Acadia National Park October 2017

James Griffiths November 2, 2017

Boulder Beach from Otter Point in Acadia National Park

I meant to write this a few weeks ago, but I didn't. This is my trip to Acadia National Park last month. I had just spent the previous day in Baxter State Park (Maine) and was now on my way to Acadia. I've wanted to go here for a while and it's really not too far from my home in New York. It was about an hour drive from Bangor where I spent the previous night, I left in the mid morning and got there with plenty of time to do some exploring. I wanted to find a good place to come back for sunset, and I figured I'd want that spot to be on the water, so my first real stop was around Otter Point (I think that's what it's called, possibly Boulder Beach). I loved the look of the granite rocks going into the ocean with the hills and forests climbing out on top of them. I spent an hour or so climbing around until I found a view that I really liked. Of course it was on top of a slightly more difficult to get to rock, but I made it up without falling the 20 or so feet down into the ocean. I wandered around the park for the rest of the day walking through forests of birch trees and the gardens and stuff, it was all really beautiful but I was set on Otter Point for sunset. I went back leaving enough time to find another spot if I had to (I figured it would be a busy spot at that time). Surprisingly when I got there I was almost alone. I think I saw a total of 3 other people around those rocks for the next hour that I was there. I don't mind people being around me but one of my favorite things about taking landscape photos is being alone in nature. It's really peaceful and clears my head, which is the main reason I do it. Still, I didn't expect to be alone here I just really wanted the shot. I climbed up to the rock I had scouted earlier, having a little more anxiety getting back up but kind of throwing myself up the rock face did the trick. Below is my selfie from the rock and above is the image I took (from the other direction).

Me at Boulder Beach in Acadia (I should probably learn how to look at the lens)

When I left I was completely alone in the dark. I drove out of the park towards Bar Harbor and stopped at an overlook where you could see the lights in the town. I wasn't really trying to get any pictures here, not to say I didn't take a couple, but it was nice just sitting up there for a while looking down at the town and lights on the boats skimming over the water.

I was really surprised at how often I was able to find myself alone in this park. It's beautiful and not too far from civilization, definitely worth the trip. I got a hotel on the Island and the next day I went to explore the other side of the park - it's kind of divided into two because of a sound splitting up the island the park is on.

One of the most well known icons in the park is the Bass Harbor Head light, which is where I planned on going first that day. It's roughly an hour drive from the other side of the park where I had been all day yesterday. I knew I wanted to be here around sunset, but had also heard that it can get pretty crowded. There's a small parking lot that apparently fills up quickly and causes a line down the road. If you don't park there I think it would be something like a 2 mile walk to the next reasonable spot to park your car. I thought I should go early to at least make sure I saw it and to get an idea of the place. Luckily at that time I was able to drive right in and park, then walk down to the rocks below. You can walk up close to the light but it's run by the coast guard so I don't think you can actually go inside without special permission or something. My only interest was in seeing it sitting up on that granite shoreline in person, so I was happy to climbing around below seeing it from a few different angles. There's always something so calming about these old lighthouses sitting there, timelessly guarding the shores. I'm a big fan anyway and this one did not disappoint.

The rocks below the lighthouse at high tide (with some random people I don't know)

I left there to scout around for a bit, but still planned on coming back for sunset. I had a few ideas of some good rocks to stand on later but I also knew it would be closer to low tide then so I was going to have more options. In the meantime I went up to Southwest Harbor and took this panorama.

Definitely not my favorite job on a photo, but I always like to try new things and see if I can make them work. I actually took 2 of the same panorama, one with the harbor in focus and one with the trees right in front of me in focus (this is the one with the harbor in focus). The plan was to try to combine them, that hasn't worked too well because there were some mismatches I think caused by the wind or maybe some focus breathing. You can also tell where some of the images were stitched because the lines in the water don't match up, and I'm not sold on my composition. No harm in trying it out but I think I'll call this one a learning experience. Anyway that's Southwest Harbor, and it was a pretty view.

