PHOTO equipment: 35 mm SLR, 2 1/2 or 4x5 format. Recommend a variety of lenses to include 28 mm up to 200mm. Wider and longer will get good use too. Digital users should bring plenty of flash cards and batteries. Tripod is mandatory for landscape photography. Plan to organize your equipment into a backpack or manageable camera bag that you can tote. No skill is required.


The Details

This itinerary may vary due to conditions of the four-wheel drive roads and campsite availability.

Day 1 – Lunch & Dinner
You begin at the Tag-A-Long’s Moab office at 7:00 a.m. With your friendly, competent guide, you’ll board a 4X4 vehicle and travel across the high desert to Green River, Utah, to the Horseshoe Canyon trailhead. The hike into the canyon descends about 600 feet. You’ll want a day pack for lunch, camera gear, and water. Upon return to the rim, we will drive over trails to our first camp nestled in the pinion and juniper trees. The campsite overlooks the true cowboy country in the Maze. Twisting, colorful canyons stretch for miles into the horizon. As evening approaches, your guide turns into a chef as he or she prepares a delicious dinner following the traditional cowboy style using a set of cast iron Dutch ovens. When night falls, you will stand in awe at the number of stars in the sky and be tempted to sleep outside of your tent instead of in it!

Day 2 – Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
After breakfast we’ll hit the road for the Doll House. The route takes us over the perilous Flint Trail switchbacks to the Golden Staircase. While your guide drives around it, we recommend you take the delightful, three-mile hike over the Golden Staircase Trail. Your guide will meet you at the bottom. Only a limited number of people can visit this pristine area overnight. Plan to spend this day in the solitude of an uninhabited land while walking with others who value it as much as you do. At the Doll House, you will enjoy wonderful privacy in our enchanting campsite where you can wander away to nearby overlooks. We settle here for two nights. More great food will leave you happy and satisfied before you fall asleep among the silent rocks.

Day 3 – Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Rise early this morning for the "sweet" morning light. After breakfast we’re off to explore the trails near the Doll House. Chiminey Rock and the contrast of stone columns, balanced rocks and the Chocolate Drops will have you using all the film in your camera, so bring plenty. This is a full day out and about your day pack will come in handy again, but at dinner time, kick back and let your guides do the cooking while you rest around the campfire. For those inclined, photograph campfire scenes. Later, listen for the yowl of coyotes!

Day 4 – Breakfast & Lunch
Following our morning photo session, after your last breakfast in the wilderness, you take one more hike on the Old Spanish Trail to Spanish Bottom to meet your ride back to Moab. By the time we hit the banks of the Colorado River, you’ll be ready to eat lunch while you await the arrival of Tag-A-Long’s jetboat, the Colorado Explorer. While you settle into comfortable seats, your boat driver brings you up the 53-mile canyon of the Colorado River to Moab. On both sides of the river, colorful red-rock canyon walls tower as much as 2,000 feet above. The interplay of canyon colors, the deep blue of the sky above, and the speedy ride on the Colorado provide a wonderful impression you’ll never forget. You’ll be back in Moab by 6:00 p.m.

Plan to carry your photo gear down this trail, however, the bulkier items, will be driven back to Moab. It is important to plan on the arrival of the reminder of your personal belongings no sooner than 11 AM May 3rd. You could spend the morning on your own shooting in Arches National Parks. tag-A-Long would be pleased to make pre and post hotel reservations for you with a partnering accommodation.