2017 Travels and Photos

It was 2017, the start of my “Mountain to Sea Photo Journey” and the second time I traveled the United States in an RV. However, unlike my first full time RV trip in 2004, now I was on a mission to capture the most interesting and beautiful locations in every state in the country.

To record this journey, I decided to create a yearly look back at my photo destinations, travel routes, campsites and life on the road. So, welcome to my first Mountain to Sea Photo Journey annual review!

Google my maps is currently not working on my site so please follow this link – 2017 route until I can resolve this issue.

Map Legend

Picking Up a New RV

Since I had sold my motorhome a few years back, I needed to shop on a new RV for this journey. After shopping all models and classes of RV’s, I decided to purchase a Lance Travel Trailer. The reasons I decided on this travel trailer are detailed in an upcoming post on why I bought a Lance 2185 Travel Trailer.

I decided to buy my RV in California since I was able to save $9000 over Florida prices. That meant I had to drive from Florida to California to start my photo journey with all my belongings and my cat.

After 6 days of driving in a packed car with a cat and towing a U-Haul, I finally arrived at Richards Boat and RV in Lancaster, California to complete the purchase. With the purchase finalized, it was time to head to a nearby campground, Antelope Valley Fair Grounds, to be sure everything worked before I hit the highway.

First picture of my new trailer on the road

Getting Sick

Oh no. The morning after I picked up my RV, I came down with some type of respiratory bug and ended up staying in the RV park for 6 days. It was certainly not the start I had envisioned, especially since I rarely get sick but life happens.

First Time Towing

Once I felt better, it was time to hook up the trailer and get on the road. Thankfully, I had neighbors who helped me or I may still be there!

Since I had never towed anything larger than a cargo trailer, I decided to take highways instead of the interstate to my first photo destination, Joshua Tree. Even driving the highways, it was still a white knuckle drive.

My First Photo Stop- Joshua Tree

At Joshua Tree, I checked into a RV park called Joshua Tree Lake and RV Campground. Unfortunately, things at this park did not go well and I ended up leaving within a couple hours for reasons every RVer should know. Please see my detailed campground review of Joshua Tree Lake And RV Campground for more information.

After finding a different RV park, I was ready to begin photographing Joshua Tree National Park only to discover that torrential rains had closed some of the park roads. Aargh! Photography of the park was going to be a bit limited and a road where some of the best Joshua Trees were located was closed until further notice.

Joshua Tree Scenes

I was rapidly learning that my dream trip and my actual trip were very different. Speaking of my dream trip, here was my initial list of all the places I had hoped to photograph, all before the fall of 2017.

Unrealistic Expectations -Initial Photo Plans

January-August 2017 Schedule

Traveling with a Cat

Not only was I learning to tow a travel trailer, I was also traveling with my cat, Boo. He was new to full time travel so I limited my drive time to 4 hours a day when possible. Needless to say, this negatively impacted how far I could travel in a day.

Also, while in Yellowstone during the summer of 2017, wildfires were breaking out in the area around my RV park. Since Boo stayed in the RV while I was out photographing, I had to limit how far I traveled from the RV each day so I could return quickly if need be.

Learning How to Boondock

As mentioned in the RV/Van section of this blog, I began RVing in 2003 in a 40 foot motorhome. Back then I always stayed in campgrounds since solar was not an option. Now having 320 watts (not a lot) of solar, I could finally camp off grid.

It was time to learn how to conserve power and water for extended off grid stays.

My first BLM campsite was at Thousand Trails in Cottonwood, Arizona and I immediately fell in love with being in open spaces in nature. Sadly, this beautiful area is now closed due to it being trashed by campers.

Traveling north

After a couple months photographing central Arizona, it was time to make the journey north to Page, Arizona to capture Horseshoe Bend and other Page landscapes.

I stayed in Page at a dry campsite at Wahweap Campground and RV Park which was right on Lake Powell. However, all was not quiet in my campground. One morning as I went to photograph a sunrise on Lake Powell in the campground, I was greeted by police vehicles and crime scene tape.

Later I learned that a couple had been murdered there during the night. I also discovered quite a bit about the lack of available crime statistics on reservation lands.

My trip was turning into quite the adventure of the unexpected. Maybe I needed to rename this project the Unexpected Journey.

Next up was a fast stop at Bryce Canyon, then to Provo Utah and finally my first summer destination, Grand Teton National Park.

Bryce Canyon

Grand Teton National Park

Welcome to Grand Teton National Park, one of my favorite places. The weather was perfect, spring wildflowers were in bloom and I was having a blast.

Well, except for at my campground, Coulter Bay which you can soon read about in the upcoming campsite section of this blog..

RV Problems

Sadly, the happy Teton times were about to come to a rapid end. I had two RV problems.

