September 9-15, 2012
Join Moab Photo Tours and world-renowned photographer Tom Till on this 7-day, 8-night photographic exploration of ancient Native American ruins and rock art in the Cedar Mesa region of southeastern Utah, including three days of shooting in Monument Valley, the Land of the Navajo.
Cedar Mesa has the densest concentration of pre-Columbian ruins in all of the United States. The canyons that crisscross this rugged and beautiful high-desert mesa are lined with ancient Ancestral Pueblan cliff ruins. Many of these ruins make spectacular fine art images, set in alcoves in the sheer cliff walls and along the canyon rims. You will be able to walk among and photograph ruins abandoned more than 800 years ago when the Ancestral Pueblans left this area.
We will also spend three days photographing in the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, with Navajo guides who will take us to places visitors cannot otherwise go. We will have the opportunity to camp overnight on rugged Hunt’s Mesa and shoot both a sunset and a sunrise from this spectacular viewpoint overlooking Monument Valley.
Tom Till is an expert on Native American rock art and ruins, and while he is best known world-wide as a landscape photographer, Native American ruins and rock art are some of his personal favorite subjects. Tom has photographed some 200 days in Monument Valley alone over his 35 year career as a landscape photographer, and he knows the area extremely well. Our Navajo Guide for the tour in Monument Valley is Tom Phillips, of Monument Valley Tours, a photographer himself and a very experienced photography guide and guide for the movie industry. Phillips understands what makes a good landscape photograph, and as he says, “I take you to the light.” Check out his website at www.monumentvalley.com.
The tour covers seven days and nights and includes six days of shooting, lodging, transportation, some meals, park entrance fees, use fees, and guide fees. It also includes instruction in the field and evening photo discussions with Tom Till and Jon Fuller, owner of Moab Photo Tours, LLC. The tour will start on Sunday evening, September 9, 2012 with an orientation meeting in Moab, Utah. We'll leave Moab early on Monday morning and drive to Cedar Mesa for the morning shoot at one of the ruins there. After lunch, we'll hike to another very photogenic ruin and photograph it at sunset. We'll spend two nights in Blanding. On day two, we'll hike to more spectacular ruins in the morning and afternoon. On day 3, we hike to another ruin in the morning, and then head down to Muley Point for lunch overlooking the San Juan River and Monument Valley. We'll then descend the famous Moki Dugway and drive through Valley of the Gods on the way to Monument Valley. We'll arrive in Monument Valley before sunset in order to take a very special sunset shot that is only possible on certain days of the year, and we'll be there at the right time. We'll spend our first night in Monument Valley at Goulding's Lodge, located by the historic Goulding's Trading Post.
We will shoot a sunrise with our Navajo guides, and after a midday break at the lodge, drive up the rugged 4WD track to Hunt’s Mesa, where we’ll shoot sunset and camp for the night. Camping gear and meals on Hunt’s Mesa will be provided by our Navajo outfitters of Monument Valley Tours. We’ll then shoot sunrise before descending from the Mesa and having lunch at the lodge. After the midday break, we go back out with Tom Phillips to explore and photograph Mystery Valley. We’ll spend Friday night at the View Motel and shoot sunrise over the Mittens on Saturday morning before starting back to Moab.
After our morning shoot on Saturday, we'll head back to Moab with an afternoon arrival time. Saturday evening we’ll have a group dinner at one of Moab’s best restaurants. Lodging is included Saturday night in Moab, and you can depart for home on Sunday or stay around for a few more days to photograph Arches and Canyonlands National Parks on your own.
The cost of this tour is $2495.00 and includes 6 nights in motels (double occupancy — single supplement $550), 1 night guided camping, transportation from Moab to Cedar Mesa and Monument Valley, two days with Navajo guides in Monument Valley, all park entry fees & BLM use fees on Cedar Mesa, and some meals, including the farewell dinner. Not included are transportation to Moab or your return home, tips for guides, alcohol, and meals not specifically specified as included. If you’d like to take advantage of this outstanding opportunity, please send an email to info@moabphototours.com. Itinerary subject to change based on local conditions.
For images of ruins on Cedar Mesa, go to the website Gallery and view the Cedar Mesa Album. For Tom Till’s images of Monument Valley, go to www.tomtill.com and type Monument Valley in the Search Box. Go to the Workshops Album in this website Gallery and click on the Cedar Mesa / Monument Valley Tour to view images from previous tours.
Disclaimer: Access to many of these ruins on Cedar Mesa can only be gained by hiking down steep trails into the canyons. These hikes will take up to an hour each way, some dropping several hundred feet in elevation, and are quite physically demanding. What goes down, must also come back up in order to get home, so you must be in very good health and physical condition to participate in this workshop. You must be able to hike these steep, rough, rocky primitive trails carrying all of your own equipment. The general elevation of Cedar Mesa is between 5000’ and 7000’, so the altitude makes hiking even more difficult. Please do not apply if you have heart or respiratory problems. This area is very remote, with no cell service, so prompt medical emergency services are not readily available. Additionally, the tour in Monument Valley will cover some rough 4-wheel drive tracks. This tour is truly an adventure into some of America’s most wild and rugged country.