A Journey To The Heart
September came and went in a blink of an eye. It was over before it began, it felt like.
During that month, I lived on the road, residing in my trusty truck, "Brandi". My girlfriend Annie and I had meticulously planned our trip for several months with the primary objective of reaching Denver, Colorado to witness a performance by "The Head and The Heart" at the prestigious Red Rocks Amphitheater. The tickets were a gift from Annie, either for my birthday or Christmas, however, we couldn't quite recall which.
As September approached, it was time to embark on our journey. Our only set stops were to visit my parents in Idaho for a couple of days and then finally reaching Denver. The rest of our trip was spontaneous, discovering new places and experiences along the way. Our itinerary consisted of scenic hikes, relaxing by tranquil lakes, and exploring uncharted territories. Our route took us through Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and Oregon.
This visual diary below is a recollection of our trip. All the pictures were captured using my Nikon Z7 and Fujifilm X100v cameras, and processed with Adobe Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, Nik Plugins , and Lumenzia.
Road Tripping to Iowa
Well.. I’m sitting here in Rapid City, South Dakota. I’d rather be sitting in the Black Hills National Forest camping like I had planned on. Sometimes things don’t go the way you plan. Sometimes your tire hits something and shears down to the steel cable in the tire. Now I’m waiting for a new set BFG KO2’s to get delivered to Point S Tire here in Rapid City. Of course, they’re an oddball size and no one has them in stock anywhere in town or nearby. So, that means I’m sitting here in the trailer at KOA for the next couple of days. Luckily the little store the KOA has sells beer. That will help the time go by.
Anyways, I’m currently on my way to Iowa to visit my sister for a bit. After that, It’s time to hit the road back to Washington. Though It’s going to be a slow one. Two to three weeks to come back home. There is a number of places I want to go spend some time on the way back. Places like The Badlands, Bruneau Sand Dunes, Jackson, I could make a big list here but I won’t I don’t have many set destinations. Mostly going to see where the roads lead (or wherever looks pretty rad).
Stay tuned to the blog and Instagram to see where I end up going. There won’t be tons of fully processed photos from this journey until I get back home. I work from a gaming laptop, so color accuracy isn’t the best, even when calibrated. If the colors look off that would be why. I’ll make corrections and upload corrected photos when I am able to. Once I am home I’ll be back on my art monitor to create a series of photos from the trip.
Have any recommendations of things to see while I’m out here? Shoot me an email and let me know!
Until next time,
Chance
Fall In The West
The fall here in North Idaho has been off to an interesting start. During our first week of fall, we had our first snow of the season. Trust me, I didn’t believe the forecast at all. Even though the die-hard skier in me was hoping it was going to be true. A few days after reading that we woke up and looked out the window to see high up in the mountains the trace of white on the treetops. Seeing the first snow is one of my favorite things. To top it all off Silver Mountain was having their first annual Cidefest in the Mountain Haus. We had the perfect excuse to go up the mountain for Ciderfest, we had to go play in the first snow.
During the brief little bit of time fall has been here the colors have been changing fast. on the daily drive, I see the colors growing more vibrant every single day. Which means I need to head up into the mountains and cover some ground on foot. It’s time to make some new photographs of this fall while I can. We’ve been able to go paddleboarding. Explore some of the gulches around the valley. A little bit of fall car camping, and a few delicious Bloody Marys at Quinns Hot Springs. Until I can get out and photograph more of the fall here are a few photos from this fall so far.
A few Hot Springs and the National Bison Range
Our journey started out on a Friday afternoon where we headed out from Kellogg, Idaho on a mission to visit three different hot springs over the weekend. Our first day we had a late start and drove over to Lolo Hot Springs for the night. It was fun place to visit but we were only there for a short time since we arrived later in the day.
Kettle House Brewing, Missoula, Montana.
Early the next morning we headed to Missoula to visit a couple breweries in town there. We popped by Kettle ouse Brewing and Tamarack Brewing. Both the breweries were incredible. Some of the beers are only available in Montana which I really enjoyed. Seeking out those new beers to try is a blast.
After our time in Missoula we headed North to Hot Springs, Montana for a night. I couldn’t resist sitting in the springs for as long as I possibly could. After the first soak we headed inside for a few drinks and live music. The artist that night was Larry Hirshberg. You can find his music over at http://larryhirshberg.com/
#86sqft in its natural habitat.
The start of our third day was a chilly one. I spent the night in the bed of my truck. It was a great reminder that I need to add some insulation to the bed to keep it a little warmer now that the colder months are back again. We warmed up our vehicles and hit the road to the National Bison Range. After driving for about an hour to get there we decided to take the longer two hour loop through the Bison Range. Which was well worth it. It was foggy and dark for the beginning of the drive. Slowly but surely as we drove the sun was making the fog burn off. By the time we reached the peak and began to head back down the other side the clouds broke.
Road side snacks in the Bison Range.
Lost in the fog.
As we descended back down the mountain we could see some of the bison off in the distance. Just a little too far away to get a photo of. Towards the end of the drive there was a great spot wide open spot that looked towards the mountains. There was about 20 bison in the field in front of us. Luckily one was just close enough for my 200mm lens to get a shot. Unfortunately the one nearest to us wasn’t looking too great. As you can see in the photo below. Before this quick trip I had never heard of the National Bison Range. I am beyond happy my friends showed me this place. It is truly gorgeous. I’m looking forward to making a trip back there and back into Big Sky Country.