After that I found this giant slab of granite jutting out into the water from the beach. I walked out onto it and saw that it was covered in little tide pools (it was just about low tide now). I took out my macro lens and spent the next couple of hours walking around that giant slab of granite taking pictures of the little creatures there. That was honestly a lot of fun, I'm not too experienced with macro so it's another learning thing for me. In fact I didn't get my macro lens for taking macro shots, I just found myself using that particular focal length (60mm) a lot on a zoom lens and wanted it in a fast prime. The macro ability of it was just a bonus but I'm starting to use it more and more.

They're nothing too special but it's a nice memory of a pretty great day. After playing around in the tidal pools it was getting within a few hours of sunset and I wanted to make it back to the lighthouse in time to deal with the potential crowds. I thought about parking farther away and walking, but I thought i'd at least check to see if there was a line first. There was a line, the internet didn't lie it does in fact get pretty crowded there. I ended up waiting though because I had allowed so much extra time and the line didn't seem terrible. After about 40 minutes I made it into the parking lot, I'll let you decide if that actually is a terrible wait time, at this point I was just focused on getting down to the rocks and securing a spot before sunset. At low tide there really is a lot more room, I think it was around 3-5 feet lower than when I was there earlier, and it was full of people. All of the spots I had scouted before had people and tripods set up on them by this point. I could have squeezed in but I was starting to like the idea of a low wide angle shot now that I could get onto some previously submerged rocks. I wandered out in front of everyone else (but behind a rock so I wasn't in anyone else's shot) and got my composition together. I had a comfy rock to sit on which was nice, because I spent the next hour and a half right there. About half that time was waiting for sunset and the other half waiting for the light to fade so I didn't miss anything. I was not about to lost my spot to the swarms of people that filled in behind me. It was kind of funny turning around to see roughly 50 people and 20-30 tripods, especially because in front of me all I could see was this.

Like I said I did wait until well after sunset, but I preferred the image of the sun hitting the horizon here. Often the better light is after the sun is below the horizon but it's always good to have options. Getting the lighthouse light in the photo (which is something I always try to do in my lighthouse pictures) was really easy for this one. It's 3 seconds of light with a 1 second gap. So you have 3 seconds to get your shot in with the light on. By contrast the Fire Island Lighthouse near where I live is something more like a half second every 5-6 seconds (I think) so you have to time that one pretty perfectly.

I got what I wanted, I enjoyed the scene for a while longer, and made my way back the car. That was my last day in Acadia, a kind of short trip but at least it's not too far from me so I should be back again. I spent the night in Augusta and headed back home the next day.

Baxter State Park October 2017

James Griffiths October 10, 2017

I decided to head up to Maine for the fall colors I hear they have this time of year. It's really only a few hours from me so I thought it was a little weird I had never explored there (other than when I was about 2 years old I think). The people who say it's a really beautiful state aren't lying, although I did get there at least a week before "peak" color when the entire state apparently explodes with the colors of autumn. There were still plenty of patches of color and beautiful scenes everywhere, it actually added a kind of fun challenge to try to get the colors that were there into my compositions.

I had driven up to Bangor, Maine on Sunday (October 1st) from my parent's cabin in upstate NY. Up until that night I was still deciding between going to Baxter State Park in central Maine and Acadia National Park on the coast. In the end I couldn't decide so I went to both, starting with Baxter because I figured Acadia was kind of on my way back home. My first day I wasn't in much of a rush, my plan was to explore the park in the middle of the day and figure out a place for sunset. I did a little research beforehand and found that a lot of people like the view of Mount Katahdin, kind of the centerpiece of the park, from Golden Road. I also figured I'd want to check out the waterfall there because those are always fun to photograph.

