2017 In Review

James Griffiths January 20, 2018

This is a little late, January kind of got away from me, but I wanted to share a recap of my year. This was the first full year that I've really focused on improving my photography, before this point I was a very casual photographer often going months at a time without even picking up my camera. It was in the fall of 2016 that I realized how therapeutic it can be through the entire creative process, and it quickly grew from a casual hobby to something of a passion. I also have done more traveling this past year than I ever have before. I've been to 32 states (14 of which I'd never been to before) and spent 59 nights away. It's particularly been interesting since I quit my job last may to focus on myself and my own projects (both with photography and programming). So I thought I'd go through this past year month by month using my favorite photos from each month (when they were taken not necessarily when they were posted) as the subjects.

January
The photo for this month is at the top of this post. Kind of fitting because I think it's still my favorite photo of the year (or at least a close runner up). I'd wanted a photo like this for a while, a cool lake leading up to a snow capped mountain, and I finally saw it with the waning sunlight hitting the peak while driving through Olympic National Park in Washington State with my sister. We were in the Seattle area for a long weekend and made the most of the time there, but this was actually taken only a few hours after landing in Sea-Tac.

February
This month spent a few days up at my parent's cabin in Upstate New York, but was home for the most part. I love the island I live on, mountains and deserts are amazing but there's no comparison for an ocean sunset (or in this case a bay sunset - close enough). This was taken a few hours after a snowfall stopped in early February. The names I choose for the photos I share are usually either the name of the place or some combination of the way I was feeling when taking the photo along with how the photo makes me feel. For instance this one is called "Stuck" because it was at a point in my life when I was feeling kind of trapped, I wanted to do something more meaningful with my life but hadn't figured out what yet and didn't think I could quit my job to figure it all out (which is what I wanted to do). You can also kind of see it in the way the overcast sky traps the colors of the sunset at the horizon, yet the pinks and purples still manage to push past that barrier. It's also called this because I had accidentally driven my car off the parking lot pavement and into the sand (it was all covered in snow) and literally had to get my car unstuck after I took this photo.

March
This month I went to the Southwest for the first time with my father. It has since become my favorite part of the country. I've wanted to go to Horseshoe Bend for years, so it was a kind of surreal experience finally being there. I'm showing two photos from this month because they kind of go together. It was drizzling on and off on the walk to the edge of the canyon and for a few minutes a rainbow appeared. I was glad I had my camera out at the time because it was gone a moment after I took that shot. Then I was at the edge, where I found a good spot and waited there for nearly an hour while the light changed to make sure I wouldn't lose this key spot - It was a Saturday night and it does get pretty crowded there that time of day.

April
I realized when going through the photos for this post that I never posted anything I took in April. I had taken a few but nothing all that interesting and I was probably more involved with going through my photos from my southwest trip at the time. I had also given in my two weeks notice to my job in the middle of this month so I was focused on finalizing things there. I did spend another weekend up at my parent's cabin with some friends (I go there several times a year because it's a really convenient getaway).

May
I have two photos again because they were taken at the same place, and although my favorite is the first one the second one was much more popular on social media. I still like both but I think it's interesting when a photo I love isn't as well received as one I thought was good, but not as good. I was in Tennessee for my sister's graduation staying at this cabin. The first photo I planned the night before, rolled out of bed before sunrise, opened the window, and took the shot. Then I went back to bed. The next one I just wanted a cool glowing cabin night shot and the moon happened to be in the perfect spot to make a "moon-star" - I guess. My last day at my job was the day I left to come here, so it felt like the start of something new and that's kind of the feeling I had when taking these. The very end of this month was when I began my road trip around the country.

"The Yellowstone River" - Yellowstone National Park

June
This month is difficult to choose my favorite or best photos for, most months are to some degree, but I spent so much time driving around the country and taking photos nearly every day. The first image here is from Yellowstone National Park, a multi-shot long exposure of the Yellowstone River that I took my first time seeing it. It ended up being one of my most popular photos on social media in 2017. The second image is of Mount Shasta in northern California. I was driving around this mountain for nearly an hour on my way to San Francisco and as the light was getting better I decided that I had to stop and find a composition for it. I'm really happy with how it turned out especially being it was unplanned and from the side of the road. The third image is from Tennessee towards the end of my trip. I didn't expect one of my favorite images from this trip to be from the same half of the country I live on, but it was. I love the smooth waterfall and reflections creating those leading lines, and it was just a nice picture to close out my trip (I think this was basically the last one I took).

