Four Corners Shoot Locations

Advice on Visiting Popular Sites Near Farmington:
Bisti, Valley of Dreams and Ship Rock

Welcome to Nightscaper: Four Corners! While at the conference, if you are considering a visit to the Bisti Badlands, the Valley of Dreams or Ship Rock, there are things to know about permissions and safety. It’s vital that you stay safe and respect the local laws.

The overall rules are simple:

1. BLM land is free to visit.

2. Navajo land requires at least looking into getting permission or a guide.

Important note: Both of the above apply if you and a few other attendees are just casually going out to shoot together. However, if you are paying someone to bring you out, then that person needs to have permit to run commercial activity on that land

BLM Land

If the area is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), casual shooters (i.e., those not with a commercial group) do not need a guide or a permit to visit and photograph.

You can visit the local BLM Office in Farmington for more information:

Farmington Field Office 6251 College Boulevard, Suite A
Farmington, New Mexico 87402

Navajo Land

If it’s Navajo land, you should hire a local guide, obtain permission from the Navajo tribe, or know if it is permissible to visit without either of these.

Bisti Badlands / De-Na-Zin Wilderness

Bisti Badlands / De-Na-Zin Wilderness is a BLM-managed public area, and casual shooters may explore here without a guide.

Access to Bisti via car is easy, with an easy gravel road at the very end of the 50-minute drive from Farmington. Please park only in the established parking lots. Also, be careful: Getting to the favorite land formations requires long hikes (3 to 6 miles round trip) with no services or established trails. Bring lots of water and use safety measures to make sure you can find your way back to the parking lot. There is a pit toilet there, but no other services.

The BLM De-Na-Zin parking lot is much smaller, 60 minutes from Farmington and has no pit toilet. We suggest a better SUV to get onto some dirt roads. Accessing the best shoot locations is all hiking without trails, much like Bisti Badlands, but with lesser-known landforms to discover.

While it is permissible to explore these areas without a guide, if you are uncomfortable navigating terrain without trails, you can hire a local guide to bring you out. (See below.)

The Alien Throne / Valley of Dreams

Valley of Dreams is on tribal land (near the BLM-managed Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness), however the owners currently permit people to park on the ridge by the road and hike in. The locals call this parking area the “AllTrails Parking lot.”

The Alien Throne is at the apex of a mostly flat hike of a little more than 2.5 miles round trip. We urge you to consider all the land formations along the way. In and around the area of the Throne are wildly diverse and deeply interesting eroded landforms worth much exploration and perhaps multiple visits. There are no services, so bring what you need and pack it all back out again.

Where Alien Throne is located, individuals and small casual groups may visit without a guide, but you might consider hiring a local guide anyway, such as Kialo at Navajo Tours USA. Kialo and his guides have a special parking place on private land that reduces the hike by 1 mile in each direction, plus they have safety protocols and deep knowledge of the landforms.

Permission to access the Valley of Dreams can change in the future if visitors abuse the privilege, so please be mindful and respectful.

Ship Rock Peak (Tsé Bit’a’í)

Ship Rock is on Navajo Tribal lands and is also a sacred site. Individuals or groups may not approach without a guide.

Per Navajo Tourism Department: “Tourists driving onto the dirt road leading to the formation are prohibited—please view and photograph the pinnacle from the paved roadway (Indian Service Route 13 or from US Highway 491). Oversight is provided by the local communities. There are no facilities in the vicinity. Overnight camping is not allowed. Usage of drones—a permit must be obtained from the Navajo Nation Film Office prior to use. As this rock formation is sacred to the Navajos—hiking and/or climbing on the sacred peak or its surrounding rocks is forbidden.”

You may consider using a long telephoto lens to photograph Ship Rock from the highway edge. (See the star trails photo at the top of the page for an example of this.)

Questions?

You may always ask the local BLM office if you are unsure, or even contact Navajo Tours. Doing some research online to read about the locations that interest you can help too.

Also, please first visit these locations in the daytime for scouting and safety. It’s very hard to choose compositions at night and others may already have their camera shutters open.

Stay safe out there, and shoot for the stars!