In Summer 2022, after over 2 years of no significant travel, I seized a fantastic opportunity to take a sabbatical: 8 weeks off work to do anything I want.

I live in Boston MA, and in past years I've regularly journeyed out west:

• 2010 and 2011 I visited cousins in Boulder, CO
• 2012 I visited another cousin in Sandpoint, ID
• 2013 I saw Washington state for the first time
• 2014 I briefly moved cross-country, to Sacramento, CA (Two months later I was back home)
• 2016 I drove the Pacific Coast Highway from San Diego to Seattle
• 2017 I saw Utah's Mighty 5 National Parks
• 2018 I spent a week in a VW Vanagon in the PNW, and later saw the National Parks of Wyoming and Montana
• 2019 I returned to the PNW for another attempt at a van, and used a work trip to Salt Lake City as an opportunity to revisit southern Utah

Seeking a combination of relaxation and adventure, a little bit of the old and a little bit of the new, I knew I had to return out west. I considered flying out and renting a car. I considered riding out on my motorcycle. Ultimately I decided the best choice was to take my car. The two hubs of the trip would be Seattle WA and Salt Lake City UT, and I would stay at a combination of hotels, Airbnbs, and campsites to experience as much of those as I could.

What follow are some of my favorite pictures from the trip.

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I left home August 7th and raced out on I-90. The first night I stayed with a buddy in the Finger Lakes of NY. We started the evening at a cidery, which I didn't realize at the time but was going to be a major theme of the trip. I raced out early the next morning to make it to Madison WI the next day, then to Rapid City SD the following day. Not pictured: Badlands, my first National Park of the trip.

I had looked up some posts online about "What are the best State Parks in the US?" and a top answer was Custer State Park in western South Dakota. It's lovely though probably nicer when not filled to the brim with Harley Davidsons from the Sturgis motorcycle rally.

After that I continued on through Montana up to my cousin's place in Sandpoint. In the previous 10 years my cousin had changed careers from owning and being a guide for an outdoor expedition planning company, to owning a restaurant, and moved from the mountain to in town. Beyond that I didn't think Sandpoint had changed all that much since I had been there 10 years ago. Sandpoint sits in the northern panhandle of Idaho next to Lake Pend Oreille.

A common theme of the trip was walking along the lake shore, playing fetch with my cousin's dog:

After a few days in Sandpoint, and at my cousin's suggestion I decided to head north through southern British Columbia in Canada, rather than just straight east to Seattle. My schedule didn't allow for me to see Banff National Park, but the surrounding areas are still worth seeing. I especially liked Nelson BC, a small city on a lake surrounded by mountains.

On the way south into Seattle, I stopped by the Mount Baker Wilderness and the iconic Picture Lake.

Then I made my way to "Seattle's Mountain", Mount Rainier, for the first time. The views of the mountain are fantastic but that day the views in the opposite direction were even better. (See the photo at the page header)

After Seattle, I headed further west to the Olympic peninsula. My favorite Airbnb of the trip was a guest suite in Hoodsport, near Lake Cushman and the southeast corner of Olympic National Park. Then I continued on west to the Pacific Ocean, the Hoh rain forest, and a little town called Forks. After that it was north to Crescent Lake for a few days of camping. Fed by glaciers, the water in Crescent Lake is a deep blue unlike anything I had ever seen. Nearby are the famous Sol Doc Falls.

After that it was time to start heading east, over Puget Sound. I especially enjoyed the wildlife as seen from Deception Pass State Park -- a family of otters catching breakfast and harbor porpoises popping their fins above the waves.

Further to the east are Baker Lake, and the North Cascades Mountains. (North Cascades National Park is often cited to have the lowest visitation numbers of any National Park in the continental US, but that's misleading - they just don't have an entrace station to count)

Most of the trip I had planned out well in advance, but the week between Washington and Utah was left up in the air until the last minute to allow for some flexibility. I considered going south through Oregon and even California before turning east toward Utah. Ultimately I decided to pass back through Sandpoint and head toward Glacier National Park before turning south. I met up with a friend outside the park and her enthusiasm at all the sights really improved the experience.

On the way south from Glacier, I made a detour through Grand Teton National Park. Fortunately the morning's clouds parted and I got to see the mountains.

I didn't spend as much time in Salt Lake City as I'd intended, but there were a few non-photographic highlights - I had lunch with a coworker who lives in the area and found a fantastic cider bar. I wound up heading south to Bryce Canyon National Park, a park I'd been to twice before and no matter how long I stay I wish I had more time.

One of my favorite spots on the trip was Great Basin National Park, in eastern Nevada. The combination of mountain peaks and alpine lakes and forest were a fantastic combination that you wouldn't expect to find in the middle of the Nevada desert. There's even a cave system I didn't get a chance to explore, so I'll have to return one day.

Heading back east into Utah I visited Cedar Breaks National Monument. Less than a week earlier I had told a friend "there's nowhere else on earth like Bryce Canyon". Well Cedar Breaks may be a little smaller but the scenery is just as spectacular.

Having missed the seasonal opening of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in 2017 by only 3 days, I seized the opportunity to visit while in the area.

Possibly the part of the trip I was most looking forward to was Zion National Park. So many people call Zion one of the best parks in the US. I had been before in May 2017, but given how crowded it was at the time I ranked it 4 of 5 parks in Utah. Since then I had made return trips to Arches, Canyonlands, and Bryce Canyon, and appreciated each one more each time. The spark that led me to want to return to Zion was actually a video game. (No spoilers for a certain hotly anticipated game released in February '22.) As my character rode down the virtual gondola into a fictionalized Zion canyon, I immediately knew my sabbatical would have to include a return to the park.

The return trip started very poorly in terms of how busy the park was, but ultimately I found some ways to beat the crowds, enjoyed some great views, and discovered the photographic potential of reflected light and looking for the small scenes instead of the large vistas. I hope to return again in winter someday when the park is empty.

Passing through Colorado, I met up with another cousin who lives in Denver for a long weekend tour of what he called "the prettiest part of the state". The first day we drove around the San Juans, a day or two shy of peak color in the aspens, with notable stops in Ridgway and Telluride. The next day we visited Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park before stopping in Salida on the banks of the Arkansas River. The last day was a trip through the mountains as we headed toward Denver.

After saying farewell to my cousin, I again raced east, this time to St Louis, where I would stay with a friend for a few days, and another friend would join us. Photographic highlights included the Gateway Arch (somewhat controversially a National Park) and the Botanical Garden. (I'm not sure my buddies enjoyed the botanical garden as much as I did, but I appreciate the fact they were willing to join me)