Monument Valley Driving: Valley Drive

Valley Drive provides the only access for motorized vehicles in Monument Valley. The seventeen mile loop though the park takes you to breathtaking destinations no visitor of southeast Utah should miss. See places like Totem Pole and Elephant Butte without ever having to leave your car.

The drive through Monument Valley can be accessed at the Visitors Center, where it starts at the center of the park and wraps to southeast. The dirt road descends initially through a series of switchbacks and can be quite dusty and poorly maintained. No RVs over 27 feet should attempt the course, and cars without 4-wheel-drive may have trouble with the terrain.

To access Valley Drive, visitors must pay $5 per person at the Visitors Center. The drive keeps the same hours as the center, 6 am to 8:30 pm in the summer and 8 am to 4:30 pm in the winter. Load up on beverages, snacks, and gasoline at the Visitor Center, as the loop typically takes 2-3 hours to complete.

Popular sights from the loop include John Ford's Point, Sand Springs, Left Mitten, Artist's Point, and a Navajo log Hogan. Visitors are not permitted to rock climb, hike, mountain bike, or remove artifacts on the tribal land of Monument Valley. Petroglyphs and rock formations should be left undisturbed, due to their delicate nature. Though access to outlying lands is off-limits, there are tons of spots to pull over and memorialize your trip with photos. Visit the Monument Valley page of Photo Travel's website, http://phototravel.com/mont.htm, for precise information about getting great shots of the region's astonishing beauty.