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Autumn Adventures at Lava Springs 2016
Tuesday, October 4th, 2016 Today I set off on a journey to the Eastern Sierra Nevada to see if I could capture some of the beautiful autumn scenery that was setting in before winter. It was going to be a 328 mile (528 km) drive to the place I had wanted to explore. From there I would start my way back south over the next day to capture the effects of autumn at various locations along Highway 395. I took all my camera gear and started early. The drive would have me traveling for well over 5 hours and the scenery after a couple of hours provided such awe inspiring…
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Mini Venture – El Mirage Dry Lake Bed
Tuesday, September 28th, 2016 After waiting more than six month for some decent storm clouds, we were finally paid a visit by a storm system that was forming everywhere around Victorville except overhead as usual. Regardless, It always makes me smile to see stormy weather, I get bored of clear skies which don’t do much for photos, especially sunset images. When a good storm system rolls in however, the skies become very interesting and that’s when I keep my eyes on the sky for potential photo opportunities. I had a feeling that today would be a great opportunity for a fantastic sunset at El Mirage Dry Lake Bed. I had…
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Southwest 2015 – Secret Petroglyphs and Slot Canyons
Friday, December 11th, 2015 This morning we awoke to some pretty ominous clouds in the sky and wondered if the snow storm was coming in a bit early. Julia and I didn’t want to waste any time so we got ourselves some breakfast downstairs and then got cleaned up and ready to hit the road. We wanted to stop off at the Zion Adventure Company for some general questions about the Narrows tomorrow. The girl we spoke to said that there was the possibility of a flash flood today and so booking ourselves for the next day was a good idea. I wanted to explore the region of the park…
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Mini Venture – Giant Rock at Landers, CA
Sunday, December 28th, 2014 For years I had heard about a massive rock that stood out in the southern region of the Mojave near the small desert town of Landers, CA. There were lots of stories about how it was as big as an office building and dwarfed any of the other free standing boulders in the area. Naturally I had to get a look at this thing in person so I invited my mom and pops out for a local adventure and made way to Landers, CA. To get there from Victorville, I had to travel about 64 miles along Bear Valley Rd, then Highway 18, and finally Highway 247 (a.k.a. Old…
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Southwest 2015 – Riverside Walk and Journey to the Overlook
Thursday, December 10th, 2015 After the long drive from Page via U.S. Route 89A, Julia and I were exhausted so we crashed pretty hard last night and woke up a bit on the tired side, but that didn’t stop us from heading downstairs at 6:30 a.m. to get our mittens on some of the Holiday Inn Express’ complimentary breakfast which I have to say was not that bad at all compared to some of the more awful complimentary breakfast options I’ve experienced at other places I’ve lodged at. We didn’t have much in mind for today, so Julia and I talked about what we should do. She had mentioned the…
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Day Venture – Alien Scenery of the Bluecut Fire
Tuesday, August 16th, 2016 This morning, the Pilot Fire that burned from the Silverwood Lake region on through Summit Valley and Southern Hesperia was finally declared 100% contained. Unfortunately, a new fire erupted in the Cajon Pass off old Route 66 at 10:35 on this very same morning. I woke up to an all too familiar view outside my window and knew what I would be doing for the rest of the day. A gigantic plume of smoke was growing and heading our way again. It was time to grab my camera gear and hit the road for some up close action of the newly dubbed “Bluecut Fire”. I started my…
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Night Venture – Perseid Meteor Shower 2016
Thursday, August 11th, 2016 Tonight is to be the apex of the annual Perseid Meteor Shower and I was going to make an extra effort to capture some of it with my camera this year. From what I have been hearing, this year’s would be the biggest meteor shower in decades. Every year around August, the Earth travels through a debris field left behind by the comet Swift-Tuttle which has its own orbit around the sun of about 133 years. The last time the comet passed through our planet’s solar highway was in 1992. The Perseids Meteor Shower event is named after the constellation Perseus which is where the source…
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Day Venture – The Pilot Fire of Silverwood Lake
Sunday, August 7th, 2016 I woke up late this morning after sleeping in quite a bit from yesterday’s late night haul from Kingman, AZ. I took a look out the window of my second floor bedroom as I always do in search of interesting cloud patterns. I was greeted by a rather large plume of smoke looming dreadfully in the distance somewhere around the San Bernardino mountains. I knew exactly where I would be headed today, so I grabbed my gear together and took a look at the local news. I had learned that the fire was on the east side of Silverwood Lake and that a section of highway 138 was shut down from…
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Southwest 2015 – Old State Route 89A to Zion National Park
Wednesday, December 9th, 2015 Today we get to load up the Starship and check out of our room at the Holiday Inn Express in Page, Arizona. We will be leaving the Navajo Nation for Springdale, Utah by way of Arizona State Route 89A, a section of highway that traverses the regions of the northern rim of the Grand Canyon. Neither Julia or myself have ever traveled that way so this was going to be a really cool day of pure highway exploration. We grabbed ourselves a quick breakfast and hit the road immediately out of town. Traveling Route 89 south to the 89A junction provided some really fantastic views of…
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Day Venture – The Cliff Hanging Highway
Sunday, July 3rd, 2016 When I was a little kid living in Los Angeles, my parents would often take my younger brother and I on small ventures to the local beach and mountains. One fleeting memory I have of these ventures was in the winter of 1985. The San Gabriel Mountain Range had received a considerable amount of snowfall and so we went up to visit for the day. We took the mountain road of California State Route 39. The last 4 miles of this highway has been shut down since 1978 when a landslide swept away the highest portion of road, which cut off access to Highway 2. About…
