Northern California is a photographer's dream

Don’t get me wrong… I love Oregon and I love Portland… but I’m pretty sure my favorite place in the country is Northern California. That very special coastline between Big Sur and the Oregon border, containing such cities as Monterey, San Francisco, and Crescent City, is a photographer’s dream. It’s also a dream for anyone who appreciates amazing food, fun people, eclectic architecture, and great weather.

Leaving Oregon, we started our California Adventure around the beautiful spot of Klamath. It’s the area where the Klamath River meets the Pacific Ocean, but it’s most well known for the Red Woods. The tallest trees on earth. Thriving off of dirt, fungus, and fog… they rise to 200+ feet tall and create dense groves of incomprehensibly large trees. We spent several days hiking the numerous trails around the area. Lady Bird Johnson Grove and Fern Canyon, are probably the most famous.

From the Redwoods, we made our way south to Eureka, Mendocino, and into Santa Rosa. We have some very good friends in Santa Rosa who were gracious enough to host us. We’ve been making a Santa Rosa pilgrimage for the past several years, and we have accepted that healthy decisions are just not possible. Our friends are too good of chefs, know too many good restaurants, and belong to too many awesome wine clubs, that we now know to just embrace the consequences of eating and drinking so many amazing things. Oh darn. Luckily, they also took us hiking along the coast and walking around their super cute neighborhood, so we could pretend we were making healthy choices. A new thing we did on this trip was take the 10 mile hike to Tomales Point on Point Reyes. Didn’t realize that there were so many elk on this little strip of land… but we definitely kept running into them… and coyotes!

Leaving Santa Rosa, we headed into my favorite city… San Francisco. Between previous road trips, my work as a pilot, and having friends in the area, I’ve been fortunate enough to visit SF quite a bit, and I love everything about it. The colors, the houses, the food, the bars, and the people make it a thriving and engaging city. Of course, the fog and cooler weather only adds to my love of this city. My wife hasn’t really been to San Francisco, so it was fun showing her around the Castro, Golden Gate Bridge, Grandview Park, and Nob Hill. On a geeky note, we tried one of those driverless taxis, and it was pretty freaking cool… creepy… but freaking cool.

Heading further south, we spent quite a bit of time in Monterey and Big Sur. This is truly the most spectacular coast line in the country. The jagged cliffs, the fog, the light, the sea rocks… it’s all incredibly stunning. Because we stayed in Monterey, we got to explore the aquarium, cannery row, and saw more sea lions than I have ever seen before. Our pup sure seemed to like his seaward brethren.

As I said, this area is a photographer's dream. As always, thank you Northern California.

Northern California Sunset
photographing fog on the northern california coast
Lady Bird Johnson Bridge redwoods
redwoods
fern canyon
San Francisco blue hour light
San Francisco foggy sunset
top of the mark san Francisco
Golden Gate Bridge sunset
driving over the Golden Gate Bridge in the fog
Big Sur California

Back Home

As we left Montana, we made our way through Idaho, Washington, and into our home state of Oregon. Though my wife and I are originally East Coasters, there is a reason we have built our lives in Oregon. It is an incredibly diverse state, where each microclimate is as beautiful as the next.

On this trip, we started by spending a few days in Central Oregon, which always has amazing things to see. The snow had melted off the mountain roads allowing us to drive up to some of the alpine lakes. The pristine waters and lightly traveled area are amazing to explore.

We got to spend the Fourth of July in Portland. It was great seeing friends and eating at our favorite restaurants. Portland is a truly wonderful city, especially in the spring and summer. Though we all make the best of the rainy, dark, winter months, the city comes alive in the summer.

Luckily for us, the day it was going to hit 100 degrees in Portland, it was time for us to head to the Oregon Coast. It was literally 30 degrees colder on the coast. Once you get south of the big coastal towns like Astoria and Cannon Beach, the Oregon Coast is littered with cute little towns in between some amazing rocky outcroppings.