It's just under a two hour drive from Bangor up to the park entrance, and Golden Road turns out to be a kind of rough dirt road that isn't even technically in the park (as far as I could tell). After going down the road for a while and crossing a little one-car-at-a-time bridge, actually on the bridge, I saw why this was considered one of the best views of the mountain. The photo at the top of this blog was taken on that bridge a few hours later. Of course that seemed too easy, so I drove down the road for a few more miles and occasionally pulled over to climb through the brush trying to find a better view. There were some good ones, but not quite as great as from the bridge. I did like the view from a campground I stopped at, and managed to take a selfie there.

My selfie game is still a work in progress, but you can kind of see Katahdin back there.

The mountain didn't feel as close there though, so I just kept that spot in mind and went back towards the bridge. Still determined to find a shot that was more difficult to get than just walking 10 feet from my car I hiked into the woods along the river. There were some paths through it and you could climb down to a thin beach at some spots. The best view I found here would have been obstructed by a lot of branches unless I climbed down a dirt embankment with no clear easy way back up. I also wasn't convinced that it was any better than the bridge, so I went back again and figured I could at least say I tried to make it more difficult for myself.

It wasn't sunset yet though, and taking this shot in the middle of the day wasn't going to cut it for me. I went to the actual entrance of the park and drove about a half hour in to where the hike to the falls started. I think it was just over a mile mostly uphill and over huge granite boulders, really pretty enjoyable and maybe I'm getting into better shape because I wasn't completely winded at the end. It was a few hours before sunset when I got there, which I've found is usually a good time to shoot waterfalls. The forest darkens the area enough with the lower sun so you can easily get a long exposure but still have enough light.

Up at Katahdin Stream Falls with my proper exploration hat.

After I got my long exposure waterfall I hiked down the trail to my car and headed back towards the bridge on Golden Road for golden hour. I got there a little after 5 and with sun setting just after 6 the light was getting really beautiful and bringing out the fall colors in the area. Now the view of Mount Katahdin was great, but I loved the scene looking a little farther over to the west at another mountain (which after a little searching turned out to be Doubletop Mountain). So I shot the below panorama of that mountain before turning back to Katahdin (for the image at the top of this post).

I take a lot of panoramas, especially when I have views like this, but I don't often share them because they're difficult to display well online. I love the way this looks though so I'm going to keep it here. After I got my golden hour shots of the mountains in Baxter I went back to Bangor for the night, my plan was Acadia the next day.

My 10,000 Mile Journey, or A Cross Country Trip in Selfies - Part 6

James Griffiths August 8, 2017

Day 26 & 27 - Saturday June 24th & Sunday June 25th: The next couple of days were mostly focused on driving from Oklahoma to Tennessee. We left Elk City Oklahoma in the morning. On the way we stopped in Oklahoma City for a little sightseeing and made it to Clarksville Arkansas that night. The next day we drove across Arkansas, and got to my sister in Mount Juliet Tennessee that night.

Wolf River Harbor, from Memphis Tennessee. You can see the Mississippi River in the background.

Meeting up with my sister and her husband.

Day 28 - Monday June 26th: Today was my Dad's last full day on the trip, he was going to fly out of Nashville tomorrow and I planned to be home in under a week. We went to the Dickel Distillery in southern Tennessee in the morning, then we spent the afternoon hiking around Foster Falls. It was a really pretty area with some easy hikes down to the base of the falls and around the top. The picture at the top of this post was from the bottom there. After that we got some dinner and went back to my sister's place.

Day 29 - 32 - Tuesday June 27th - Friday June 30th: There weren't a whole lot of selfies on the last few days of my trip, sadly. We drove my Dad to the airport on Tuesday morning and spent most of the rest of the day relaxing, I felt I needed that and it was good to just spend some time with my sister and her husband. On Wednesday we left Tennessee headed for home, they came up with me to see everyone in New York so we were able to caravan and alternate cars on the trip. We spent one night in Virginia and on Thursday made it back home, it was the 31st day of my trip. I got to see my parents and brother for a bit that day but it wasn't until the next day that we were able to get everyone together for the final picture of my trip. It was without question the best thing I've done with my life so far. I feel truly blessed that I was able to work it out to go on a trip like this, I know most people wouldn't be able to quit their job and do something like this. If you ever do have the opportunity to do something like this, or just to do something you've always dreamed of, you won't regret it.

