What Is The Valley Of The Gods And Where Is It?
The Valley Of The Gods In southern Utah (not to be confused with the Garden Of The Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado) is a fairly remote area on BLM land. It is a rugged ares with lots of cool rock formations and rock spires dotting the landscape. It is not very well known or at least not anywhere near as well known as most state and national parks in Utah.
The Valley Of The Gods is located near the town of Mexican Hat. From Mexican Hat, the Valley Of The Gods is about 10-12 miles and is less than a half hour drive. The Valley Of The Gods is located near the famous Moki Dugway, near Goosenecks State Park and fairly close to the Fallen Roof Ruin in the Cedar Mesa area of Utah. The House On Fire is a bit farther but also worth a visit when you are in the area.
If you want to go to the Valley Of The Gods, you could fly into the Montrose, Colorado airport, the Grand Junction Airport or the Durango, Colorado Airport.
What Is It Like To Travel To And Photograph The Valley Of The Gods?
Since The Valley Of The Gods is pretty remote, it may be a bit of a challenge to get there. Chances are you’ll fly to a smaller regional airport if you are flying. You’ll need to get a rental car. If you plan to drive through the Valley Of The Gods, drive the Moki Dugway or head out to Fallen Roof Ruin, it would be good to have a 4WD or AWD vehicle. Chances are this would only be needed if there is snow, rain or if there has been a fair amount of recent precipitation.
If you are on a road trip to The Valley Of The Gods, the roads are generally good al around the area. If you are coming down from the north via Bluff, Utah, you’ll probably want to drive down the Moki Dugway. It’s a pretty awesome dirt road that is a bit steep in places. Under dry conditions, a passenger car should be fine but it would be good to check the local road conditions if there has been any bad weather recently or predicted.
There aren’t many hotels in Mexican hat and those that are there tend to be $100+. If you’re on a road trip and dirt bagging it, you may want to camp at Goosenecks State Park for $10 or just find some random place on BLM land to pull over and crash for the night.
The road through the Valley Of The Gods is about 16 miles. You can pull over most anywhere along the road. Along that road, there are endless views to frame up and photograph any way you want. A short visit just to drive through and see the area could be done in a couple hours. If you want to take the time to really scope out and explore the photo opportunities there, you could probably fill a couple days if the weather cooperates.
What Does It Take To Get A Wall Art Quality Photo Of The Valley Of The Gods?
When you head out to The Valley Of The Gods, photo opportunities abound all over the place. I wouldn’t put The Valley Of The Gods in the same category as Zion or somewhere like that but more on par with something like Goblin Valley State Park or Kodachrome Basin State Park over near Bryce Canyon National Park. It’s not a primary destination but definitely worth visiting if you are in the general area.
When photographing The Valley Or The Gods, sunrise and sunset will likely be the best times to shoot. The time I planned to stay there in the spring of 2013 turned out to be rainy and overcast. It stayed like that for a few days. The result was stormy skies in just about every photo from the trip.
In some ways it might be considered a smaller, less visited and MUCH less famous Monument Valley. The landscape is made up of rock towers and spires. Your photo compositions in the area will be made up of the massive rock towers, the road that runs through the area and the desert plants that generally stay low to the ground.
If you can get there on partly cloudy days you’ll probably get the most interesting photos and be able to fill the frame with interesting textures and formations from the ground to the skies. If the sun will be out (and it usually is in this part of Utah), get out to catch the glow of the rock towers in the soft morning or evening light.
What Is The Best Gear For Photographing The Valley Of The Gods?
The Valley Of The Gods in a massive landscape where the more variety in lenses you have, the better off you will be. Start out with a good DSLR or mirrorless camera. Your primary lens can be a 24mm-105mm lens. That will probably cover 70% of the photo opportunities you will come across. There is plenty of room to walk around, back up and move around so you’ll be able to do some zooming with your feet if the lens doesn’t quite capture what you want from wherever you are standing.
For closeup photos of some of the larger rock towers and formations you may want a wider angle lens. Something like a 17mm-40mm lens could fill that gap. Another lens up to 200mm will facilitate some more distant photos or closeup photos of parts of rock formations. There isn’t much in the way of wildlife so anything longer than 200mm probably won’t be of much use.