July
I stayed home for most of the summer after I got back from my cross country trip. I drove for Uber for a while to make a little extra cash but wanted to focus most of my energy on photography and some programming ideas. This image was from the north shore of Long Island in the early part of the month. Just a simple golden sunset, kind of the way I'm feeling at this point.

August
I love this shot, it's of the Fire Island Lighthouse about 10 minutes from my home. Lighthouses to me have a powerful yet calming feeling to them, guarding the sea. I've shot this one several times, but this was the first time I planned out a trip there before sunrise to this particular beach. I like to incorporate little details in my images that you might not notice at first glance whenever I can. In this one you can see the moon directly above the lighthouse, it's very small here because I'm using a wide angle lens but it's presence adds a bit of depth to the image.

September
By September I was getting the urge to go somewhere, and that somewhere was once again my parent's cabin (on my way up to Maine). A few miles away on top of Mount Utsayantha I got this image. I've been to the top of that mountain several times but this was the first time at sunset. After a few days there I left for Maine, but that was technically in October.

October
Here I am in Maine, or rather here are 2 pictures I really like that I took in Maine. The first one was just outside Baxter State Park on my way back to a hotel. I was trying to get a shot of a full moon that was setting but by the time I found a good spot to pull over it was gone, and this was there. Even though I've seen a lot of similar images I didn't want that to stop me from trying one out myself. The next image is from Acadia National Park, this was one of my favorite parts of the park, Otter Point I think, that I had scouted out in the afternoon. The rock I'm standing on felt much more precarious when I came back around sunset to shoot this, but it was worth it.

November
So this is in the Finger Lakes Region of New York. I never really think to explore other parts of New York because I live here, but that can be a mistake. There are some really awesome things to see around in my home state. I spent a few nights again at my parent's cabin (for a total of 4 times this year) and then set off for a couple of days chasing waterfalls. I love this particular image because it feels so much different than most of the others I've taken and I think it really captures the mood of the place. It worked out pretty well because the path in this photo is closed at that time of year so I was forced to take the path overlooking it. If that hadn't happened I wouldn't have seen this.

December
The last month of the year and the only photo I posted that was actually taken in December. I came here specifically for a shot involving that concrete wall thingy but the scene had changed a lot from what I remembered. I was happy with the composition I ended up with, and the contrast between the snow and that red algae (at least I'm pretty sure that's algae) was really cool. I honestly almost didn't share it because the focus is slightly off from where I wanted it to be and I didn't realize that when I was there. I'm starting to learn to be okay with minor imperfections as long as it works as a whole.

It was a great year for me, in fact I can pretty easily say this was my best year yet. I've done a lot of things that I've wanted to for a very long time, and I've never felt better about the path my life is on now. Thank you all for the support, and have a great 2018!

I'm starting to sell prints of some of my images, currently 5 of them shown here are available on my website here. If there are others you are interested in please let me know.

The Finger Lakes November 2017

James Griffiths December 9, 2017

Overlooking the gorge trail in Watkins Glen

I was in upstate New York the week after Thanksgiving spending some time at my parent's cabin and exploring some areas that I haven't been to before. My original plan was to go north to either the Niagara Falls area or the Thousand Islands, but it looked like rain in both of those areas. I did some more research and decided on a few parks in the Finger Lakes Region, an area that I had never been to before and felt like I should.

A major reason I love taking landscape photos is that it gets me out into some beautiful locations and helps me appreciate them more than I would otherwise. When I force myself to focus on finding the best way to show a location I start to notice details that I otherwise wouldn't. Because of that I usually want to be at great places in great light, and today that was kind of a problem because I was trying to visit 3 parks in the area. My reasoning for that was that I knew some of the trails would be closed and they all seemed pretty accessible, so I didn't think I would need much time to get to the icons (mostly waterfalls) in the parks. This would also be kind of a scouting trip, giving me a good idea of what I would want to come back to.

