Grand Staircase - Escalante
Overview
The ultimate southwestern landscape photography experience: a perfect combination of mind-blowing landscape, autumn color, masterful instruction, wonderful dining, and excellent accommodations.
Join Jerry Dodrill and Alex Noriega for this opportunity to develop and refine your creative vision and skills of composition in the majestic Grand Staircase descending toward the Grand Canyon and the canyons of the Escalante – truly a landscape photographer’s dream come true. Boulder Mountain rises to the west of Capital Reef National Park in the picturesque Aquarius Plateau of South Central Utah. It is the highest timbered plateau in North America, with over 50,000 acres of rolling forests of aspen, pine, spruce, and fir, as well as expansive meadows. The area features the dramatic red rock canyons and sculpted formations for which southern Utah is famous, but it is a little known and refreshing alternative to more heavily trafficked southwestern locations.
The author and desert wilderness advocate Edward Abbey once astutely observed of this area:
There are more hills, holes, humps and hollows, reefs, folds, domes, swells and grabens, buttes, benches and mesas, synclines, monoclines, and anticlines than you can ever hope to see and explore in a lifetime.
We’ll add that the quality of light and atmosphere here are superb.
Based out of the beautiful Boulder Mountain Lodge, and with first-class dining at the famous Hell’s Backbone Grill, this is a superb landscape photography workshop scenario, which helps explain why Visionary Wild clients often repeat this experience. We hope you’ll join us!
Note: Visionary Wild, LLC operates this workshop under a Commercial Use Permit issued by the Bureau of Land Management at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
Itinerary
The workshop will start with an orientation and introductory session at 1pm. The first photo excursion will take place that afternoon. Each morning and evening, we’ll be out to photograph first light before breakfast and out for evening light before dinner. During midday hours, Jerry Dodrill and Alex Noriega will make presentations on photographic vision, composition and creativity, digital workflow, and maximizing image potential. They will also lead two constructive critique sessions, often considered the most instructive part of the workshop. The morning of the 16th will be the final field session, followed by critique until we adjourn at 3:00pm.
Instructors
Jerry Dodrill
- Jerry Dodrill has been an award-winning professional photographer and highly regarded photography teacher for more than two decades. A protégé of the late legendary adventure photographer Galen Rowell ...
Alex Noriega
- Alex Noriega is a full-time professional nature photographer and photography educator focused on ...
Gallery
Pricing
Deluxe
Superior
Standard
All costs are per person.
ROOM TYPES
Deluxe: Offers a king bed and sofa sleeper, along with a kitchenette that includes a mini-fridge, microwave, toaster oven and sink. Enjoy a relaxing morning on the shared balcony overlooking the bird sanctuary, with views of the surrounding mesas and Boulder Mountain.
Superior: Includes one king and one queen bed. Located upstairs, this accommodation has a shared balcony with views of the property and surrounding landscape – it’s the perfect spot to unwind and take in the beauty and peace that Boulder has to offer.
Standard: Includes either one king bed or two queen beds, has everything you need to for a relaxing stay in this spectacular landscape. This room is on the ground floor and includes indoor and outdoor seating areas.
All rooms offer the following amenities:
Wireless internet (WiFi)
Coffee maker
Air-conditioning
Microwave
Ceiling fan
Bathrobes
Hairdryer
Mini fridge
Non-smoking
- PAYMENT SCHEDULE
- 50% deposit due to confirm registration
- 50% final payment due June 12, 2026
- Click here to review our terms and conditions.
- INCLUSIONS
- Package includes lodging for four nights (checking in on Oct 12 and checking out on Oct 16) and all meals from dinner on October 12 through lunch on October 16 (including wine and beer with dinner).
Highlights
- Photograph our favorite locations discovered on numerous prior visits, in this quintessentially southwestern landscape
- Limited to six participants
- Eight field photography sessions, morning and evening
- Refine your personal vision and composition
- Using various qualities of light to best effect
- Exposure and tonal control
- Focus-stacking and stitching techniques
- Essentials of digital workflow
- Optimizing images in post-processing
- Constructive group critique sessions
- Southwestern gourmet dining at the award-winning Hell’s Backbone Grill
- Excellent accommodations at Boulder Mountain Lodge
Accommodations
Boulder Mountain Lodge is an oasis of calm, comfort and luxury in the middle of Utah’s scenic red rock canyon country and mountain forests. It is perfectly located for quick access to the unparalleled natural wonders of the Boulder-Escalante region, and as if that weren’t enough, it features a superb restaurant on its premises – Hell’s Backbone Grill.
Travel
