september in california
big sur // san francisco // yosemite national park
When we started out on our living-in-the-camper-full-time lifestyle, we left with very rough plans, but the main thing we knew was we needed to be in Los Angeles area around September 24th for Eunice + Wilson's wedding. After that, we had permits to hike Half Dome in Yosemite on October 6th, then we needed to be in Moab the afternoon of the 7th to meet my family for their Moab vacation! We left Texas early enough to take our time getting to southern california, so we visited a few places in New Mexico and Zion National Park in Utah, then we spent some time in Joshua Tree before shooting Eunice + Wilson's wedding. After that, we headed up the coast to visit Big Sur. We didn't know much about the Big Sur area and most of the trails were closed because of fires, but we managed to find McWay Falls and were absolutely blown away by the scenery!! We were lucky enough to roll in for sunset and the colors were mind-blowing. After that, we headed to Pinnacles National Park, then Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks before spending a few days in central valley with family. We snagged a Reel Rock 11 showing in San Francisco, attended a speaker series with a few notable The North Face climbers (Alex Honnold, Conrad Anker, and Daniel Woods), did a photo session with Caroline Alexander Photography, and rested up with our family in the small town of Ripon! It was a great, relaxing few days after a crazy couple of weeks.
We eventually left for Yosemite and were psyched to find some great free camping right outside of the park (see my day-in-the-life post for beta). In Yosemite, we made some new friends, Callen climbed with a buddy we met over instagram (what a time to be alive), and we managed to meet up with Sara and Jaimie for a gorgeous sunset shoot on Taft Point! It was such a dream. We had been planning on hiking Half Dome thursday morning, then getting to Moab Friday afternoon, but our buddy Andy planned an awesome birthday party all day Friday in Moab and we made the call to ditch Half Dome so we could cover photos and video of his party. It was a tough decision, but SO worth it. Check out that blog post here!
So here is a jumble of photos from our time in California. For the most part, we absolutely loved it. We are huge fans of Yosemite Valley and the eastern sierras and we can't wait to head back out there!