My Route: About 2,000 Miles

And the overall trip, roughly 10,400 miles.

My 10,000 Mile Journey, or A Cross Country Trip in Selfies - Part 5

James Griffiths July 24, 2017

Day 21 - Monday June 19th: Today was the first full day travelling with my Dad. We left Denver in the morning and drove over to Estes Park. After lunch and walking around the town a bit we drove into Rocky Mountain National Park. This was a really cool experience for me because it was my first time above the tree line. I could look out and see the tops of the surrounding mountains bare with patches of snow. My favorite picture from that day is the one I put at the top of this post, I loved the curving mountain ledges outlined in snow and how you can make out the road snaking over the top. We finished driving through the park and went down into Silverthorne for the night.

In the Rocky Mountains, my first time above the treeline. I'm also sporting my new hat :)

Day 22 - Tuesday June 20th: We left Silverthorne and took some of the minor highways southeast to Colorado Springs. We stopped in the Garden of The Gods and walked around through these awesome rock formations for a few hours. Then we drove around Colorado Springs for a big and headed down to Pueblo for the next night.

Day 23 - Wednesday June 21st: Today we were on our way to New Mexico. We honestly didn't have much of an idea of what we wanted to see there, I just knew I wanted to go. The original plan was basically to see the Santa Fe and Albuquerque, but looking into it I saw several cool looking places mostly in southern New Mexico, one in particular was the White Sands National Park. We decided to drive to Santa Rosa that day instead because that would put us on a better course towards the White Sands. Just after we crossed into New Mexico on I-25 we saw some signs for Capulin Volcano. I had never heard of it before so we thought it sounded like a good place to try out. It was about a half hour out of the way and definitely worth it. Basically it's an extinct volcano that you can drive almost to the top of, but it's also one of the highest points in the relatively flat landscape allowing you to see for miles in every direction. It was honestly a lot greener than I pictured New Mexico being, especially when standing on top of a Volcano, I guess that's a good reason to go and see these things yourself. We took the trail around the rim of the volcano, got attacked by swarms of ladybugs, and walked down into the vent itself. Overall my first time in a volcano was a good experience. We left there and made it to Santa Rosa that night.

Day 24 - Thursday June 22nd: We went to the White Sands today. It was about a three hour drive from Santa Rosa to Alamogordo which is the closest town to the park. I had been getting used to cooler weather, yesterday was one of the hottest days of my trip getting into the 90s, but today it got to about 110 when we got into the White Sands in the middle of the day. That with the blindingly white sand reflecting the suns rays made this the hottest place I've ever been to. It was also one of the more surreal places I've ever been to. It kind of reminded me of the Salt Flats in Utah, an endless white landscape. It was nearly as quiet too, the main difference is this white landscape formed hills that were difficult to judge the height of with the way the sun illuminated them. There were a few times when I was walking up the dunes trying to get to the top that I realized I couldn't tell where the top was, or figure out how high I was or how steep the side of the hill was. At least it was a dry heat, we were able to spend a couple of hours there without heat exhaustion, but I was reminded of how hot it was every time I tried to get a low angle photo and felt like I was burning myself on the sand. After that we drove to Roswell so we could look for aliens the next day.

Day 25 - Friday June 23rd: We got up in Roswell and went to one of the alien exhibit/museum things. I don't know if I was convinced, but at least I can say I've been there. The next couple of days I didn't have too much planned, we were just trying to get to my sister in Tennessee by Sunday or Monday. We left Roswell in the early afternoon, stopped off at the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo Texas, and ended up in Elk City Oklahoma that night.

The Cadillac Ranch. Basically 10 old Cadillacs stuck halfway in the ground and covered in about 6 inches of spray paint graffiti. It was interesting.

My Route: About 1,400 Miles

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