Epic 2014 Roadtrip

My blogs are usually recaps of photo ops or ‘how-to’ articles but my wife, Anita, suggested something different for this one: a travel blog for my upcoming trip. Since her advice is usually spot-on, I’m going to give it a shot.

Starting tomorrow morning, my son Ryan and I will climb into our Prius and start a coast-to-coast, 8,500 mile, 22 state, 3 week road trip.  We will start at Daytona Beach, work our way up to the Rockies on the Canadian border, mosey over to the Pacific and then head south almost to Mexico before heading home.  We will visit over a dozen national parks, take in a baseball game in San Francisco, visit the ranch Ryan’s grandfather was born at in New Mexico and a lot more.  And we will hike.  We will hike in the snow up in the Rockies, we will hike in the ‘Forest Moon of Endor’ redwoods in California, we will hike up the Virgin River Narrows in Zion National Park and we will hike in the desert in White Sands.  I’m sure we will be two tired and sore guys when we get home on July 10th.

Being a detailed-oriented, slightly obsessive planner, I’ve done a lot of research.  Nearly 50 locations and every sunrise and sunset shot is listed on my 15 page itinerary.  Since the sun rises at 5am and sets about 8pm, we obviously won’t be getting a lot of sleep.  Oh yeah…I’ve also planned some Milky Way shots during the new moon, so maybe I just should forget about sleep until I return!

I’m going pop out some blogs with iPhone photos during my trip recapping the highlights.  I can’t promise to do so daily, but I’ll do my best.

This will be longest stretch of time I’ve ever been away from my precious wife since we met 26 years ago.  That will be difficult for me.  On the other hand, I am incredibly excited.  This is the type of trip my Dad and I always talked about doing…but we never did.  I feel incredibly blessed to have the chance to create this memory with my son.

Here is a list of some of the locations we plan to visit and photograph:

• The Arch in St. Louis
• Badlands National Park
• Mt Rushmore
• Devil’s Tower
• Yellowstone NP
• Grand Teton NP
• Glacier NP
• Waterfalls in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge
• Crater NP
• Redwoods NP
• San Francisco
• Big Sur
• Yosemite NP
• Death Valley NP
• Hoover Dam
• Zion NP
• Bryce NP
• Bisti Badlands
• White Sands
• The Alamo (San Antonio)
• New Orleans

Sounds like a truly EPIC road-trip to me…wish us luck and safe travels!

Jeff

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