We spent about a week making our way down the coastal highway. Since we’ve moved to Oregon, we’ve been trying to see the Sealion Cave and the Ghost Forest, so it was nice to finally see those locations. We were treated to fog, well maintained camp grounds, and too many fish and chips.

Not that we needed it, but it was a nice reminder of why we live in this gorgeous state.

'Mazing Montana

Our first stop once leaving Canada was Montana. I’ve been fortunate enough to visit most National Parks in the west at least once… but not Glacier. It was very nice to strike that park off my list.

We spent our time at the Many Glacier Hotel, on the east side of the park, which is a part of the Historic Hotels of America. Normally that means it’s old, lacks basic services, and relies on way too many fireplaces. But, not so much with this hotel. It’s been updated beautifully, was very comfortable, and most importantly, had a killer view of Swiftcurrent Lake and Grinnel Point.

From the east side, we were able to do a ton of hiking. We took a guided hike to a waterfall with one of the park rangers, where learned how Aspen groves are all one connected organism under the soil and how best to avoid bears. Luckily, we managed to see a number of bear, including a baby grizzly. We also ran into some moose and some very friendly ground squirrels.

The most remarkable part of this visit was the weather. Our first day in the park, it decided to snow on us. And the following five days, Mother Nature couldn’t decide if she wanted to keep it in the mid 30’s, or upper 70’s. Snowing or raining. Sunny and/or incredibly windy. So we wore a lot of layers and just made the best of it. From a photographer’s perspective, however, I’ll take the moody weather anytime. Makes for far more interesting photos.

A sad part of the visit was learning how most of the glaciers we were looking at will most likely be gone in the next 10 years due to climate change. There were 150 glaciers in the 1850s, but there are only 25 glaciers left today, and they are shrinking quickly. One of the very cool things though was just how many calls to action the park and hotel were taking to try and be good stewards of the park and environment. Even the wine list the restaurant had was filled with vineyards that took an eco-friendly approach, and some planted trees for every bottle purchased… we justified most of our alcoholic purchases with this knowledge in mind.

Five days in the park is definitely not long enough. We made a quick visit to the west side of the park which is more lush and forest’y, kind of like Oregon. Thats also where Lake McDonald is, so it was necessary to pay a visit.

Glacier is an amazing park. Montana is a beautiful state. This will certainly be on my next list of places I’ll need to visit again soon.

Driving through A,BC (Alberta and British Columbia)

We spent the last couple of weeks driving through British Columbia and Alberta. Starting in Vancouver, ending in Calgary, and enjoying Banff, Revelstoke, and Jasper in between. I can easily say this is the prettiest part of the continent. Mountain after mountain, glacier after glacier, river after river… it was incredible. And kudos to Parks Canada for doing an upstanding job keeping the roads, trails, and campgrounds in excellent shape.

Starting in Vancouver, we arrived via ferry, and drove straight downtown. As someone who has way more hotel points than they know what to do with, we decided to stay at a hotel in the center of the city. We’ve heard nothing but great things about the city parks and the food scene, and Vancouver definitely shined.

From Vancouver, our next big stop was Banff… but to get there, we had layovers in Lac le Jeune, Salmon Arm, and Revelstoke. All fun little towns with incredible views and mining / railroad histories.

Once in Banff, I was in photographer’s heaven. The mountains and lakes were so easy to get to, and because we arrived early in the season, there was still snow on the mountains, which makes everything prettier and more epic. Being Banff, it was a tad more touristy than I would have liked, so most of our hiking was done early in the day as to avoid the crowds. However, I will say, that with tourists come some great restaurants and bars.

We made our way to Jasper via the Icefields Parkway. This is one of the most incredible drives you can take and had some very nice campgrounds we enjoyed along the way. The Parkway led to so many different waterfalls, and lakes, and glacial viewpoints, it kept us busy for several days in a row. Jasper is quite a bit further north than most other cities in the area, meaning there are fewer people and the wildlife is more abundant. Because of this we saw big horn sheep, bear, moose, and my new personal favorite, the prairie dog.

