MY FAVORITE PHOTOS FROM NATIONAL PARKS
I have gone to now 54 Parks in the United States, here is some of my favorite photos I have taken over the years.
MOULTON BARN - GRAND TETON
Probably my favorite shot I have ever taken honestly knowing what i did for this shot just for the payoff. After sleeping in my car in below 25 degree weather in the campground to stand in the bitter cold, I saw the clouds lower to reveal the peaks in the background, as the sun started to rise and the colors turned from dark blue to pink, I knew I had something here. Everything just worked out perfectly for me. I could not ask for more. I am still chasing that shot like this. This photo was taken in September of 2023.
POTATO HARBOR - CHANNEL ISLANDS
After going through the cold, wet, and fog across the Pacific Ocean to Santa Cruz Island, I then hiked 5 miles to Potato Harbor, one of the most scenic views in all of California, let alone the park. The clouds started to lift when I arrived on the spot, I really thought this would all be for not but this made the pay off worth it even more than I expected. This photo was taken in May of 2024.
LONGS PEAK - ROCKY MOUNTAIN
I had been to Rocky Mountain National Park at least 4 times before this trip, I was not happy with any of my photos then as the first two where when I just started out in 2019 and the last two, I did not like the conditions, plus I did not get to go where I wanted to, which was Bear Lake since I planned those trips late. I ended up getting stuck in Colorado in a snow storm on my birthday, there is worse places to get stuck at right? On that day, I made my way to Rocky Mountain where the park was virtually empty, shocking to see considering how busy that park usually is. At the end of the day around a curve, I got this photo of Longs Peak with the clouds lifting just enough to get the top of the peak with the last light shining on it. A perfect ending to a birthday. This was taken in March of 2024.
GRAPEVINE HILLS ROAD - BIG BEND
This was taken by accident, I was driving down Grapevine Hills Road to reach balancing rock but a mile of the way there, I did not feel confident enough in my cars abilities to reach the rock as I had another seven miles to reach it through rocky roads, also the road was shut down the da before due to a car that went off road and injured a driver so thinking smartly, I turned around and went back to the main road. Doing so, i saw the aura of the red and orange hitting off the Chisos Mountains at sunrise with the sky starting to break up. I had to pull over and take this photo, like Bob Ross says, “there is no accidents, just happy little accidents”.
KUWAHI - GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS
The mountain formerly known as Clingmans Dome, this place is special to me as it is one of the places that made me fall in love with traveling back in 2017. I took this on a unusually cool July evening with the park nearly empty. I initially went to the summit to do a photo from up there but it was foggy (the main photo on the background of my site comes from that trek), on the way down from the hike, the clouds started to lift a bit but still no sun, this did not stop me from getting a photo which I captured the blue mountains in the distance which adds to the backdrop of this photo.
LOGAN PASS - GLACIER
It was really cold that morning, I had a campervan with me this drive up the Going-To-The-Sun Road and I went up to Logan Pass to try to get some cloud action. I previously spent a hour the day before shooting long exposures looking at this valley, however the next morning with snow starting to fall at the top, I took this unbelievable shot. With winds blowing and my fingers feeling numb, I took this shot of a lifetime with a couple rays of light beaming down the valley. What an unbelievable morning.
DAKOTA EVENING - BADLANDS
This is a photo that nearly never made it past the cutting room floor. This was saved on a SD card for nearly five years before I started to look through my photos again, realizing the potential and what I learned now compared to then, I brightened the photo a bit and added some of the original color back and even with this being shot not with RAW, I love the quality of this photo. The Badlands is a place I have a love and hate relationship with but seeing this makes me think of the better times I have had in the park.
FOGGY ROCK HARBOR - ISLE ROYALE
After spending three days on Isle Royale with spectacular hikes, great wildlife viewing, and beautiful weather, my favorite shot happened to be when I left the harbor and the weather started to get bad. The fog rolled in as the Queen was leaving Rock Harbor and back into Copper Harbor, with thick clouds and cool breezes coming through, it reminded me of times I had spent in Acadia or Olympic. This was the perfect sendoff of the trip.
