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 Valley 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!