I decided to drive to Buttermilk Falls first because it was on the way to the other parks, and from what I could tell this looked like a nice spot but maybe not as photogenic as my other options. It is a really cool waterfall, and very easy to get to. It may look like I hiked into the woods to get this selfie, but I'm actually about 10 feet from the parking lot. The name of this waterfall seems to fit too, the water flows smoothly across all of the rocks giving a milky appearance. I did take some photos here that I'll have to go through in more detail, but mid day light (and it was right about noon) doesn't often work out for what I like to capture and they really weren't that interesting to me.

I left Buttermilk and decided that the park I was most excited about was Watkins Glen, and when the realization that it's that time of year when the sun sets around 4:30 I thought I should just go there and possibly see the last park the next day. It was about a half hour away, and when I got to it there were only 2 other cars in the parking lot. That's something I really like about exploring these places so late in the season, yes it's colder but you can't beat the serenity. A disadvantage of it being this late in the season is that the fun trails might be closed. At Watkins Glen, which is basically a big gorge leading down to Seneca Lake, the trail running through the gorge was closed. They actually have the few entrances to the trail (which are all stone staircases) locked up. I was a little disappointed, even though I was partially expecting it, and considered just going around the blockades but ended up trying out the trail on the north side of the gorge. Apparently this trail (Indian Head I think) would have some decent views down into the gorge. It was the early afternoon at this point and I figured with how wooded the area was the light would get to where I wanted in a few hours. The whole trail is a little over a mile and is flat most of the way so it was pretty easy to scout out all of the interesting spots that I would want to come back to when the sun was lower. Of course I did get a little confused when the trail seemed to randomly go through this graveyard here:

A seemingly random cemetery on the path in Watkins Glen

But further down I did find a few overlooks that I liked. This ended up being my favorite:

Look at that smile, you can almost see it. You can also see the pathway below that is part of the gorge trail. When I came back to this spot in lower light and composed the shot that's at the top of this page I was kind of glad that the gorge trail was closed. Sure I would have loved to go down there and still plan to in the future, I'm sure I would have found some great shots. But if it was open I never would have thought to take this trail and I never would have taken that image, which I was really pleased with. It's kind of a different style than I usually shoot and has a different feel to it that I love.

I took that photo a couple of hours before sunset, which in my experience is a great time to photograph a forest. That's technically a while before the golden hour, but when you're in a forest the golden hour sun is often too low to get through all of the trees. About an hour before golden hour the lower sun will still create some pretty awesome light bouncing through the forest. Because I took that shot at my favorite spot that long before sunset I still had a chance to take some shots from a bridge that overlooked the gorge, my second favorite spot which I still have to decide on the photo for (that process can take me a while and I always post the photos I'm sure of first).

By the time I got back to my car I still had more than an hour left before sunset, and the last park I wanted to go to, Taughannock Falls, was a little more than a half hour away. From the images I saw on Google it also seemed more open than Watkins Glen so I thought actual golden hour, as opposed to my forest golden hour the hour before, would work well here. It would be a little tight to get to the park and walk to the waterfall in time, but I was optimistic.

Taughannock Falls from the main overlook

As you can see from the photo there's me, there's a waterfall, and there's a blown out sky meaning that I was there before dark. This was from a parking lot overlook, it's actually an awesome view of the falls and I would have taken some more shots here if I wasn't still hoping to make it to the base of the falls before the it got dark. So I hopped back in my car and drove down to the start of that trail (the end of which you can see in the lower right corner of the above photo). This trail turned out to be less than a mile and was even marked as wheelchair accessible, so very flat and some great views of the valley made by this river. The water level was low too so you could walk out onto parts of the rock river bed if you wanted to. I made it to the falls probably ten minutes before sunset, which due to the nature of those giant rock walls I wasn't going to see, but I knew what I wanted and this was the perfect time to get it. I didn't care about the colors in the sky because I wasn't even planning on having much sky in my composition, I just wanted the colors in the foreground and a really smooth waterfall with some soft light. At this time of day I was able to get a 15 second exposure and the only filter I used was my polarizer. Because there was still some light bouncing around the valley the colors, though much cooler, were still picking up nicely. I felt that I made it at the perfect time.

