was well worth seeing, mid-morning is supposed to be the optimum time. This coincides however with the hordes of selfie takers seeing how close they can get to the edge of the 1,100ft drop off.

Have fun.

There are several nice hikes to Anastasi ruins in the Cedar Mesa area just North of Monument Valley. "House On Fire", "Fallen Roof Ruins" and others. Check out "Photographing the Southwest" volume 1 book by Laurent Martres. While the hikes are pretty straight forward Martres sometimes makes it sound a bit easier to find the sites then they really are. I also always carry a hand held GPS so you will never have any issues finding your way back.

It will be very hot at that time, but this is a great area:

Bisti Badlands

Bisti Map with Coordinates

Nearby is Chaco Canyon. Definitely take a GPS with you. Mud could be bad if it happens to rain, but we are in an extreme drought at this time. Now is the opportunity to go there before fracking destroys these fragile formations.

Joe

I definitely second the Bisti recommendation.

Shiprock can be good too.....

For birds, this link may help, if you can get it to come up. I haven’t been able to connect to it:

https://farmingtonnm.org/news-media/med ... ing-mecca/

Edit: It’s working on my phone now.

Joe

Navajo Natl. Monument is very picturesque. Unfortunately that time of year makes the 17 mile round trip hike into the Keet Seel (the best Anasazi ruins I have ever been to ) unpleasant but Betatakin is cooler and has 2 morning guided tours (about 3 miles)

Navajo Natl. Monument is very picturesque. Unfortunately that time of year makes the 17 mile round trip hike into the Keet Seel (the best Anasazi ruins I have ever been to ) unpleasant but Betatakin is cooler and has 2 morning guided tours (about 3 miles)