I have read through most of the replies and there are some very good pointers from a number of people. I'll include my 2-bits of what I do when shooting a basketball game. I take a photo of a white/gray card for reference in Lightroom when doing post. I also look at the histogram on my cameras. I shoot a Canon 7D-MII and a Canon 5D-MIV. The 7 is getting a little old and I try not to take it above 2500 ISO as the photos get a little soft. I normally shoot the 5D at 4000 ISO. I have a Canon 70-200 2.8 and a Canon 24-70 2.8. With that said, I try to shoot no slower than 500 SS as it will stop most action. You do get some ball and hand movement if you are close to the action. Most high school gyms that I shoot in are very dark compared to the college gyms where I shoot state tournaments. I try to get as much depth of field that the two settings above will allow. I adjust as needed to the gym...for example. College gym/field house I shoot at 1/1000 or faster SS with 5.6 aperture at an ISO of 1000. Darker HS gym 1/500 (never slower) SS with a 2.8 aperture and as fast as ISO as necessary to maintain that setting. Sometimes I'll have to lighten or brighten a half a stop in post. I use the 24-70 under the basket and the 70-200 from the corners and in the stands from the side. Good luck and get their early.
I wear tri-focals. I set the diopter for the distance portion on my glasses and it works for me. However, I have a pair of what I call my computer glasses. It does not have the distance portion and only the bi-focal and mid-range and the mid-range takes up the majority of the area, so my head does not have to keep bobbing up and down to find the small mid-range area on a pair of normal tri-focals. I just have to remember to put on a pair of normal glasses when I get up from the computer or everything in the distance is a little fuzzy.
Most of the trees in TRNP are located along the Little Missouri River or the streams and coulees. Not sure how accessible the locations will be for you to find wildlife. However, the following is the park contact info.
Mailing Address:
PO Box 7
Medora, ND 58645
Phone:
(701) 623-4466
Ask them any questions you wish and have them send you brochures. They are North Dakota friendly.
If I export to send to a reputable printing firm, I check to see what they need and recommend. If I am printing myself with my Canon Pro-100, I use Canon Print Studio Pro in LR. I installed it and it shows up under File in Plug-in Extras. Canon Print Studio Pro lets you adjust your settings and lets you choose your exact paper from any company and ICC profiles. I prefer the control with CPSP to the print module in LR. It's free. I downloaded some of my ICC files from Red River Paper. Best wishes for a hassle-free print.
I have the 5D MIV and use it with the 70-200mm II f2.8 and they are great. The new 70-200 III just came out and the 70-200 II dropped in price by several hundred. If you check around you can get both for about $4.500.00. Make sure if you get an f4.0 lens that it will work in the low light of gyms etc. I am not sure how the lighting in gyms are where you are at, but where I live it would be hard to take good photos without an f2.8 lens and I'm at 3200 for an ISO. Best wishes.
You should check out the Rocky Mountain School of Photography in Missoula, Montana. I think this may be an alternative you might like. They offer courses around the country and it is a lot less money than the school you are considering. Try a class or two and if you don't like it, you have only invested a small amount of money.
I live in rural North Dakota and I wouldn't call it the sticks, but I can see the woodpile from here. Personally, both UPS and FedEx have been very good with one exception and it was that UPS lost a memory card. After contacting B&H, they sent it by two-day delivery and it arrived fine. I have ordered through both B&H and Adorama both have been okay with B&H getting most of my business. However, I work in shipping and receiving at an agriculture dealership and my experience has been that FedEx has fewer problems out here than UPS. Nevertheless, it all depends on where you live and what works there.
Since you have your smartphone with you, use it to make a recording of what you are taking photos or just took photos of. You could do this on the bus or whatever as you are leaving the location. Location, time, settings, and other comments would only take a minute. You can use the overall photo on your smartphone to tie in with your comments etc.