Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, USA
Took a few weeks to explore Colorado. Stops at Rocky Mountain National Park, Great Sand Dunes National Park, Mesa Verde and Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. All amazing places!
Yosemite National Park, California, USA
Took a couple weeks to hit some spots in California I’ve been meaning to go to for years but never seemed to get around to actually exploring. I spent a few days traveling south down highway one from San Francisco, then heading east to Yosemite for some wonderful weather and autumn color. After that there was a few days at Mono Lake (trying to get that perfect shot that’s been taken about a million times already) and then back to highway one — this time all the way up north into Redwood National Park for a couple of cold, grey and foggy days of shooting. Those trees really are tall!
Mesa Arch, Canyon Lands National Park, Utah, USA
I’ve really got to think these things thru more carefully. It always seems such a great plan on paper, but wow it really gets hot in Southern Utah in August, at least at night it’s not 100 degrees, it’s a nice cool 90 degrees. Actually weather aside it was a wonderful trip — so much to see and so little time. Trapped by flash floods in Capital Reef National Park, it’s one way to beat the crowds for a few days, actually had some pretty interesting conversations with myself after about a day and half. On to Bryce and Zion National Parks then across the state to Arches to fight the crazy tourist for a day and finally up to Canyon Lands National Park for a peaceful few days of great shooting. Nothing like sunrise at Mesa Arch, makes getting up at 4am in the morning to hike in the blackness of predawn with a heavy backpack all worthwhile, and you can still make it back to Moab for a late breakfast that doesn’t come dry in a bag.
Glacier National Park, Montana, USA
Since the weather is nice now here what makes more sense than to go freeze in the Canadian Rockies, and that’s pretty much what I did for two weeks. I’ve had better trips and I’ve had a couple worse. I made it to Glacier, Banff and Jasper National Parks and also spent a few days driving the Ice Fields Parkway. I guess being unshaven with a car full of photo gear sets off some alarm at the Canadian border these days since I managed to spend two mildly unpleasant hours having my truck torn thru, computer searched and filling out lots of mindless paper work. They finally let me thru after seeing how boring my life really is.
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska, USA
Two weeks in Alaska just in time before the winter sets in up there. The autumn colors are beautiful this time of year but those mornings get p retty cold, no fun getting out of the sleeping bag. For a state with a limited road network it’s amazing how quickly you can drive three thousand miles. Spent time in Wrangell-St. Elias, Denali and Kenai Fjords National Parks with a side trip down the very bumpy Denali Highway. Tack on a few small plane flights and half a rainy day freezing in the Kenai River trying to get pictures of Sockeye Salmon. Why don’t those salmon like the camera? At least the espresso’s easy to get.
Big Bend National Park, Texas, USA
Took some time off to explore a bit of Texas and New Mexico this month. Started the trip at White Sands NM, 275 square miles of white gypsum dunes that are truly amazing. A quick stop at Carlsbad Caverns and then south across the Texas border to Guadalupe Mountains National Park. For no good reason climbed to the highest point in Texas 8749 whopping feet, actually it proved to be a good amount of work. Ended the trip with a few days way down south at Big Bend National Park on the Texas Mexican border. It’s an amazingly beautiful place and I wished I’d had more time to spend before ending the trip.
Death Valley National Park
Took a few weeks this month and headed out to California for some shooting. Managed to cover a pretty big area starting down around the Imperial Sand Dunes and Salton Sea area and heading north through the Mojave Desert, Joshua Tree, Death Valley and then ending in Sequoia National Park. Pretty much two weeks sleeping in a Jeep and besides breaking down in the middle of nowhere in Death Valley it was a real blast.