Cross-Country 2007

In 2007 my father decided to gift me a most righteous car and I was glad to be able to get him to go on a cross country driving trek with me. My last cross country trip was one of the best I'd ever had and this time would step up to the plate and make for an amazing experience. We started off with a marathon drive that took us past Denver in one day. After recovering for a night we had a phenomenal stay in multiple national monuments and parks, a few of which I'd never visited.

My pop's afraid of heights, so I tried to structure our stops so we were at the bottom of any canyons. I was not successful for all the places, but my father was gracious enough to close his eyes and pretend. Hopefully some of my pictures allow him to see some of the beautiful things he couldn't see himself and, perhaps, make up for me dragging him to these spots in the first place.

Regardless, I am now convinced that there is a singular moment in everyone's life that they must experience. After driving across the plains for so long, the Rockies suddenly appear on the horizon with their bountiful waterfalls, snowcapped peaks, and hidden canyons just crying out to a backpacker. Very little in this world can compare with the first time the Rockies poke out over the horizon, and now I know that it is possible to relive that sheer excitement and wonder after being trapped by flat lands for days.

Northeast Utah is a truly gorgeous land that has so many canyons and valleys that need to be explored and photographed. All the other times of my life I'd just driven through it on the way to somewhere else; finally I had the time and the right mind to stop and see the beauty of all the land that surrounded me. I shall have to go back to Eagle Canyon and see this gorgeous land from my feet someday.

Through the entire experience, I was truly blessed with being able to show my father all of these things I have come to worship over the years: the majesty and wonder of finally seeing the Rockies, the inspiring sandstone canyons of Utah, and the sparse beauty of the desert that suddenly makes sense after seeing the grandeur of the mountains.

More importantly, I got to spend time with my father tromping through land that I love and share just seeing the wonder on his face upon seeing the beauty of this land for the first time. The mountains, streams, and canyons that God has made will always be there. Being able to experience this beautiful land with my father, however, is a special blessing for which I am thankful. Seeing the wonder on my own fathers' face at some of the land we were able to share will always be a source of joy no pictures will ever be able to capture.

The Photographs

My father and I stopped off at a number of parks on our way from NJ to Cali including Colorado NM, Arches NP, Cedar Breaks NM, and Zion NP. The pictures were primarily on Kodachrome PKR 64 with a roll of Scala 200 at Cedar Breaks and a roll of Kodachrome PKL 200 for the first Zion roll in Zion Valley proper. Click on Next in the upper right to begin.