2-week US National Park Road Trip

Simply put, I needed to get away for a while. I needed to stand face to face with wild animals, to be up at 4am waiting for the sun to show it's face, to forget about work for a while and experience some of "what's important in life", just for a while.

So I decided to take my new car on a road trip and break it in... or break it. One way of the other I was determined to get far far away.

My initial plan looked something like this map. The major stops along this 5,200km route were to be:

• The Oregon Coast
  
• Yosemite
  
• Mono Lake
  
• Grand Teton
  
• Yellowstone
  

But just like at the start of the trip, I quickly developed itchy feet wherever I went. Often I'd find myself in my tent or similar in the middle of the night, thinking...

I'm going to see the same place tomorrow when I wake up, but I'm hungry for more

So I'd scour the maps and guidebooks for somewhere within driving distance (my criteria here are fairly broad ranging), then jump in the car and drive through the darkness to find another a new fix for the next morning.

After all my shifting, changing and A.D.D. I ended up with something like this:

• The Oregon Coast
  
• Yosemite
  
• Bodie (ghost town)
  
• Mono Lake
  
• Kings Canyon
  
• Sequoia
  
• Hospital (that's another story)
  
• Death Valley
  
• Grand Teton
  
• Yellowstone
  

At 9,600kms, my new car is definitely broken in now and already shouting at me for it's 6-month service after only 2 weeks on the road.

A few days into the trip, I pulled up in Yosemite. I'm convinced there are no words or pictures that can possibly communicate the feeling of arrival in Yosemite Valley. It's quite simply the most spectacular geological wonder on the face of the earth. As I drove in my body let out involuntary squeaks of delight at every turn (read "holy fuck", "shit", "wow", "omg!"). Yosemite has always held a special place in my heart. It started with seeing Ansel Adams prints and culminated with my ex-marriage there 8 years ago. Needless to say, it was an emotional return, one that took me a few days to get used to.

In tribute to Ansel, I shot a good portion of this trip in black & white. It was a refreshing change for me, having not shot in monochrome since my old film days, and it opened up so many new creative possibilities that I was quickly hooked and relished the challenge of looking for texture and contrast in natures whim.

I have many more stories from the trip which I may expand upon at another time, for now I hope you enjoy the shots I got.

The making of a photo
While in Death Valley, I was scouting through a desert maze for a sunrise location in the blazing hot 3pm 42 degree weather. I recorded some of it on video to illustrate what it takes to "get the shot" (19 mb).

For the slideshow - click on the photo below.