8 California Pictures, Mostly Trees

Group dynamics, Monterey Bay Aquarium

Japanese Tea Garden, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

Self portrait, Muir Woods

Conzelman Rd., North Bay

Tasting, Black Stallion Winery, Napa

Needles and light, Humboldt

Backlit, Prairie Creek

Posing with a titan, Jedediah Smith

Photos Out West

I've been on the road for a week+ now. For more details on that, click here. Below are 10 shots from the journey.

Sunset over Abiquiu Lake, NM

Monument Valley, UT

Navajo sandstone cliffs, Zion

Car and tent, Snow Canyon State Park, UT

Nevada's Highway 375--definitely a strange road

Big trees in Crane Flat Campground, Yosemite

Half Dome from behind, Yosemite

Cable route up Half Dome

Top of Half Dome

Vernal Falls, from Mist Trail, Yosemite

Heading West Again

One of the first posts I wrote for WayWorded was a reminiscence on my winter/spring 2007 roadtrip through the West, running from Colorado ski mountains, through Arches NP, over to Las Vegas, and then down past the Grand Canyon to Tuscon and home to Texas on I-10.

It's time for a take 2...only now it'll be all the way to the Pacific coast. A family wedding in San Francisco is providing the perfect excuse, and I'm building on the experience of my Interstate-less Eastern roadtrip to get there. State highways and rural roads from Austin to SF.

And I won't be done after the wedding, either. In late July, I plan to shoot north, through redwood country, up into Oregon, and possibly as far as Seattle and Vancouver before turning around and cutting home through ID, WY, and CO.

Some things I'm particularly psyched about:

* National park camping/hiking in Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon, Zion, and Yosemite. Maybe not all of those, but at least two.

* Driving American desolation, specifically central Nevada and eastern Oregon. Want to see what's there.

* Redwoods. I've been fixated on northern California's coastal rainforests since reading The Wild Trees. Now I get to explore in person.

* Meeting folks on the way. I put out a call for Matador members on my route to hit me up with their local travel secrets. Can't wait to map the Matador nation.