Problem 1-The handle on my black tank broke inside the tank and I could not open my tank. Of course, this had to be fixed fast but the nearest Lance center was hours away in Pocatello, Idaho. (RV was still under warranty). Looks like I would be cutting my Teton photography short.

The upside side to this issue was I was able to spend time in Idaho Falls and camp in a great county campground called Juniper Park just outside of Idaho Falls. Be sure to read my complete review of Juniper under my campground section.

Problem 2- A fitting in the RV’s city hot water line was loose and leaked occasionally. This should have been an easy fix if Lance had placed the fittings where they could be reached and tightened. But no.

Lance placed the fittings inside the shower stall with no way to access them without removing the entire shower. Lance what were you thinking!

This repair required a return to the Lance Factory and the first available appointment was not till January of 2018. Well, I guess my winter plans would have to change.

dangerous encounter

RV problems were not my only issue in the Tetons. All I am comfortable stating here is that it was around July 4th of 2017 and I was photographing wildflowers on the roads around Two Ocean Ponds and Pacific Creek area. Google this if you care to know more.

Suddenly a very nervous man approached from the nearby trees and instinctively every hair on my body stood on ends. Something about him was not right and I knew I had to get out of there immediately.

It was not until a week later than I learned of some recent Teton events that led me to suspect the possible identify of this stranger.

Yellowstone Finally

Once the black tank was repaired, I headed to Yellowstone only to arrive to wildfire smoke so heavy you could not see across the street. Sadly, the smoke remained the rest of my time in Yellowstone hindering my ability to create any great images.

All was not lost though as twice during my time in Yellowstone, I headed into Idaho to photograph Mesa Falls. This is an amazing waterfall and one that needs to be on every photographer’s bucket list.

Heading South for Winter

Leaving Yellowstone, I headed to Northern Utah to visit the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, a place I had wanted to photograph for a number of years. Bear River did not disappoint and I would definitely come back here. See image below.

While staying in the area, I took time to drive east from Odgen to photograph some cool northern Utah barns. Overall, I found this area to be a great stop for photography and a nice break from the over photographed locations.

Zion National Park

It was now early November and a prime time to photograph Zion National Park with fall color. Decades had past since I visited Zion National Park in the early 1990’s, It was also my first visit to the park since Zion Canyon Scenic Drive was closed to cars.

Although I agree that the road closure was necessary, as a photographer, having to depend on shuttle hours to reach certain destinations was a big negative in the ability to capture golden light on the canyon walls.

Also I was shocked at the crowds and left Zion questioning if I would ever return.

Valley of Fire State Park

Wow does not even begin to describe how impressed I was with Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. No image can possibly capture the beauty of this place.

Every photographer should put this park on the photo list. To learn more about Valley of Fire, be sure to read my Photographing Valley of Fire article.

Some of the other places I Photographed in 2017

Even with all the challenges, which were many, I was still able to photograph some beautiful places. In addition to the pictures shown above, here are a few more photos from my 2017 travels.

Photo Journey-FIRST YEAR THOUGHTS

-Towing a travel trailer was not difficult once I learned some basics. Also, I realized I much preferred driving my car to a 40 foot motorhome from destination to destination. I did however miss automatic levelers!

-Traveling in any type of RV, one will be more susceptible to weather delays from wind and other events. That was certainly true for me in 2017. I had to stop or delay travel a number of times, due to high winds and torrential rains.

-I fell in love with boon docking and dry camping in national forest campgrounds. In fact, future travels would definitely include more BLM and national forest campsite stays over RV parks unless I absolutely needed air conditioning or heat.

-Dry camping in an RV for photography with a cat came with issues I had not considered. In my previous travels in 2004, I traveled with cats but had always stayed in RV parks where these issues would not be a factor. To share these issues, I will be creating a section on this blog, called Boo Bits by the end of February 2024.

-RV’s require significant maintenance and are prone to problems. My need to learn basic RV repairs was becoming apparent and this did not make me happy. I was not traveling to spend time maintaining the RV, I was traveling to photograph the United States.

-Despite all the challenges I encountered in 2017, I loved traveling and photographing full time and was not about to give up on my dream.

-Speaking of challenges, I was not prepared for just how bad cell service and internet access were at most of my photo destinations.

-Lastly, the costs of groceries in small tourist towns was much higher than I had budgeted.

Good Bye 2017 -Hello 2018

Overall, 2017 was not the dream year I had envisioned but the problems that came my way, left me with a renewed confidence I could do this journey. So now I look forward to photographing new places in 2018 and tackling whatever the new year wants to throw my way.

My Mountain to Sea Photo Journey will continue.

What will 2018 bring? What places will I photograph?