Fall color doesn't look the same everywhere.

In Vermont, autumn means mist rising from quiet ponds, covered bridges, weathered barns, and maple-covered mountains. In Colorado, entire mountainsides turn gold with aspen. In Alaska, fiery tundra stretches beneath snow-dusted peaks and glaciers. And in Japan, crimson maples frame Mount Fuji, ancient forests, reflective ponds, and quiet gardens.

For landscape photographers, that variety is part of what makes fall such a compelling season to travel.

The trick is knowing where to go, and when, to find the kind of autumn landscape you want to photograph.

Here are six Backcountry Journeys photography workshops and tours built around some of the most spectacular fall landscapes in North America and beyond!

1. Vermont: Classic New England Fall Color

If your mental picture of autumn includes covered bridges, historic barns, winding country roads, quiet ponds, and brilliant maple trees, Vermont is about as close as it gets to the quintessential New England fall.

Our Vermont Fall Colors Photo Workshop explores the state's rolling mountains, forests, lakes, farms, and small towns during the height of the autumn color season.
But the appeal isn't simply the foliage!

Vermont's rural landscape gives photographers plenty of elements to build a story around. Weathered farmhouses and barns provide structure against colorful hillsides. Historic churches and villages add a human element. Still ponds create opportunities for reflections, while morning fog can soften the landscape and add atmosphere.

The itinerary moves through some of Vermont's most photogenic areas, including Stowe, Groton State Forest, Woodstock, Chittenden Reservoir, and the surrounding countryside. Sunrise sessions focus on lakes, ponds, and farmsteads, while afternoons and evenings provide opportunities to explore back roads, covered bridges, gorges, and scenic overlooks.

It's a particularly good fit for photographers who love classic landscape compositions and the character of rural New England.

2. Colorado: When the Aspens Turn Gold

There is something uniquely dramatic about Colorado in autumn.

Instead of a landscape covered in a patchwork of reds and oranges, the San Juan Mountains can become a sea of golden aspen, with rugged peaks rising behind them.

Our Colorado Fall Colors Photo Workshop heads into southwestern Colorado to photograph some of the region's largest aspen groves during the fall transition.
This is a trip for photographers who like options.

The mountain backroads provide opportunities for expansive scenes of golden forests beneath jagged peaks, but they also lead to smaller compositions, an individual aspen stand, a reflection in a still pond, or a winding road disappearing into the trees.
The changing light is part of the experience. Early mornings can reveal warm light moving across the mountainsides, while still water creates opportunities to mirror the color of the surrounding landscape.

The workshop also incorporates photography instruction in the field and post-processing guidance, making it an opportunity not only to photograph Colorado's fall landscape but to work on the skills needed to bring those images together afterward.
If your ideal autumn photograph involves golden aspens beneath towering Rocky Mountain peaks, this is the landscape to chase.

3. Yosemite: Fall Color Meets Iconic Mountain Landscapes

Yosemite doesn't need much introduction.

Granite walls, waterfalls, giant peaks, and the Merced River have made Yosemite Valley one of the most recognizable landscapes in the world.

But visit in the fall and the familiar landscape takes on a different character.
Our Yosemite Fall Colors Photo Workshop is timed for late fall, when the maples and cottonwoods throughout Yosemite Valley begin turning red and gold.

That creates an interesting photographic combination: iconic granite formations paired with autumn color.

Photographers can work classic views of Half Dome, El Capitan, Bridalveil Fall, and Glacier Point while also seeking out quieter locations and more intimate compositions throughout the valley.

The soft autumn light is particularly well suited to the landscape. Reflections along the Merced River, colorful trees beneath massive granite walls, and changing atmospheric conditions can transform familiar views throughout the day.

And because photography is the focus, the itinerary is designed around spending time with the landscape rather than simply checking viewpoints off a list.

You'll have full days in the park, with opportunities to photograph from sunrise through sunset alongside a professional photography guide!

For photographers who want fall color framed by some of America's most iconic mountain scenery, Yosemite offers a combination that's difficult to replicate anywhere else.

4. Canadian Rockies: Golden Larches, Turquoise Lakes & First Snow

The Canadian Rockies offer an entirely different take on autumn.

Here, fall color meets alpine lakes, glacial valleys, towering peaks, waterfalls, and the first snow of the season.