Here I am at the bottom, you can see my phone bumped my ISO up pretty high and lost a lot of color detail.

I took my photo and sat there for a while enjoying the water flowing through the quickly darkening valley. I walked back in the dark, taking a detour on the dry parts of the riverbed, and got to my car just as it started to rain. I didn't know it was going to rain but it kind of worked out perfectly because I got to see the places I planned on and felt I got some pretty cool shots. Originally I was going to spend another night in the area, and maybe I should have, but this gives me more of a reason to come back and maybe focus on just one of the parks. I'm probably going to go back to all 3 eventually, but definitely Watkins Glen when the gorge trail is open, and I know I could spend a lot of time in the riverbed leading up to Taughannock Falls.

My 10,000 Mile Journey, or A Cross Country Trip in Selfies - Part 4

James Griffiths July 17, 2017

Day 16 - Wednesday June 14th: I finally got my car back today. I got the call in the late morning while I was still in Coo's Bay Oregon (about 4 hours away). So I drove straight over to make sure I was able to get there and return the rental car before everything closed. I actually made it in plenty of time and was down into California before sunset. I got to see Mount Shasta along the way, which my mom actually pointed out. She was on the phone with me looking at where I was and asked if I saw a big mountain coming up in front of me. It was pretty cool because my route took me around it so you could see it pretty clearly for about an hour. Then I continued on to Red Butte California where I spent the night.

Finally back in my car, with my crazy wide eyes on my way to California.

Day 17 - Thursday June 15th: I left Red Butte in the morning and headed for San Francisco. A pretty uneventful trip down central California brought me into the area around lunch rush hour and my first traffic jams since Chicago. I had my first experience of In-N-Out Burger (which sadly didn't impress me much) before getting to an overlook of the Golden Gate Bridge. I hiked up to the top of the overlook and took it all in while catching my breath. It was a lot warmer (mid 90s I think) and much more humid than I had been getting used to, so I'll use that as my excuse for feeling out of breath on the half mile hike. After I hiked back down I drove over the bridge and into downtown San Francisco. I really loved the feel of this city, and just the layout with everything on these steep hills was really cool. I went to the touristy things like Fisherman's Wharf as well as just driving around the hills. I spent a few hours wandering around, then tried (and failed) to beat traffic when I drove south through San Jose then East to Modesto. It was basically the turning point in my trip, I was done heading west and was sort of on my way home.

My first In-N-Out Burger, because I needed a selfie.

The Golden Gate Bridge. Which is red for some reason.

Alcatraz from that big curved pier in San Francisco.

San Francisco from that big curved pier in San Francisco.

Day 18 - Friday June 16th: Today's plan was Yosemite National Park. I originally was going to have enough time to spend a few days here, but because of my car issues in Oregon I was really only going to have an afternoon. It might have made more sense to skip it and come back in the future when I had more time, but I'm overall glad I went to at least see some of the famous sites for the first time. I drove out later than I originally planned and got there in the late morning. By this time the park was already pretty full and I spent nearly an hour trying to find parking to take the buses there, buses which I think I was finally starting to get the hang of by the end of the day after constantly getting confused and not knowing which way I was going. The major thing I wanted to see was half dome, so I went to half dome village first. I started walking down a path which turned into a 2 mile hike that had no view of the half dome, but had some beautiful views anyway. I went back to the bus stop and spent the next few hours getting on and off buses and wandering around, going on random trails, and occasionally finding things I was looking for. Finally I was on the bus and saw a really convenient spot to see half dome, which turned out to be the same stop I went to at the beginning of the day, of course when I had been there before I went down the one obvious trail instead of turning around and walking across the parking lot to a big open field with a great view of half dome, north dome, and glacier point. I was happy now, I got to see everything and it didn't require much more walking, I had done a lot of that today already. I was ready to go after seeing those and taking my selfies but I knew I'd regret not going to the iconic tunnel view overlook, and yes I would have. It really was so cool to see so many famous landmarks all together in one spot. It really kind of looked like someone photo-shopped a bunch of famous stuff into one picture, except it was right there in front of me. I called it a day and drove up to the outskirts of Sacramento for the night.