We finished our Canadian journey in the city of Calgary. It has the feeling of a city on the verge of becoming something very cool. It’s an hour from the mountains, is modern, clean, and easy to get around. It’s not quite there yet, but I’ll be excited to visit again the future.

Vancouver Island Stuns

Once we got our fill of city life in Victoria, we headed out to explore the rest of Vancouver Island. It’s amazing how quickly the beautiful and clean city transitions into some of the most lush and wild forests you can drive through. Props to the Canadians for having some pretty well maintained roads with halfway decent cell service across most of the island.

As luck would have it, the weather turned gray as we drove around for 2 weeks. We got just a small handful of sunny days, but rain showers make for really nice photographic additions. They provide mood, mist in the hills, and really bring the green out of the already green scenery.

We spent our time in Tofino, Campbell River, Port McNeil, and made it all the way up to San Josef Bay. Between these cute towns, we saw orcas, black bears, more bald eagles than we had ever seen, and tons of otters. We hiked the coast, we hiked up hills, we hiked to a decades old plane crash, and we saw an incredible number of waterfalls.

Definitely going to be back… but hopefully the weather will be a bit more cooperative next time.

Victoria Impresses

We kicked off our Canadian Adventure in the beautiful city of Victoria, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island.

There is a wonderful ferry service (Black Ball Ferry Line), that departs from Port Angeles, WA and drops you right off in Downtown Victoria. Getting Tom on/off the boat, and clearing customs was a breeze. Less than 20 minutes after getting off the boat, we were pulling into our hotel. Yes, we decided to stay at a hotel, even though we have a camper van. But every now and then, you just want a real shower and a king sized bed. Plus, we wanted the full “Victoria” experience, and decided to stay in the city.

We walked 8-10 miles every day, never had a bad meal, went whale watching, experienced high tea at the Empress Hotel (may have drank more than just tea…), and truly enjoyed this amazing little city. We explored Butchart Gardens to see one of the most impressive flower displays I’ve ever seen, and Beacon Hill Park where there are Peacocks just roaming around and strutting their stuff.

The most memorable part of our visit was the massive solar storm the Northern Hemisphere experienced that week. I don’t usually make it a point of photographing solar phenomenon, but we needed to walk the dog, so I brought my camera. Glad I did because the aurora was spectacular.

Finally hitting the road!

After 5 years of planning, we finally did it. May 1st, 2024, we hit the road in our van, Tom.

Tom is named after Tom Bombadil from the Lord of the Rings books. Unfortunately this character didn’t make it into the movies. But Tom rescues the hobbits from a hungry tree, leads them safely through the forest, and we learn he is pretty intimate with Mother Nature. So, it seemed a fitting name for a van who will guide us safely through forests, shores and deserts, and who we hope gets to know Mother Nature quite well.

These first few days have gone surprisingly smoothly. I’d like to think it was because of our careful planning, and not luck… but thats giving me much more credit than I probably deserve. From our home in Portland, we headed straight to the coast through Astoria and crossed the bridge in to Washington. Our first 8 days on the road will be spent in the vicinity of Olympic National Park before we head up to Vancouver Island.

Writing is not a particularly strong suit of mine. With this in mind, I have been debating how I want to share our adventures during these next 12 months. What I have decided is to write something once every 2-3 weeks’ish. Basically every time we are starting or ending in a particular area. For example… Washington State. To complicate things, I will be taking fun iPhone photos, amazing (hopefully) photos with my digital Leicas, and will be receiving scans from my film cameras every few months as I ship my film to my photo lab for development. So I will need to find some coherent way to share casual update photos, and photos which I deem to be of a slightly higher caliber. I do reserve the right to change my mind at any moment as to how this will happen.

Though we have not finished with Washington just yet (Hello from the Olympics!!), this post felt timely just to say we have begun, we are enjoying ourselves, and we are excited for what the rest of this trip has in store.