Our Canadian Rockies in Fall workshop is timed around peak fall color in Banff and the surrounding parks, when golden aspens and glowing larches contrast with the turquoise waters and rugged mountains of the Canadian Rockies.

The landscape provides seemingly endless opportunities for both grand and intimate compositions.

Lake Louise and Moraine Lake offer the iconic mountain-and-water scenes photographers expect from the Rockies. But the journey also includes quieter locations such as Waterfowl Lakes, Johnston Canyon, Bow Lake, and Emerald Lake.

The legendary Icefields Parkway adds another dimension, with stops around Peyto Lake, Mistaya Canyon, and the Columbia Icefield.

And then there's the larch.

For a short period each autumn, these unusual conifers turn brilliant yellow, creating one of the most distinctive seasonal landscapes in the Rockies. Add a dusting of snow to the surrounding peaks, and the result is a scene that feels almost surreal.

This is fall photography on a much larger scale.

5. Alaska: Follow Fall From Tundra to the Sea

If you want to experience the progression of autumn across an entire landscape, Alaska offers an especially compelling opportunity.

Our Alaska Fall Colors Photography Workshop follows the season south, beginning near Fairbanks and traveling through the Alaska Range, glacier country, Prince William Sound, and toward Anchorage.

The result is far more than a traditional foliage trip.
In the Alaska Range, birch and aspen turn gold while the tundra takes on deep reds and crimsons beneath rugged mountain peaks. Farther south, autumn color begins meeting glaciers, waterfalls, fjords, and coastal landscapes.

That contrast is one of the defining photographic opportunities of the journey.

In Prince William Sound, autumn-colored hillsides surround blue ice and tidewater glaciers, with opportunities to photograph marine wildlife including sea otters, seals, and potentially whales.

The trip also includes a flightseeing experience over Denali and a helicopter excursion into glacier country, providing perspectives that simply aren't possible from the road.

And because much of the route falls within Alaska's aurora belt, clear nights may bring another photographic opportunity: the northern lights.

For photographers who want autumn at its wildest and most expansive, Alaska turns fall color into an adventure of its own.

6. Japan: Autumn Color From Mount Fuji to Kyoto

Fall photography doesn't stop in North America.
In Japan, autumn becomes an intricate combination of color, mountains, forests, reflections, architecture, and carefully composed landscapes.
Our Japan in Autumn: Fall Colors of Mount Fuji & Kyoto takes photographers from the shores of Lake Kawaguchiko and the foothills of Mount Fuji through the Kiso Valley, Kyoto, and the misty forests of Koyasan.

The journey begins with one of Japan's most recognizable landscapes: Mount Fuji reflected in Lake Kawaguchiko, surrounded by brilliant autumn foliage.
In November, Japanese maples bring shades of crimson and gold to the shoreline, while Fuji can rise above the landscape or disappear into clouds and changing atmospheric conditions.

From there, the scenery becomes more intimate.
The Kiso Valley offers forested mountains, winding rivers, ancient cedar forests, and soft light filtering through the trees. Kyoto introduces gardens, reflective ponds, moss-covered landscapes, and the bamboo forests of Arashiyama.

Further south, Koyasan provides an entirely different atmosphere, with misty forests, moss-covered stones, and subdued mountain light.

Japan's autumn landscapes reward photographers who enjoy patience, detail, symmetry, texture, and atmospheric compositions as much as sweeping vistas.

It's fall color, but interpreted through an entirely different visual language!

Which Fall Landscape Is Calling You?

There isn't just one way to photograph autumn.
Maybe it's a quiet Vermont pond surrounded by maples and morning fog or a Colorado aspen grove glowing beneath the San Juan Mountains.

Fall is a season of transition, and that means the conditions are always changing.

The best photographs often come from being there when the landscape is briefly in that in-between state: foliage at peak color, mist hanging over the water, the first snow touching the mountains, or warm light arriving just as the landscape begins to glow.

That's why our fall photography trips are built around being in the field, watching the conditions, and giving photographers the time and guidance to work with what the landscape gives us.

Where will you chase fall color?

We offer world-class travel photography
experiences around the world.

Each tour is bundled with lodging, meals, and transportation between workshops included, allowing you to focus on photography instead of the stress of traveling.

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