A pretty cool view on the hike I accidentally went on.

Day 19 - Saturday June 17th: There wasn't much that I knew of in northern Nevada, but there were a few things I wanted to see in Utah (actually there are a lot more things I'd like to see in Utah, but I'd need a whole trip just for Utah to get into all of that). I drove out of California and straight across Nevada on 80. I do like the scenery there for the first few hours, but it starts to get a little old around hour 4 or 5. As I was just about to the border with Utah I passed over some hills and could see the salt flats stretching out in front of me. This is something I'd been wanting to see for a long time so I made sure I took some time to stop and wander around here. I got off in Wendover and drove down to the Bonneville Salt Flats. After walking out for a mile or so I stopped to take in the vast landscape. It was so weird seeing such a flat area surrounded with far away mountains. One of the coolest things I noticed was how quiet it was. When I was far enough away from everyone else I couldn't hear anything, it was weird because I could actually see I-80 a mile or so away with trucks passing by but they were all silent. I took a few photos, tasted the ground to make sure it really was salt (it is), and got back on the road. I made it to Salt Lake City a little after dark and spent the night.

Day 20 - Sunday June 18th: I started out the day in Salt Lake City, and because I had arrived in the city after dark I wanted to get to an overview of it before heading out. I Googled overlooks in Salt Lake City and found Ensign Peak which was apparently in the downtown area. It wasn't a very long hike, I'd blame the altitude this time for getting out of breath (I still can't believe I didn't get in much better shape after this trip), but it was worth it for a really great view of the city. I climbed down and drove straight to Denver through Wyoming. I got there just after sunset, checked into a hotel, and picked up my Dad from the airport. He was coming along on my trip for the next few days and we were starting tomorrow with the Rocky Mountains.

My Route: About 2,300 Miles

My 10,000 Mile Journey, or A Cross Country Trip in Selfies - Part 3

James Griffiths July 11, 2017

Day 11 - Friday June 9th: I left Washington (on the Idaho border) in the morning and headed southwest towards Oregon. It was kind of surprising to me when it started to turn into a desert kind of landscape, not what I envisioned for Oregon. It really is a diverse state, everything from the desert to the mountains to the coast can be found there, and I got to see a lot of it. I made it to Madras a few hours before sunset and headed to a nearby park called The Cove Palisades. I loved this park because it was beautiful, in the bottom of a canyon, and I only saw a handful of people the whole time I was there. I found a nice spot on the water and just hung out there with my camera waiting for sunset. I don't know if it was the most beautiful sunset of this trip, but probably the most peaceful one. I headed back in to town when it was getting dark and spent the night there in Madras.

Also The Cove Palisades, but with some rocks in the water.

Day 12 - Saturday June 10th: I had started noticing a small exhaust leak that I had in my car getting bigger, and much louder. It started getting really bad the night before when I was in the park, so I figured it would be smart to get it taken care of now before I went too much farther. I was planning on staying a day in Bend Oregon and being it was one of the larger towns in the area I decided to try to find a place there to get it fixed, if it was going to take a while I could walk around the town or something. Unfortunately by the time I got there (around noon on a Saturday) almost every shop was closed. I finally found a Midas that was able to take a look at it, and they told me it was a crack in a forged piece which meant they couldn't weld it. They called for the part and found out that the closest one was on the other side of the country - I think they even said Long Island where I came from, which I thought was kind of funny. So I was going to get the pleasure of enjoying Oregon for a few more days than I planned. I had pretty good spirits about it, a little inconvenient but it could have been worse, and it definitely could have happened in a worse spot. I think my resolve to be okay with everything was being tested because then I couldn't get a rental car (it was now 3 in the afternoon on a Saturday and everything was closing), so I took an Uber to a hotel and figured I'd just relax for the rest of the day. Of course the thrifty hotel I chose because I was trying to save as much money as I could was very depressing. I was fine all day with everything that was going on until I got into that dungeon feeling hotel that smelled way too much of cleaners. So I got another Uber and decided to be a big spender at the Quality Inn instead.

