In 2011 an opportunity arose for me to make a long-overdue road trip, to see & explore places around the United States that I had long wanted to visit. I set my sights on visiting New England, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the Smoky Mountains, all while they should be exhibiting their full fall colors. After that, I would make my way west to visit some parks & sights of the Colorado Plateau in Utah – Bryce, Zion, Canyonlands, and others.

I spent much of the summer planning & preparing, gearing up and taking hiking day trips into the western edges of the North Cascades, to condition my legs for long hikes ahead. After a few months, and a few hundred miles on my new boots, I set out in my car, heading east. Having logged more than 12,000 miles on the road – and hiking more than 170 – I returned 42 days later.

I could have easily kept going & seen many more sights, but with gas prices as they are, the trip was expensive enough already. I had compiled quite the collection of new work, too – enough photos & videos to keep me busy for some time. Most people may end up with a shorter bucket list after such a trip, but I think mine only grew longer.. Acadia National Park in Maine, the Adirondacks in upstate New York, the mountains of upstate Utah, and a myriad of others.

Many of the places I actually visited still remain on the list, as I feel a great need to explore them in much more depth than this trip’s constraints allowed – Glacier National Park, Zion NP, the Grand Canyon, Canyonlands NP. My hope is that, since I’m now residing in Washington, I’ll be able to visit some of these places again, as they’re not terribly far away. It probably helps that I’m not at all shy about one or two days worth of driving. In the mean time, though, there might be some other, new places I will visit first. Olympic and Rainier National Parks, Crater Lake, Banff National Park in Canada, etc. So much to see, so little time!

You can find a good number of images from this trip in a few of the albums on the site. Below are some others I thought people might also enjoy.