90 Days Of Camping

Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Mount Daniel, Spade Lake, Washington, tent, Cascades

One of many awesome campsites this summer!

Our 12,000 mile route from Colorado to Alaska and back. Red is the way up; blue the way back.

In June 2016 my wife Claudia and I took off on a summer-long road trip. Over the next 3 months or so we drove over 12,000 miles (19,000+ km), from Colorado to Nevada, northern California, Oregon, Washington, the Canadian Rockies, Yukon, Alaska, and back. In order to keep costs down – and just for the fun of it – we camped as much as possible along the way; in fact, over the course of the three months on the road we rented hotel rooms only four times, and stayed with relatives twice. So, we ended up camping about 90 days in total, either in the back of our Toyota Tundra or in a tent while backpacking.

I made a point of taking a camping picture [almost] every day, and here are all these photos. Some of them are creative and some are purely documentary, but as a whole I think they give a good impression of how we lived over the summer, and how much outdoor time we enjoyed!

>> SEE ALL THE PHOTOS HERE! <<

Up Through Oregon

Crater Lake, Oregon, Crater Lake National Park, lake

Overlooking Wizard Island from the rim of Crater Lake, Oregon.

In late June we visited my uncle and cousins in Ashland, Oregon for a few days, then made a quick drive up through the state. Our first stop on the way was Crater Lake National Park, where we hiked with my uncle up a crumbly peak to the high point along the rim of the crater. This spectacular caldera lake at over 6,000 feet elevation was formed when the Mount Mazama volcano collapsed about 7,700 years ago, and subsequently filled with water. The lake is the deepest in the United States — 1,949 feet at its deepest.

Mount Hood, Oregon, Trillium Lake
Trillium Fog : Prints Available

A quiet foggy morning at Trillium Lake near Mount Hood – June.

From Crater Lake we took a scenic route past the Sisters mountains then up towards Mount Hood where we spent a night near Trillium Lake. Early in the morning I walked to the lake, which was shrouded in fog. As I sat there peacefully at the calm and misty lake, a bald eagle silently swooped down and grabbed a fish out of the lake in front of me! The ease and grace of the eagle’s catch was awe inspiring… and then it came back a few minutes later and did it again, making it look like the easiest thing in the world. So magestic. Welcome to the northwest!

Mount Hood, Oregon, Trillium Lake, duck
Trillium Duck : Prints Available

A local duck swims in Trillium Lake with Mount Hood (11,250 feet) towering behind – June.

Later in the morning the fog lifted, revealing a glorious view of Mount Hood above!