I didn't take a selfie this day, kind of weird because I think I took one every day of the trip up to now. But I did have a nice view of the sunset from my much nicer room at the Quality Inn (I realized later that you could also see The Sisters from… — I didn't take a selfie this day, kind of weird because I think I took one every day of the trip up to now. But I did have a nice view of the sunset from my much nicer room at the Quality Inn (I realized later that you could also see The Sisters from my window which was pretty cool.)

Day 13 - Sunday June 11th: I didn't want to waste the day today, but I did sleep in a bit. Then I got a rental car and headed into the mountains. I drove through Sisters and into Willamette National Forest where I stopped by Clear Lake and Sahalie Falls. This is a very beautiful area, the colors in the water are just awesome, I was there on a somewhat overcast day so clear lake mostly looked like a lake to me (apparently when it's clear you can see a flooded forest below the water, I could make out a few trees but it was pretty cloudy at the time). Then I went back into Sisters to walk around a bit, and found a really good view of the Sisters (the three mountains that the town is named after). I headed back to Bend around sunset and called it a night.

Not Sahalie Falls (it was one of the other falls in the area but I couldn't remember which one)

A kind of creepy formation in a dead tree.

Sahalie Falls with pretty bad foreground light.

I'm at clear lake and I thought I needed a close up of what may or may not pass as a beard.

Clear Lake, not as clear as I envisioned but in retrospect I should have actually gone out on the boardwalk that was there to see it better, it was a little overcast at the time though.

Day 14 - Monday June 12th: I decided to go see the painted hills today. It's something that I've wanted to see for a while but actually hadn't planned on going to on this trip, so breaking down in Oregon helped me get there. It was about 2 hours from Bend so I left in the mid morning and got there in the late morning. It really was one of the coolest areas I had seen so far, the reds and yellows in the clay on the mountains is so vibrant it looks a little unreal. I was wearing polarized sunglasses so that probably added to the effect, but either way they were really cool. I walked down a few paths around the park taking a few overlook shots (including the one in the top of this post). Then I left and headed back towards Sisters and Clear Lake because it was only the mid afternoon and the sky was clear, so I was hoping I'd be able to see the forest underneath Clear Lake. By the time I got there it was lightly raining and foggy, so I again wasn't able to see the underwater forest. I drove back to Bend and by the time I got over the mountains it was clear again.

The Painted Hills (It looks a lot more washed out in this photo than it really was)

"The Bridge To The Hills" I just really liked this perspective, it was near the Red Rock.

Back at Clear Lake, and on the boardwalk, but on a much more overcast day.

Day 15 - Tuesday June 13th: I was supposed to get my car back either today or tomorrow, but I really didn't want to waste the day. If I stayed around Bend for another day I would probably have to cut some of the things I wanted to see out of my trip (I was picking up my Dad in Denver in a few days). I headed south to Crater Lake, which was really awesome to see. At the time there was some pretty deep snow covering the paths at the top, it definitely felt weird walking through that much snow in June. It's a gorgeous lake with a really unique blue color sitting in the vent of an extinct volcano. I was going to just see this and head back to Bend, but I really wanted to see the Redwoods and if I didn't go today I would probably have to cut it out of my trip. So I drove another 4 hours south into northern California to see them. I honestly never really thought that much of seeing them, I figured it would be cool to see and to say I was there but really thought they would just be big trees. When I finally got there it was a surreal experience, it felt like walking through an ancient forest (which I guess it was) and just looking at this gigantic trees that have been sitting here for hundreds or even thousands of years was such a weird feeling. I headed out towards Crescent City to try to make it to the coast before sunset, I made it with an hour to spare and touched the Pacific Ocean. I didn't realize how much that would mean to me, I knew I wanted to make it to the the coast but the feeling of completion when I knew I had driven across the entire continent was much more than I thought it would be. After watching the sunset and talking a few photos I headed back into Oregon along the coast and spent the night in Coos Bay.

A better perspective (I blend in a little bit, but I'm in there).

Setting up my camera for the previous image.

