After completing my tour of Central Asia (which you’ve surely read all about) and some family-recovery time in Canada, it was time for me to realise one of my greatest life ambitions: To become a climbing bum, living in a van.
Tim happened to be in Canada too, with similarly lofty ambitions. He’d even acquired a $900 Oldsmobile van named Goldie for the cause.
It was adventure time.
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[The journey began in British Columbia. We were standing on the deck of a ferry, and travelling between islands and mountains. Tim breathed in the scenery, and looked around at the ferry deck.]
Warning: if you’re an American with no appreciation for national self-deprecation, you may not enjoy some of the quotes…
Outside a Wal-Mart, a man yells the Good Word at cars and passersby.
[Camping at night, I hear a loud staccato sound off the in distance]
“Yes,” replied Tim.
“Wow! It sounds like a machine gun,” I added.
“Wait,” Tim said. “It probably is. I forgot we are in America.”
This post is not to tell you about that trip – I’ve already told the story on Facebook in a silly and wholly unpolished series of ridiculous selfies and random facts. (It’s summarised in just two minutes here).
This post is to show it to you scenes from this beautiful part of the world, accompanied by random quotes and discussions that Tim and I had during our two months and 9600km with Goldie.
And since this was a climbing trip – not a climbing-photography trip – there aren’t many photos of climbing. So please enjoy the eclectic journey of west coast scenery.
Literally the only climbing photo. From the longest & scariest day of climbing in my life.
This is more what I mean by scenic…
[Completely unprompted]
[After one month in the USA]
[in Death Valley’s Badwater Basin, 86m below sea level, we see a sign which reads “This Is The Lowest Point in North America”]
(The other lowest point in North America)
[We were camping in Yosemite next to an off-duty Marine. He left food in his tent, went to the bathroom, and came back to quite a surprise: A racoon sitting on his sleeping bag, devouring his trailmix. The Marine told us what happened during breakfast, and Tim responded:]
They were all sold out of racoon costumes
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The Rest of the West
Now that the silliness is over I want to show you the scenes I promised. Click photos to view them in a glorious full-screen gallery, using arrow keys to change photos.
Sunset Dinner in San Juan Islands
Trees snapped like twigs around Mt St Helens, 30 years on...
Gorgeous cloudy sunset at Mt St Helens, with the sisters Mt Hood and Mt Adams in the distance
Crater Lake: The deepest lake in the USA!
The piercing cold wind bit us as we set up in this free, desolate campsite. It was spooky as hell in the moonless windy night. This place is the Trona Pinnacles.
They filmed Star Trek V here, and countless other films. For the geologists: this bizarre formation is tufa spires.
Dam. Hoover Dam.
Horseshoe Bend Canyon
An ancient abandoned tractor gets taken over...
This theatre is like a trip back in time. Or maybe Back to the Future?
San Fran artwork
A thousand vertical metres of granite, El Capitan, touches the sky
Yes. An actual piece of the Berlin wall. Oh, Las Vegas...
Zion, from Angel's Landing hike (one of the finest short hikes on the planet)
Free camping can bring you to some pretty beautiful and otherwise overlooked spots.
I guess this counts as a climbing photo too. Because I didn't jump up to there..
If Dr Seuss designed landscapes... you'd get Joshua Tree.
Once again great photos…was starting to wonder where you were at. Camped in a van from Canada to Mexico several times….lovely scenery and so many little nooks and crannies to park a van making it ultra affordable and so interesting. Have fun. Love that shot of you up on the top of that spire.
Geri! Thanks for your comment. I loved climbing up on top of that spire!
Nice shoot
I will be wait the next photo
Terima kasih temanku Dia!