Instaworthy Valley of Fire Photo Spots + Our Camera Settings

The Valley of Fire is one of the most photogenic State Parks in the US! We fell in love straight away with the epic red and orange jagged landscapes and had an absolute blast taking photos there.

Other than the Insta famous Mouse’s Tank Road that you will have probably already seen all of social media, there are loads of other photo spots for you to discover.

I have put together a list of the best photo spots in the Valley of Fire State Park, along with our camera settings for each photo. Happy adventuring!

😉 Valley of Fire in a Snapshot

📍 Where is the Valley of Fire

The Valley of Fire State Park is located in Nevada and is around a 45 minute drive from Las Vegas, making Las Vegas the perfect place to stay.

If you are staying in Las Vegas and are looking for things to do in the outdoors near Vegas, the Valley of Fire makes for a great day trip.

💲 Valley of Fire cost and permits required

To enter the Valley of Fire State Park, you will need to purchase a day pass from the front entrance gate. You can purchase this with cash or card and it is USD$15 per vehicle.

😉 Tips when visiting the Valley of Fire State Park

1. Get to the park for sunrise for the best photography light and to avoid the crowds and the heat
2. Try to spare at least a few hours to explore the park. It is a small park but there is a lot to see! I wish we had had more time there.
3. Don’t forget sunscreen and a hat and plenty of food and water. You are in the desert and it gets super hot!
4. There are restrooms spread out around the park. A couple of toilet locations to note are in the White Domes parking lot and the Rainbow Vistas parking lot.

📷 What camera equipment did we bring to the Valley of Fire

We used the following camera equipment for our photos and videos in the Valley of Fire State Park:

• Sony A7iii Camera
• Sony G 16-35 f/2.8
• Tamron 70-180 f/2.8
• Freewell Glow Mist 1/4 Camera Filter
• Iphone 13 Pro
• Manfrotto Befree Advanced Tripod – Aluminium

Best Photo Spots in the Valley of Fire State Park

This is a short list of the VERY BEST photo spots in the Valley of Fire State Park. In this list, I will also let you know our camera settings and what lens we used for each shot as well as tips on the best time of day to take your photo.

Click here to open the map in Google Maps!

1. Mouse’s Hunt Road

Mouse’s Hunt Road in my opinion, is THE BEST PHOTOGRAPHY SPOT in the Valley of Fire State Park. This is where the classic Valley of Fire road photo is from that you see all of Instagram. The road itself is part of the reason that this is such as great photo spot because you can see it for quite some time winding up towards the mountainous backdrop. The fact that it is framed by jagged red rocks makes it one of the most beautiful roads in the USA.

To get to the photo spot on Mouse’s Tank Road, navigate to the Rainbow Vista parking lot. This parking lot will come up on your right-hand-side after driving into the park. Once parked, you can cross the road and walk back down the road a little where you will find a pile of boulders on your right hand side.

Best time of day to photograph: Sunset

Camera: Sony a7iii

Lens: Tamron 70-180 f/2.8

Settings: 92mm, f/4.5, ISO 100, 1/400sec

2. Fire Wave Rock

Fire Wave Rock is located along the Fire Wave Trail which is one of the best hikes in Valley of Fire State Park. You are going to want to hike it outside of the hottest times of the day though so I recommend going at either sunrise or sunset. These are also the best times to photo the rock to get the beautiful red and orange colours to stand out.

Best time of day to photograph: Sunrise or sunset

Camera: Sony a7iii

Lens: Sony G 16-35 f/2.8

Settings: 35mm, f/11, ISO 100, 1/125sec

Filter: Freewell Glow Mist 1/4 Camera Filter

3. Pink Canyon

Pink Canyon is located along the Seven Wonders Trail. If you are hiking to the Fire Wave, continue along the trail and you will notice that it will turn into the Seven Wonders Trail. Pink Canyon is probably about 20 minutes further. To get the below photo, we climbed up above the canyon to place our tripod and used the self timer mode. We then went back to the canyon path to get the photo.

The exact coordinates for Pink Canyon are: 36°28’49.5″N 114°31’32.0″W

Best time of day to photograph: Blue hour (before sunrise or after sunset) or golden hour (during sunrise or sunset). Please note that the below photo was taking in the middle of the day which worked as well but I think blue hour or golden hour would be much prettier.

Camera: Sony a7iii

Lens: Sony G 16-35 f/2.8

Settings: 35mm, f/14, ISO 100, 1/320sec

4. Road Shot in the Valley of Fire

There are quite a few epic roads in the Valley of Fire which are perfect for taking photos of use a compression lens such as the Tamron 70-180 f/2.8 but anything with a good zoom will do!

This particular road shot was taken from GPS coordinates: 36.4666420484071, -114.52459383404957. You may need to move closer or further back depending on how much zoom you have on your camera or phone.

Best time of day to photograph: Blue or Golden Hour

Camera: Sony a7iii

Lens: Tamron 70-180 f/2.8

Settings: 126mm, f/9, ISO 100, 1/320sec

Did you use this guide to take your Fire of Valley photos?! Tag @oceanus_adventure in the photo because we would love to see them!

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