My Route: About 1,200 Miles

My 10,000 Mile Journey, or A Cross Country Trip in Selfies - Part 2

James Griffiths July 6, 2017

Day 6 - Sunday June 4th: I left Buffalo Wyoming in the morning and headed towards Yellowstone. It was about a 3-4 hour drive (depending on whether you count the entrance or the first spot I pulled over, it is a pretty massive park). I checked into my campsite, which was about a half hour north of the main village area, and went to set up my camp. When I got there it had about 4-5 inches of snow in a pretty tight area, so I changed my mind and decided to get as much out of the day as I could and just sleep in my car. I was in the Canyon Village section of the park which is right next to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, so I spent the late afternoon going to the different overlooks around that. Then I spent the rest of the day until sunset going around to some of the springs and the Yellowstone River.

Powder Pass in Wyoming on my way to Yellowstone.

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, it was starting to rain.

Sulphur Cauldron, it had stopped raining, and it smelled like sulpher.

Mud Volcano, apparently it used to shoot mud up in the air and now it just bubbles.

Yellowstone River, here's where I took the picture that's at the top of this post.

Day 7 - Monday June 5th: I got up around sunrise this day (not before but close enough that the light was still golden when I headed out). I decided to spend this day driving to see some of the more well known sites in Yellowstone like the Prismatic Springs and Old Faithful. I saw a lot of bison along the way (I saw one chasing a truck in kind of the same manner a dog chases a car) and ended up getting in all that I had planned by the early afternoon so I headed south towards the Grand Tetons. I spent some time at a few points along the way just taking in the awesome view of the Tetons, but I was honestly pretty tired today, and a little sun burned, so I didn't stay too late. I drove the rest of the way through the Tetons and out into Idaho where I spent the night in Rexburg.

A bison, I got out to take some photos of him and he started to wander over.After seeing how fast they can run when they want to I decided to get behind my car.

Jackson Lake, I thought it was weird seeing a half frozen lake in June.

Day 8 - Tuesday June 6th: Today my plan was to more or less take it easy and get close to Glacier National Park in Montana. I got to Missoula in the early afternoon, bought myself a hat so I could stop burning my head in the higher elevation sun, had some dinner, and went for an evening hike up Mount Jumbo. It was a pretty easy hike (although I probably shouldn't have eaten a whole pizza a half hour before it). From the concrete L laying on the side of the hill (I am still confused about what the L is for) you have a great view of the city, so I just sat there watching the sun set and the lights come on while taking a few photos.

Day 9 - Wednesday June 7th: I drove up from Missoula to Glacier National Park in the morning. It was a really beautiful drive, especially along Flathead lake for the last half of it before actually getting to the park. Once inside I got to see Lake McDonald and McDonald falls, both very beautiful with gorgeous glacial water running through them. I found a kind of beach on the lake with a bench where no one else seemed to be, and besides it being much hotter than I expected for a park named after a giant ice cube it was a perfect spot to just sit back and enjoy the landscape around me. The rest of the road through the park was closed at the time because at the higher elevations there was still a lot of snow, which was disappointing because most of the things that I was looking forward to seeing were on that road. At least I have a good reason to come back again. After a few hours around the lake I drove down into Kalispell where I spent the night.

This is another view of Lake McDonald, the color of the water was so cool and the front facing camera on my phone that I take all of these wonderful selfies with doesn't do great with colors, so this is still a cell phone picture but at least you ca… — This is another view of Lake McDonald, the color of the water was so cool and the front facing camera on my phone that I take all of these wonderful selfies with doesn't do great with colors, so this is still a cell phone picture but at least you can see the colors that I saw.

Day 10 - Thursday June 8th: I left Kalispell Montana and drove to Coeur d'Alene Idaho. I actually spent the night just over the state line in Washington but I wanted to explore this town a bit. It's a very pretty area, I walked around the beach and the boardwalk (which is apparently the world's longest floating boardwalk). I went a little west to Post Falls where one of the dams on the Spokane River is (which I guess is what creates the lake), and then drove into Washington to relax at the hotel until sunset. My plan was to go back to Coeur d'Alene to take some sunset pictures over the lake and boardwalk but when I got back there it was raining. I felt I really couldn't complain because the weather on this trip had been awesome so far, and the rain wasn't so bad so I still walked around for a while and found this moose. After that I went back to my hotel in Washington before heading to Oregon the next day.

A beach on the lake in downtown Coeur d'Alene.

Coeur d'Alene in some light rain, still pretty though.

My Route: About 1,200 miles