Southern Utah FALL Milky Way
FALL So. Utah
Milky Way Workshop
WHEN: October 13th through 17th, 2025
WHERE: Goblin Valley State Park, Factory Butte & Hoodoo Village
WHO: Photographers of ALL skill levels welcome!
FITNESS LEVEL: Ability to walk on uneven terrain.
Most locations will involve a short walk. The longest hike will be when we walk through Goblin Valley. The area is uneven terrain but down easy pathways around the rock hoodoos that every level of fitness will have no trouble.
MILKY WAY WORKSHOP WITH PHOTOG ADVENTURES
$
1,800
INCLUDES:
Star Tracker Instruction & Gear Assessment
Snacks & Drinks while on-site doing Photography
Personal instruction at the camera, critique sessions
DOES NOT INCLUDE:
Transportation
Hotel Accommodation
Travel insurance and personal equipment
Alcohol and soft drinks, laundry
- Reserve your spot today with a deposit of $950. The remaining Tuition must be paid by July 22nd. An invoice will be sent to you from Aaron through PayPal to cover the remaining $850.
CUSTOM JAVASCRIPT / HTML
Listen to the Podcasts above to hear stories directly from participants of this workshop back in 2018!
Four Nights of Milky Way Photography
POTENTIAL TRIP ITINERARY
NOTE: If clouds cause any problems we will move locations or add Landscape Photography to the plans to make the best use of our time.
Night 1: Goblin Valley
Night 2: Factory Butte Area
Night 3: Hoodoo Village
Night 4: Bonus Area!
- Day 1: Everyone makes their way to Green River, Utah to meet as a group for Dinner.
- 6pm-7pm Group Dinner and set goals for the workshop.
- 7pm Travel to Goblin Valley
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Milky Way starts at 8:16pm.
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Location: Goblin Valley
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SLEEPING IN GREEN RIVER, UT
- Day 2: Sleep and then if interested join the group for Breakfast/Lunch by 11:30am.
- 12pm - 5:30pm Personal Time.
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5:30pm Dinner.
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6:30pm Leave for Factory Butte to make it in time for our Milky Way over the Butte which is best right at 8:16pm.
- Location: Factory Butte
-
SLEEPING IN GREEN RIVER, UT
- Day 3: Sleep and then if interested join the group for Breakfast/Lunch by 11:30am.
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11am-5pm Leave for Hurricane to make it in time to check in our hotels, have a rest, grab dinner individually before we leave for Hoodoo Village as a group in two to three cars.
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5pm Leave for Hoodoo Village to make sunset.
Sunset at 6:55pm.
Milky Way starts at 8:21pm.
- Location: Hoodoo Village
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SLEEPING IN HURRICANE, UT
- Day 4: Sleep in to 7am or later depending on weather.
- 7am BONUS! Travel will entirely depend on where we decide to go! We have many options that weather will dictate where this bonus nights ends up!
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Travel to Bonus Location.
- Location: Bonus!
- NOTE: If weather was bad at any of the main three locations we may just hit a spot we missed.
-
SLEEPING: depends on location
NOTE: Outside of showing up to our LOCATION for the night, you can make your own schedule. ie. Get yourself to Goblin Valley in time for the Milky Way, then you can do anything else you want to do until then! So come ready to enjoy the many awesome locations of Southern Utah! YOU can hit any sunrise YOU want to! :D -Aaron
Frequently Asked Questions
What do you bring?
Milky Way Photography is awesome but it can be VERY COLD depending on the location, so come ready for it!
This is what we recommend to take with you:
- Camera with manual mode
- Lenses you need are anything from 8mm-50mm and with the largest aperture possible! f1.2 to f3.5 are great options! Bring your 50mm, and anything else you would like. Telephoto lens gigapanos can be great! Just don't forget your widest and largest aperture lenses at home!
- Sturdy Tripod (REQUIRED!) make sure it is STURDY enough
- L-Bracket (Optional) - Best for Panorama and switching orientation
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Focusing Aid (Carson Lumiloupe: https://amzn.to/2lDwFjz)
- Batteries – Fully charged and at least 2 per night!
