how do i get from salt lake city to monument valley?

Question

i'm british and need to be in utah for a few days for work - i've never been and i've always dreamed of seeing monument valley - is this possible in a day? can i fly home from monument valley or do i need to go all the way back to salt lake city - or somewhere else? how much extra time do i need to allow on the trip to fit in this visit? should i drive? (i hear it's five hours away) or fly? or greyhound?
as you can see i know nothing! hope you can help.

fantastic details in the answer below, thanks - is there any other way than driving myself? bus? plane? not sure if i can handle a sixteen hour round trip on my own...

Answer 1

A couple of things :
All the roads I will be sending you down I have actually driven on
There's a couple of ways you can do this all of them require a car & none of them take 5 hours.
I used to live in the area and I drive fast and I couldn't make it in 5 hours
It really all depends upon how wild , wooly and three dimensional the roads you want to travel on are
If you use mapquest
Type in SLC - Kayenta AZ that should take you through Monument Valley although for some reason Mapquest routes you down 191 from Mexican hat UT rather than down 160 to Kayenta..
The trip should take you around 8 hours because you will really need to visit Arches NP in Moab UT
From Kayenta mapquest ST. George UT and their routing -which I agree with -will take you across the Navajo Reservation to Page AZ and then to Zion NP and onto St George Ut at that point you have a choice ; you can make a left and drive the 120 miles into Las Vegas or you can make a right and drive the 300 miles back to SLC .
Since you did ask there are small regional airports in Cortez & Telluride CO that use twin Engine turbo props and connect into Phoenix
The combination of car drop off and one way flight from a tiny airport will get real expensive.
Wednesday more details.
Until recently Scenic Airlines used to fly into Gouldings Trading Post In Monument Valley
they no longer do.
Gouldings is legendary and has been there for a long time 1-435-727-3231 or gouldings@gouldings .com
As far as the sixteen hour drive goes.
First of all these are the roads you always dreamed about driving on, huge big sky, wall to wall scenery , 100 mile views & hauling a** down a little 2 lane strip of asphalt and feeling insignificant as all hell.
Second of all you don't have to do it one day.
From Kayenta you can either follow mapquests directions and head upto Page AZ then work your way up 89 thru Kanab then ignore the loop into Zion - ouch ! and stay on 89 basically all the way into Provo great great road.
You can stay in Page - a bit of a party town or find a place on the way north.
The neat thing about the American West is that you can cover distances quickly .
Good Luck

Answer 2

I have done this trip lots of times.
You leave Salt Lake and go south on Interstate 15. Passing south of Provo (home of BYU) you turn off I-15 and head south on US Highway 6 at Spanish Fork, Utah. Go up Spanish Fork Canyon on US 6 and pass through Price, Utah. Continue going south until you reach Green River, Utah. Take Interstate 70 and Head east for approximately 20 miles until you reach a junction called Thompson. Head south on US Highway 191 for several hours. You will pass through the towns of Moab, Montecello and Bluff. At Bluff Utah you continue on US 191 until you reach Monument Valley. About 7 hours driving in all. Monument Valley is beautiful. It is great weather this time of year.

Answer 3

thankyou for the answers, greatly appreciated!