West Coast Journey 2016: Looking Back Ten Years Later
I've wracked my brain more than once trying to figure out how to write this post. The original version of this, written back in 2016, was short and let the pictures do the talking. I'm going to keep that same spirit here, but I can't post this again without saying the obvious part out loud first.
I didn't know it at the time, but this trip is where all of this started. Every national park photo, every mountain shot, every hour spent waiting on light since, traces back to these two weeks. I had no idea what I was doing yet. I just knew I couldn't stop taking pictures the whole time. Looking back at it now, ten years later, it's wild to see how far the work has come, and also kind of amazing how much of what I still love about shooting landscapes was already showing up right here.
This trip came together through a casual conversation with my good friend Kelly while watching a UofL game at a bar. Before I knew it, I had my bags packed and was headed to the airport. We covered a lot of ground in two weeks, flying into Las Vegas, making our way out to Moab for a few days, then working our way back down through Utah before pointing the car toward California to close things out.
WHERE WE WENT
Here's the full route, stop by stop.
Nevada and Utah Las Vegas, NV, Valley of Fire State Park, St. George, UT, Gunlock State Park, Beaver, UT, Salt Wash View Area, Hurrah Pass, Mesa Arch (Canyonlands), Dead Horse Point State Park, Goblin Valley State Park
Back through Utah into California Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion National Park, Fresno, CA, Tunnel View (Yosemite), Golden Gate Bridge, Monterey, Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, General Grant Tree (Kings Canyon), General Sherman Tree (Sequoia)
Back to Vegas Primm, NV, Las Vegas, NV
MOAB AND THE DESERT
Sunrise at Mesa Arch almost didn't happen. We hiked up the first morning to total gloom, no light, nothing. We came back the next morning anyway, and this time Mother Nature delivered. That glow underneath the arch is the kind of light you can't fake and can't plan around, you just have to be willing to show up twice.
The drive around Moab kept surprising me with how much the landscape could change in a few miles, red rock desert giving way to snow covered peaks on the horizon.
One night my buddy drove us out to a spot called Hurrah Pass, well outside of town. The road out there was rough, dusty, full of ruts and holes, the kind of road that makes you wonder if you took a wrong turn somewhere. No cell reception the whole way. But once we stopped and killed the headlights, the night sky out there was something I had never experienced before. Clear as day, completely uninterrupted. I didn't come home with a shot that does that night justice, but it's stuck with me longer than almost anything else from the trip.
GOBLIN VALLEY
Goblin Valley felt like driving to another planet. We had the entire place to ourselves, not another soul in sight, just miles of strange eroded rock formations and dead silence. It's one of those stops that's hard to explain to someone who hasn't been, the closest thing I can compare it to is standing on Mars.
BRYCE & ZION NATIONAL PARK
Bryce Canyon at sunrise is one of those views that photos never fully do justice. The scale of all those hoodoos stacked into the canyon is something you feel more than you capture.
This one might be the moment from the whole trip I think about most. We were wiped out, we'd been going all day, and we still made the short hike up to Canyon Overlook with barely any time to spare before the sun dropped. It was a rush getting up there in time, and then it just delivered. That sunset over the switchbacks below is still one of my favorite things I've ever watched happen in front of a camera.
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK
Yosemite was the stop I was looking forward to more than any other on this trip, and it more than lived up to it.
This image is personal. The first photo I ever saw of Yosemite was almost exactly this, the falls framed dead center by trees on either side, and I remember being enamored with how perfectly it all lined up. I didn't believe it was a real, unedited scene until I stood there myself and saw it with my own eyes. Getting to capture my own version of it was everything I had hoped for and then some.
SAN FRANCISCO
Seeing the Golden Gate Bridge in person was mind blowing. This was really my first time experiencing a huge major city like San Francisco, all those hilly streets and the bridge appearing between them. It's a different kind of overwhelming than standing in front of a canyon, but just as memorable. That night we drove up to a spot overlooking the whole city. Seeing San Francisco lit up after dark, every hill outlined in lights, was pretty sweet. It's a totally different feeling than any of the natural landscapes on this trip, but it's stuck with me just the same.
MONTEREY AND POINT LOBOS
KINGS CANYON AND SEQUOIA
The drive from Kings Canyon to Sequoia is one of those stretches where you keep wanting to pull over. Rolling hills, layers of ridgeline fading into haze, and then watching sunset happen while we were still driving Generals Highway. That's a drive I'd happily do again just for the light alone.
LOOKING BACK
I'm genuinely blessed to have seen everything we packed into ten short days. I look back at these images now and feel proud of the person who took them, even the ones that don't hold up the way my work does today, because none of what I shoot now would exist without whatever got started on this trip. I was already hooked before we even landed back in Vegas, and I've been chasing that same feeling ever since.
If any of these places are on your list, I can't recommend them enough. And if you want a piece of the West Coast or the desert Southwest on your own wall, a few images from trips since this one are available in my landscape gallery.