- Memory Cards – minimum 2 cards of 32GB each
- Head lamp (red lamps are not required anymore)
- Really Warm outdoor clothing for staying warm during the coldest hours of night and standing in the wind!
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Gloves
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Water Proof jacket & Pants
- Laptop (OPTIONAL) for post-processing (Lightroom & Photoshop)
Flying, Driving & Hotels?
Flying in?
If you plan to fly in, JustFly.com and SkyScanner.com are great sites for Flight Deals. Flying in to Salt Lake City or Las Vegas are options. If weather allows it, our first location is Goblin Valley. The drive from Salt Lake to Green River to meet up for that first night is 3 hours while the drive from Las Vegas is much longer at 6 hours 20 mins depending on traffic. But if you can find a good price at Las Vegas, come a few days early and make stops at Zion National Park & Bryce Canyon National Park to name only two great options on your way to Green River!
Driving?
Everyone takes care of getting themselves to and from this entire workshop. Renting a car at the airport or driving in from out of state is really easy. The drive is beautiful and there are MANY locations to stop and consider for Sunrises throughout the workshop. Some will want to get some sleep and some will want the freedom to drive around to amazing spots, so we keep this simple by having everyone drive themselves.
Hotels?
DO NOT GET HOTELS YET! Weather will dictate where we are so DO NOT RESERVE ANYTHING YOU CAN'T CANCEL FOR FREE. As for what we will do, we all pick our favorite option for Hotels in two main locations: Green River and Moab. From Green River we can get to Goblin Valley. Then Moab provides us easy access to Dead Horse Point and Canyonlands Areas very easily.
TRIP DETAILS
If you have always wanted to see what is so great about Southern Utah, this workshop is the perfect way to start! In an ironic kinda funny way, after this workshop you will be a little sad/overwhelmed with how many places you will have added to your bucket list after passing them by on this trip! You won't want to leave!
Goblin Valley is like traveling to a far off planet! The entire park is a playground we can climb, walk on and it has the perfect deep valley giving the boundaries a complete separation from the rest of the world. Making it impossible to see anything else BUT the crazy cool land of mushrooms, goblins and hoodoos that will become an instant favorite! Milky Way here is a challenge of fun when using low-level lighting. There are about a dozen different ways to light any one scene! Each time I go out here, I get a unique image I have never taken before. It's just crazy how my first in 2016 is still my favorite of all them!
Factory Butte if you thought you were on a different planet in Goblin Valley, you will feel like you are on Mars when you look out over the view next to Factory Butte. On top of the great pinnacle of rock that is Factory Butte, there are views around it that make for a fantastic sunrise! That is, if you have enough energy after two long nights to still want to hit up a sunrise! The composition at Factory Butte is an obvious one without an obvious best way to tackle it. I prefer the Eric Benedetti composition of taking an 85mm lens that allows you to focus deep on the great parts of the Milky Way core, STAR TRACK THEM for extra clarity and then blend a long exposure foreground. One that with multiple trips back there has started to become perfect as myself and other workshop groups troubleshoot the challenges of it. I am loving Factory Butte!
Hoodoo Village is an incredibly easy walk but a short hike over and down to some pancake rocks where you can take advantage of a ZERO TROD area just outside of Zion National Park. The road leading there is outside of the park but you spend time going IN and OUT of the borders of Zion. At this rock area, you never have to share it with other people but you have all the benefits of the beautiful red/orange rock of Utah. As long as we don't get any smoke or low clouds to catch the light pollution of Hurricane, the Milky Way core is a gorgeous vertical next to the biggest of the pancake rocks and makes for a perfect playground for low-level lighting, Milky Way Photography and Star Trails!
If you have any questions, please get in touch with me by email at aaron@PhotogAdventures.com.
Need Help? Contact me at:
aaron@photogadventures.com
Aaron King
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4-Night Southern Utah Workshop
You are buying a FOUR-NIGHT Photog Adventures Southern Utah Milky Way Workshop that includes:
- Snacks & Drinks while on-site doing Photography
- Personal instruction at the camera, critique sessions and post processing sessions during the day while we wait for night to do Milky Way Photography
NOT INCLUDED IN THE WORKSHOP FEE:
- Four Nights Hotel Accommodation
- Flights to and from workshop
- Transportation
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