The Great Western Roadtrip: June-July '17

Prologue: The Green Machine

In late June of 2016, one of my best friends and newly deemed 'truck guy,' Brett Strader sold me his 1997 Forest Green Ford Explorer. With this, a new door to outdoor excursions was swung right open...

Fast forward to early June 2017, where I was preparing to graduate from the University of Oregon with a major in Advertising. So, while it was a great time to celebrate finishing school, I was hungry and eager for a direction to take. While many of my friends and fellow classmates seemed to be landing jobs and internships left and right. I had no luck in securing anything right for me, but knew I couldn't let this get to me. Instead, I realized I had a rare chance to go do something I've always dreamt of doing: Hit The Road. I decided I was going to spend a few weeks just following my intuition and driving. On this journey, I immerse my self in nature, camp under the stars, see friends and family, crash on the couches of friends and family, and take a helluva lot of photos. Below is the journal of this journey, accompanied by photos (all mine, unless otherwise noted) taken along the way. Day 1 to day 25. I hope you enjoy and are inspired for a journey of your own. 

Day 1: The Summer Solstice

June 20, 2017 // Eugene, OR --> Crater Lake, OR // Mileage: 137K

Joining me on the first leg of the journey was my good friend and fellow UO Ad School student, Justin Hartney. Aside from also liking good music and telling bad jokes,  Justin's one of the best photographers I know and has a passion for the outdoors, a knack for handling cameras and a killer intuition for how to best frame, edit and capture any moment.  I knew we'd be in for a epic experience.  

On the afternoon of the Summer Solstice, after a hiccup of Justin almost leaving the tent behind in Eugene, we we're on our way to Crater Lake. Although I've spent most of my life in Oregon, this was one spot I had yet to see and when we made it up there I was surprised to still see snow on the ground.

Right when we made it to the visitor center, about mid-afternoon, Justin had recognized someone he knew, Fred, a Chinese exchange student at the UO and his family taking in the view. Fred's dad had a great sense of humor and began to tell us that in his career, he's been fortunate to see every country in the world...yep, even North Korea and Syria. I had to get a shot with Fred's dad to remember this conversation and the first view of the trip and man was it breathtaking... 

After parting ways with Fred and his family, we had our eyes set on the trek to camp. Prior to arriving at Crater Lake, Justin had been chatting on instagram with a fellow photographer who frequents Crater Lake at Night, Matthew Newman. Matthew and his friend, Shayne Strigle (who also shoots), met us at the head of West Rim road (the road that allows cars to drive around the lake, but was closed when we were there for repairs) and had told us they were planning to mountain bike to another spot on the lake, traverse up to a point and shoot the Milky Way from there. Since we were on foot and we're hauling our tent, sleeping bags, and other gear, Matt suggested that we trek about 3 miles down the road to the Watchman's Peak trail, there we'd then ascend up a snow covered hill with our stuff and a goal not to slip. After locking that plan in and a plan to hopefully rendezvous with the guys later in the night, they took off on the bikes and we began our trudge down the road. 

If it wasn't for all the gear, the walk actually would've been damn near perfect. The weather was a nice 60 degrees, snow covered the hills to our left and right, and one of the most golden and juicy looking golden hour's surrounded us…

Night 1: A Starry Night Worth Remembering

As the sun was setting and after successfully trudging up the steep Watchman's Peak Trail, we decided to make camp right up on the ridge of Crater Lake (no less than 100ft from the edge of the lake).

Once our tent was pitched, we shifted gears into astrophotography mode, and within minutes we located a spot right on the ridge to place our tripods. Now I'll admit, before this trip I had been quite reluctant on the idea of purchasing and lugging around a tripod and don't think I fully realized the capabilities and opportunities that could come with having one. Thanks to some sound advice from Justin and my good friend Adam Roscher, I ended up buying a tripod last minute and boy, was I damn glad I did...

At around 11:30pm, when the Milky Way was most visible, we zipped open the tent to see more stars scattered across the sky than I have ever seen before. Seriously, it looked like a 1st grader had accidentally spilled a whole jar of glitter on their arts & crafts project. After a few rounds of  "ooh's and ahh's" from looking at all the stars above, we made our way over to our tripods began to shoot. With Wizard Island directly in front of us, the Milky Way and thousands of stars visible in the clear night sky above, the elements were perfect for astrophotography, and for me to capture my very first long exposure shot.

Though the image ended up a bit grainy, when I look at it, I see clearly back to that powerful moment of firsts for me. The magic of that night didn't stop there either. After shooting for a bit, we looked over to the adjacent road that we had walked earlier that day and saw two blinking lights in the distance coming closer and closer...It was Matt and Shayne! With no cell service on top of the ridge, we began waving our flashlights in the air erratically and within what felt like minutes (putting to shame our earlier ascent), both had made it up the snowy trail to our camp area. After sharing some stories and images from each of our adventures that night, we decided to cement the new friendships with a group shot (s/o to Matt & his self-timer). Just as Matt and Shayne were about to head back to the road, Matt, who's been shooting photos at Crater Lake for 30+ years, excitedly remarked that this night was one of the clearest nights he's ever seen the stars and Milky Way...Talk about a helluva first visit to Crater Lake.