Four Corners Monument opening hours, and the hour most people lose
The time zone, first, because it is what costs people the drive
The monument sits at Teec Nos Pos, Arizona — physically in Arizona, on the Navajo Nation. The Navajo Nation Office of the President put the reason on the record in March 2026: the Nation keeps Daylight Saving Time “in order to remain on the same time as many of our Diné relatives, communities, and services in Utah and New Mexico.” The rest of Arizona does not.
So from spring to fall the marker is on MDT. Step between the Colorado, New Mexico and Utah quadrants and nothing changes; all three states are on MDT too. Phoenix, Flagstaff, Sedona and the Grand Canyon South Rim are an hour behind. You are standing in Arizona, on Arizona ground, and the Arizona corner of that disc is an hour ahead of Phoenix.
Here is how it goes wrong. Posted hours are Navajo Nation local time. A phone driving in from Phoenix or Flagstaff may still be showing Arizona time, and the towers out here straddle the boundary, so automatic time is not something I would bet an afternoon on. Trust the screen, arrive at what it calls 4:30pm against a 5:00pm winter close, and you have arrived at 5:30 at the end of a 200-mile round trip. In winter, DST ends, everything harmonizes on MST and there is no discrepancy at all.
In summer, set a watch to Colorado, New Mexico or Utah time before you leave Phoenix or Flagstaff, and plan against that watch rather than the phone. One extra wrinkle if you are coming from the west: the Hopi Reservation, an enclave inside the Navajo Nation, is reported not to observe DST — I have no primary Hopi source for that, so treat it as a reason to check your watch rather than a rule.
The operator’s table
This is Navajo Nation Parks & Recreation’s own published schedule, and it is the one I lead with because it is their gate.
| Dates | Gate hours |
|---|---|
| 1 October – 27 March | 8:00am – 5:00pm |
| 28 March – 30 April | 8:00am – 6:00pm |
| 1 May – 22 May | 8:00am – 7:00pm |
| 23 May – 14 August | 8:00am – 8:00pm |
| 15 August – 30 September | 8:00am – 7:00pm |
Note what 15 August does. The evening you had at eight o’clock in July is seven o’clock by the third week of August, and five o’clock from 1 October. If you are building a day around late light in the fall, that hour comes off the front of your plan, not the back.
Three official sources, three different tables
They do not agree, and pretending otherwise would be the easy thing to do here. Two other official sources publish schedules that conflict with the operator’s, and both are lower confidence, so treat them as a warning rather than a timetable:
- Discover Navajo lists 8am–5pm MDT, Monday to Saturday — much shorter, and a Sunday closure no other source mentions, on a page that also carries an internally inconsistent holiday date.
- Farmington and Utah’s Canyon Country list 8:00am–4:45pm in winter and 8:00am–5:45pm in summer, with season boundaries that do not match the operator’s at all.
Sunday opening is genuinely unresolved. The operator implies seven days; Discover Navajo says six. I am not going to resolve it for you with a guess, and if your whole trip hinges on a Sunday, that is a phone call: (928) 206-2540.
There is no last-entry time, and I am not going to invent one
Nobody publishes one. The recurring 4:45 and 5:45 closes in the secondary sources do hint at a cut-off shortly before closing, and that is exactly what it is — a hint, and my inference from it. Dressing an inference up as a rule is how a wrong number ends up quoted back at you by twenty other sites. Plan to be through the gate well inside the posted hours and the question does not arise.
The gate and the market keep different hours
The genuinely useful planning fact on this page: vendors and the office run 8:00am–5:00pm daily, whatever the gate is doing. Turn up at seven on a July evening and you get the marker, low light and an empty plaza — and no craft market, no silver, no frybread. That is a fine trade if you chose it. It is a bad surprise if you drove out expecting dinner.
Even inside those hours the stalls are not guaranteed. They are independently operated and their presence varies with season, weather and day, so I will not promise you a vendor will be there. What is normally sold, and what is new on the site, is on is there food and what there is to do.
Days the gate does not open at all
New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving Day, Navajo Nation Family Day the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and “all other Navajo Nation Holidays” — which are not federal holidays, so a normal working day elsewhere in the country can find this gate shut. That, and the sixteen-month closure people are usually reading about, is on why it closes.
How long you need once you are inside: 30 to 60 minutes. Which month to pick, and why June is drier than you would think: the best time to visit.
Frequently asked questions
What time does Four Corners Monument open?
8:00am, on every schedule anybody publishes. Navajo Nation Parks & Recreation closes at 5:00pm from 1 October to 27 March, 6:00pm from 28 March to 30 April, 7:00pm from 1 May to 22 May, 8:00pm from 23 May to 14 August and 7:00pm from 15 August to 30 September. Two other official sources publish different tables, so check with the park if your timing is tight.
What time zone is Four Corners Monument in?
The monument is in Arizona but on the Navajo Nation, which observes Daylight Saving Time while the rest of Arizona does not. In summer it runs on MDT — the same time as Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, and one hour ahead of Phoenix, Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon South Rim. In winter everything harmonizes on MST. A phone driving up from Phoenix may show Arizona time and be an hour slow.
Is there a last entry time at Four Corners Monument?
None is published by anyone. Some secondary sources list closing times of 4:45pm and 5:45pm, which hints at a cut-off shortly before closing, but that is an inference rather than a published rule. Aim to arrive well inside the posted hours.
Are the vendors open the same hours as the gate?
No. The vendor stalls and the office keep 8:00am to 5:00pm daily, so on a summer evening the marker is open and the craft market is shut. Vendor presence is not guaranteed in any case — the stalls are independently operated and vary with season, weather and day.