Blue Hour Beauty - Monument Valley, Navajo Nation

Being a landscape photographer, you sort of get used to getting up at o'dark thirty and then driving a while to get to the place that you want to shoot well before sunrise. So, when you get a chance to roll out of bed, pick up your camera gear and walk to the hotel's balcony to shoot an iconic scene, you grab it. No where is this easier than the View Hotel in Monument Valley, one of the premier locations in the American Southwest. Prior to being built in 2008, there was only one hotel in the area, about three miles down the road. The next nearest ones are 23 miles away. Why? Monument Valley's official name is Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park which is the Navajo Nation's equivalent of the American National Parks. The View Hotel was built and is run by the Navajo People. While no one would mistake the View Hotel as a resort, you go there for the location so you can roll out of bed and watch the blue hour turn in the golden hour.