For sunrise and sunset shots with low light or those taken under stormy skies a tripod will come in handy to keep your photos as sharp as possible. Pair your tripod with a cable release for the best results. A circular polarizer will provide opportunities to get deep blue skies and potentially enhance the colors of the rock formations.
Because this is a wide open landscape, it is a good place to have a panoramic setup. At the time of my trip I didn’t yet have a panoramic setup. Looking back I wish I’d had it at The Valley Of The Gods. IN this area you can find a use for most any lens and panoramic setup you have available.
What Is The Story Behind This Valley Of The Gods Photo Print?
During the spring of 2013 I was in the 4th years of road tripping around the US and Canada with a focus on the US National Parks. It didn’t take long to discover there are all kinds of cool state and local parks, forest service and BLM lands scattered around the country in addition to the famous and not so famous national parks.
At some point I came across information about and photos of the Valley Of The Gods and decided I had to go there. Initially I got it mixed up with the Garden Of The Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado but then realized they were two separate places separated by hundreds of miles.
After spending some time in Moab, dropping down past Wilson Arch, to Blanding, Utah and exploring The House On Fire and The Fallen Roof Ruin, I drove down toward The Valley Of The Gods and stopped for the night at the top of the Moki Dugway. It is a pretty remote area. There was some truck there that seemed a little spooky but I fell asleep in the car and am still here so it obviously didn’t pose any threat.
It rained a bit overnight. I noticed that when rain started to come through the cracked windows I left open for some fresh air when drifting off to sleep. The next morning I go out and wandered around at the top of the Moki Dugway. I knew the road was a fairly long winding dirt road that had a few kind of steep spots but had no idea what the condition of the road was. Since I had a Subaru Outback and was going down I wasn’t too concerned about it.
I kept it slow and steady going down the road and put the car in a low gear. It turned out to be a nice, scenic and easy drive for the Outback. From the bottom of the Moki Dugway it was about a 20 minute drive to start getting up close to some of the formations in the Valley Of The Gods. The first day turned out to be mostly rainy and I didn’t get much in the way of photos.
After not getting much in the way of photos, I decide to head down and check out Goosenecks State Park. There is not much of anything at Goosenecks State Park except for an overlook that could be a little reminiscent of Horseshoe Bend in Page, Arizona. The view as Goosenecks was pretty cool. The lighting was awful and it didn’t seem like there would be a time when it was good so I didn’t spend much time there trying to get any notable photos. The campground was super bare bones and not much different than somewhere out in the middle of BLM land.
The stormy weather was still there the next day but I was there to get some print worthy photos of The Valley Of The Gods. There were patches of sun and clouds throughout the day along with some rain. A few times during the day the sun did shine down through the clouds to light up the landscape while dark clouds hovered over the road through The Valley Of The Gods and the formations along the road. Partway through the day the scene captured for the photo in this post developed.
Once the day was done, I headed back to the top of the Moki Dugway take in the views and enjoy another peaceful night sleeping in the car. The weather still wasn’t great but this area was nice and dark, quiet and a place it seemed like I could sleep through the night without worrying about being somewhere where I might be disturbed by someone during the night.
What Formats Is This Valley Of The Gods Wall Art Print Available?
If you’d like to order a print of this image, it comes on paper, canvas, metal, acrylic and wood. The largest size on any material is 40×60 inches. If you’ll be hanging it in an area with diffused lighting, any material with any finish will look great. Matte finish prints will have a more classic and subtle look while metallic or glossy prints will have a more vibrant and brighter look. If you’ll be hanging it in an area with bright direct lighting or exposed light bulbs, matte paper or canvas prints will look best as they will not reflect the bright direct lighting.
If you’d like something to bring a stormy desert southwest look to your bathroom, this print comes on high quality shower curtains. Matching bath towels can be ordered along with the shower curtain. For the living room or bathroom, a super soft and vibrant Sherpa fleece blanket can make a great choice and be paired with matching throw pillows.
If you need something to replace the plastic shopping bags that are slowly vanishing from most stores, this image can be ordered on a high quality, durable, long lasting canvas tote bag. They come in a few different sizes and the larger ones can even be used as beach bags. If you’d like something smaller, this image comes on phone cases. It’s the perfect way to protect your new Apple or Samsung phone!
Finally, if you’d like a jigsaw puzzle, this image can be ordered on 500 and 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzles. The image is on the outside of the box and it comes in a nice sturdy cardboard box. These make excellent gifts and are quite popular around the holidays!
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