Autumn in the San Juan Mountains - Telluride, CO  

This is a field workshop and as you can see from this itinerary, we’ll spend our time out in the field capturing images throughout the entire day for 5 full days. We will likely need to adjust this itinerary to accommodate weather and field conditions.

Day 1
5:30pm – Opening-night reception at Camel’s Garden Hotel in Telluride, Colorado.
7:00 – Dinner at one of Telluride’s excellent restaurants.

Day 2
We’ll travel to a region of serrated volcanic ridges and vast aspen groves east of Telluride today beneath the 14,000-foot summits of the Big Blue Wilderness, one of Colorado’s largest wilderness areas. We’ll depart our hotel at 6:00am and stop along the way to photograph sunrise at Dallas Divide, one of the American West’s iconic fall-colors locations. After that, we’ll have breakfast in Ridgway before our full day in the field to photograph serrated limestone peaks and endless groves of aspen trees.
5:00 – Arrive back at our hotel in Telluride.
6:30 – Dinner at another excellent restaurant in town.

Day 3
Today, we’ll concentrate on the region west and south of Telluride where the redrock layers of southern Utah bump up against the western edge of the Rocky Mountains. This is a region of high rolling 10,000-foot high mesas carpeted with vast tapestries of aspen trees below the 14,000-foot summits of the San Miguel Mountains.

6:30am – Depart our hotel to capture the first rays of sunlight as they illuminate Wilson Peak above the aspen groves of its namesake mesa. With a little luck, the first snows of winter will have recently dusted the peak.
8:15 – Breakfast in Telluride.
9:45 – Depart for our morning photo session along the South Fork of the San Miguel River southwest of Telluride. The waters of the South Fork flow from glacier-carved cirques high on the slopes of some of the most spectacular mountain terrain in the American West. We’ll photograph several locations with thick groves of yellow aspen trees beneath these peaks.
1:00 – Picnic lunch in the field.
1:30 – After lunch, we’ll depart for another location along the San Miguel River to photograph more aspen groves and snow-capped peaks.
5:15 – Arrive back at our hotel.
6:30 – Dinner at another of Telluride’s renowned restaurants.

Day 4
This will be our second day exploring the region west of Telluride with its rolling, aspen-covered mesas and glacier-carved peaks. We’ll explore a new portion of this vast area today with tremendous sweeping views of the mountains surrounding the headwaters of the San Miguel River.
6:15am – Depart for our sunrise location overlooking Wilson Mesa and the San Miguel Mountains. After sunrise, we’ll photograph a variety of mountain slopes and ridgelines covered with kaleidoscopic groves of aspen.
8:30 – Breakfast in our hotel.
10:15 – Depart for a variety of late-morning photo locations along the aspen-filled canyons of the San Miguel River.
2:00 – Lunch in Telluride.
3:15 – After lunch, we’ll travel west to a new area to photograph rolling, aspen-covered mesas with the peaks of the Sneffels and San Miguel mountains providing a backdrop.
6:15 – Arrive back at our hotel.
7:00 – Dinner at another excellent restaurant in town.

Day 5
We’ll spend another full day in the field today exploring the region to the south of Telluride at the headwaters of the San Miguel and Dolores Rivers. There are a variety of locations within this region we’ve yet to photograph over the last few days so we’ll take advantage of them today.
5:45 – Meet in our group suite for breakfast.
6:15am – Depart our hotel for our sunrise location of Telluride’s most spectacular mountain. After capturing sunrise, we’ll depart for another new location with more groves of aspen trees and views of Telluride’s 14,000-ft peaks.
11:00 – Arrive back at our hotel for lunch.
12:30 – After lunch, we’ll depart for perhaps our favorite location west of Telluride where we rarely, if ever, see another soul, which we’ve never quite understood.
5:00 – Arrive back at our hotel.
6:00 – Another great meal in town.

Day 6
After photographing the mountains and mesas around Telluride for the last 3 days, we’ll venture further afield today to explore the Sneffels Range; one of the most dramatic regions of ice-sculpted peaks in the West with 14,000-foot summits and deep glacier-carved canyons filled with brilliant yellow aspen trees at this time of year. We’ll depart our hotel at 6:00am for another sunrise attempt at famous Dallas Divide before breakfast in Ridgway followed by more new locations we haven’t visited previously.

7:30 – Dinner in Ridgway.
9:00 – Arrive back in Telluride.

Day 7
8:00am – Breakfast; end of workshop.