The work begins...

17 rolls of 120 and 40gb of CF later, I have returned from my latest, and hopefully last for a little while, photo trip.

My only problem now is that with 34mb of HD space, I don't really have any way of sorting through/editing the photos I took, bummer. Best Buy will fix that shortly. In the mean time, I will give a brief recount of the trip, followed up with some pictures later on today.

We flew to Denver the morning of July 5th and immediately set out to our first national park: Rocky Mountains National Park. It went from balmy to straight up COLD in a matter of minutes as we began to climb into the Rockies. The scenery was spectacular, I had no idea that such natural beauty still existed in our country, it was a refreshing experience for sure and a great way to start off the trip.

From Colorado, we headed due west to Salt Lake City, Utah where we spent our second night. The following day we sped out onto the bleak, perfectly straight Rt. 40. Destination: The Bonneville Salt Flats. It was 120 miles out, 120 miles back. That's just under 4 hours of driving for the mathematically impaired. It was worth it though, every minute. It was hot, it was salty, it was barren. It was the remnants of an ancient sea, long since evaporated, that people now love to drive their cars really fast on. Makes sense I guess, not much else you can do with it. For the record: I tasted the Boneville Salt Flats. They are indeed salt, flats.

After our salt adventure, we headed south from Salt Lake City to the little town of Binnell. It was a long, long drive, but with awesome scenery all along the way, nobody was complaining. We spent the night in Binnell, then headed for Bryce Canyon National Park. Bryce Canyon was awesome, go see it. Totally freakish rock formations, think drippy sand castles, called "Hoodoos." It was great, you'll see the pictures later.

After Bryce Canyon we headed further south to Page, Arizona. After a night in Page, we began our long awaited Grand Canyon day. For my dad, this was a big deal, he has always wanted to see the Grand Canyon and now it was happening. For Peter and I, this was our big chance to freak out my dad by climbing out onto as many rock outcroppings as possible. Looking back, I understand his concern, and I probably should have been more concerned myself--I was, after all, literally inches away from a 5,000 foot drop to my doom--but it was just so incredible being perched up there looking out over such an amazing landscape.

From the Grand Canyon, it was on to Vegas baby! Yea woo! Cards! Show Girls! Money! Alcohol! Slots! FUN! Sike. We were too exhausted to do much of anything by the time we got there. Peter and my dad were passed out in the room by 10pm(photo coming soon) leaving me and the TV to spend some quality time together. When midnight rolled around, I decided to go out and shoot some Vegas lights, or whatever else I could find within a few blocks that looked interesting. It was, for lack of a better term, a veritable shit show out on the street. I lasted about an hour before I decided it was time to hit the sack.

Next stop: California! Woohoo! Beaches, celebrities, palm trees and tiny dogs! Sike. It was time for Death Valley National Park. In case you don't know, or if the name doesn't give it away, very few things live in Death Valley. Why? Because it is RIDICULOUSLY HOT there. The USA's record temperature was set there on July 10, 1913. It was 134F on that lovely summer day. Fast forward 95 years, to the day. July 10, 2008: It was 127F. Ok, no records broken, but 127F is freaking HOT, trust me. Every time the wind would blow, it would feel like an enormous dog was breathing on you. The air, blown from over the hotter ground, was superheated to temperatures approaching 200F. It was crazy, don't go there unless extreme heat, dryness, lifelessness, or being 282 feet below sea level appeals to you.

Interesting Death Valley Tidbit (2 actually):
- The only water we saw in Death Valley exists in a small pool at a spot called, appropriately, "Badwater." This spot also happens to be the lowest point in the valley, and the western hemisphere. Go figure.
- As we headed(ran) back to the car to escape the heat, a morning dove flew out over the edge of a nearby mountainside. It soared majestically out over the road and the sand before DROPPING LIKE A STONE TO ITS DEATH. Apparently this poor bird didn't get the memo: Things DIE in DEATH Valley. It was shocking to see.

Heading out of Death Valley, we ran into some bizarre little towns that looked like they were built around huge factories decades ago. We speculated that the inhabitants were all descendants of the original factory workers and that all of the abandoned houses were from those who moved away without bothering to sell their home--because nobody would ever be moving into these towns and all of the people who lived there already had family homes that had been used for generations. My brother put on a little Tom Waits as we drove through. There are few things that Tom Wait's vocals/lyrics/music are appropriate for--a drive through Trona, California is one of those things.

We stopped in Bakersfield for a night, then headed to Modesto for the following evening/night. We had originally planned to drive the Pacific Coast Highway between LA and San Francisco but the recent forest fires shut down that whole stretch. It was a bummer but it did give us some more time to just take it easy before reaching San Fran.

We drove through San Francisco the following day, across the Bay Bridge and then the Golden Gate. We then headed north on the stretch of Pacific Coast Highway 1 that follows the coast above the city. We headed into wine country after a brief drive up the coast, stopping in Petaluma, CA. It was a shockingly nice city, I must say. We had a nice hotel room, a nice dinner, a then saw WALL-E(which I was thrilled about, even though I already saw it, GREAT movie).

From Petaluma, it was back to SF for 2 days of chillout and walkin around with the cam--something I had been sorely missing at this point in the trip.

I love San Francisco. Good vibes in that place. Must be all the burnt out hippies.

Plane ride home last night/this morning was well, the red eye. I am dead tired but this needed to be written and film needs to be dropped off, emails replied too, checks mailed, hard drives purchased, etc. etc. etc.

The work begins...