Badlands of the Dakotas - May 22-27, 2026
Tuition $1995 - $1000 deposit. Balance due January 2026. 2 National Parks, 6 participants. See gallery below.
(Does not include meals, lodging, rental car, airfare or gratuity.)
Many photographers never get the chance to visit North and South Dakota, but two stunningly beautiful national parks reside there.....Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Badlands National Park. These two parts of the Dakotas provide endless views of the famous badlands, views overlooking the Little Missouri River, canyons, spires, hoodoos and toadstools. The colors that stretch through these areas are astounding and provide so much variety for the landscape photographer.
For the wildlife lover, you might get lucky in spotting grazing wild horses, river-crossing bison, chirping prairie dog families and packs of mountain goats.
Lodging
This workshop starts on Friday evening in Medora, ND on May 22nd with a 7:30pm informational meeting and we will start shooting the next morning. The workshop ends on Wednesday morning, May 27th after the sunrise shoot in Wall, SD.
Cancellations: There will be no refunds for cancellations after October 1, 2025 - unless we have someone on the waitlist able to take your place. For this reason we strongly suggest looking into travel insurance for the non-refundable portions of your trip.
Also, you may want to consider if you would like to come in a few days early or stay late to see a few other places of interest that are NOT included in the workshop.....such as Devil's Tower, Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park, the Crazy Horse monument, the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway and Wind Cave National Park. (Wind Cave tour reservations start 120 days prior to the tour date....they will sell out.)
Lodging
There will be 2 hotels during this workshop.....please be sure to book both of the following properties:
AmericInn by Wyndham
75 E River Rd S.
Medora, ND 58645
844-581-4982
Dates: May 22, 23, 24, departing the 25th (3 nights)
Best Western Plains Motel
Badlands National Park
712 Glenn St,
Wall, SD 57790
605-279-2145
Dates: May 25 & 26, departing the 27th (2 nights)
NOTE: This Best Western property does NOT have an elevator....you may want to ask for a ground floor
Airport options:
There are 2 options for airports:
1) Bismarck International Airport, ND - BIS
(Central Time Zone)
2) Rapid City Airport, SD - RAP
(Mountain Time Zone)
Please be aware these two airports are in different time zones....Bismarck is Central and Rapid City is Mountain. Please make sure you consider this time difference in your planning. (You will gain an hour the day you fly in and drive from the Bismarck airport to Medora)
There will be a LOT of driving on this trip, so figure out which airport will work best for you or if you want to fly into one and out of the other. The most efficient trip would be to fly in to Bismarck on May 22nd, and out of Rapid City on the afternoon/evening of May 27th.
Vehicle Transportation
You are responsible for your transportation to and from each location on the workshop.
There are rental car companies at each of the above-listed airports. We will be driving a lot on this trip. You may want to share a vehicle with someone since we will carpool some anyway.
But sharing may limit you if you decide to come in early or stay late for other activities.
For this Workshop
Packing - You will need to plan and pack for layers for this workshop. We will go through possible temperatures from 40-75 degrees during our time in the Dakotas.
Exertion - There will not be much hiking on this workshop, so it will be a fairly physically low exertion workshop, although we will do the usual sunrise and sunsets most days. So keep in mind the days are somewhat long in the Dakotas during late Spring and early Summer. Any hikes we do are short, but still involve inclines, declines and uneven terrain.
