Road Trip: Day 3 - Pacific Coast Highway

After a great evening wandering the beach at Morro Bay, we woke up early(ish) and started heading back up the coast. The stretch of Route 1 and 101 north of Morro Bay was without a doubt one of the most breath taking drives of my life. I wanted to stop just about every ten minutes. There was so much to see. It was impossible to take it all in.

The fog continued to amaze me and I stopped to take photos of some cows grazing in a field before we even made it onto the highway.

William Randolph Hearst Memorial Beach.

Lots of random stops along the coast to take in a views.

In the weeks before the trip I tried to imagine what I would enjoy more, the desert which I had been through twice already, or the coast which I had never seen. I didn't know exactly what to expect. I had seen photos and heard people describe the Pacific Coast but it was so much more than I had imagined. Easily one of my favorite parts of this trip.

Photos taken with a Canon 6D, using a Canon 20mm f/2.8, Canon 135mm f/2.0, and Canon 35mm f/1.4.

Road Trip: Day 2 - The Pacific Ocean

I have been to California three times, and this was the very first time that I saw the Pacific Ocean. After fighting traffic in Los Angeles for what seemed like forever, we finally arrived at the coast. We stopped at the first beach we could. I'm by no means a beach person, but it was still exciting to see the Pacific. We walked around the beach for a little while looking for neat shells and rocks, and then it was back on the road, driving north along the Pacific Coast Highway. 

I did not expect to see so much fog but it really was amazing the way that it would roll off of the water and up the mountain sides.

We were beat and even though we had planned on spending most nights sleeping in the car, the night before had just been too rough, so we decided to head for Morro Bay and get a hotel there for the night. It turned out to be one of the best decisions of the trip. After a quick meal of pizza and garlic bread from a local pizza shop, we headed to the beach. The goal was to catch sunset.

...and we definitely caught that sunset. It seemed to last forever. Here in Cleveland we have about twenty minutes of beautiful breath taking color, but as soon as that sun disappears it's dark and the colors are gone. This sunset however seemed to last for hours.

The beach was covered in Velella, basically a type of jellyfish.

Always a sucker for smoke stacks.

Looking at these photos I find it almost hard to believe that this place is real and that I was there.

I had never had any interest in surfing but after watching these guys take advantage of the last light of day, I'm starting to think that surfing might be kind of awesome.

Every time I would put my camera away and start to head back to the hotel, the colors would intensify and I'd be shooting more photos.

Morro Rock, a 581 foot volcanic plug. 

Morro Bay definitely got me excited about the rest of the trip up the coast. Before this I really didn't know what to expect.

Photos taken with a Canon 6D, using a Canon 20mm f/2.8, Canon 135mm f/2.0, and Canon 35mm f/1.4.

Road Trip: Day 2 - Salvation Mountain & The Free Zone

After a rough night sleeping in our rental car, we drove an early twenty miles or so and got to Salvation Mountain just before sunrise. There are a lot of strange and random places out in the desert, and this is certainly one of the most interesting. Leonard Knight, the man behind the mountain, passed away in February of 2014. The mountain is located on land known as Slab City. It's owned by the state of California and is described as a 'free zone,' meaning that you can't live there, but you can camp there indefinitely. Basically it's full of squatters and people living off the grid. The government actually tried to have the mountain demolished, but Leonard and the other residents of Slab City fought back and convinced the state to abandon their fight.

The first light of the day.

The rest of Slab City.

Just outside of Slab City is a small town. This dramatic building sat in the center of town looking completely out of place. 

I wish all abandoned buildings had signs like this.

After we left Niland and Slab City, we headed to the nearby Salton Sea. Last year we had spent a good amount of time finding and photographing all of the old abandoned trailers and small buildings that had dotted the areas of Bombay Beach and Salton City, but when we got there this time there was almost nothing left. I'm sure that if we would have spent some more time searching that we could have found a few remaining places, but since it seemed like the residents were trying to put the past to rest and clean up and salvage their tiny desert community, I decided it best to just move on.

Photos taken with a Canon 6D, using a Canon 20mm f/2.8.

Road Trip: Day 1 - Saguaro National Park and Abandonments

For years I had wanted to aimlessly travel the American Southwest or really just about anywhere. I love to travel and see new things. I love the adventure of heading out without any solid plans and seeing what I can find. Last year Kaylah and I made that dream a reality when we flew from Cleveland to Denver and spent the week driving across six states. Ever since that first trip my travel bug has been insatiable. Travel has become the driving force behind everything that I do. Save money. Buy supplies. Research cool locations. It's always on my mind. I took little trips here and there throughout the year, but then almost exactly one year after our first trip out west, Kaylah and I headed back for round two. This time we flew into Phoenix. There was one thing that neither of us were able to photograph as well as we wanted to on the original trip, and that was the Saguaro Cactus, and as it turns out there's an entire national park dedicated to these massive cacti. 

So our very first stop was Saguaro National Park. Shortly after we got there it started to rain. Not too hard but hard enough that we retreated to the car. We didn't have to wait long for the rain to stop, and when it did the desert greeted us with the grueling Arizona heat that we've both come to love and hate. 

Our Ford Fusion from Alamo. This was the first time that I was able to pick out my own car from a parking lot of cars. Kaylah like this one because it was red. I liked it because it was a hatchback. It turned out to be a really great choice. It got incredible gas milage and although it was a little sluggish going up hills, it was still fun to drive.

The receding rain clouds.

This little guy was trying to hide.

We left the Tucson area and started heading towards the Salton Sea and stumbled across our first roadside abandonment of the trip.

It wasn't the most exciting abandoned building, but I do love the desert setting.

Our first Arizona sunset. I had to pull over to capture it. 

Day one was a pretty simple easy going day. I was still nervous about the trip at that point. I was worried that it wouldn't hold up to our expectations after such an amazing trip last year. 

Photos taken with a Canon 6D, using a Canon 20mm f/2.8, Canon 135mm f/2.0, and Canon 35mm f/1.4.