Our Colorado wildflower photography workshop begins in Salida, where we’ll gather for a group dinner before heading out for our first sunset shoot — the high desert foothills of the Arkansas Valley with the towering Sawatch Range as a backdrop. It’s a stellar introduction to the week ahead.

Day two is spent exploring the Arkansas Valley and the high country above it. We’ll head up Cottonwood Pass, hiking out along the Continental Divide Trail into an alpine basin that in mid-July is typically overflowing with Columbine, Indian Paintbrush, Arnica, and dozens of other species. This is Colorado wildflower photography at its most accessible and most spectacular — big skies, dramatic peaks, and color everywhere you look. Another sunset shoot that evening before an early departure the following morning.

Day three takes us west over Monarch Pass and the Continental Divide, dropping down through Gunnison before turning north to Crested Butte — one of the premier wildflower destinations in North America. Vast alpine meadows filled with color run straight up to dramatic peaks.

We spend a full day in the Crested Butte area, cameras and hiking boots in full use. We’ll focus much of our time near Gothic, a near-ghost town tucked into the mountains where the wildflower displays are consistently the most remarkable in the region.

On our final morning we say goodbye to Crested Butte and retrace our route back over Monarch Pass to the Arkansas Valley, wrapping up in Salida around midday — plenty of time to reach Denver for evening flights or to extend your Colorado adventure.