Couple more pics from my recent road trip to California. Dog and I camped in the redwoods in northern California on the way home. It was raining.

There’s a fabulous dirt road from Crescent City to Hwy 199 called Hopland Hill Road. It winds through about ten miles of amazing redwood groves.

This road is seriously one of the coolest roads I’ve ever driven. The trees are just massive and there’s a real feeling of vulnerability and smallness to be wandering among these giants that have been growing for hundreds of years.

And while there aren’t drive-thru trees on public land in the redwoods (least not that I’m aware of) the trees certainly are big enough to dwarf a SUV.

Speaking of SUV’s, here’s mine loaded up for a road trip. The dog (even though he’s barely six months old) is an angel in the car. He’s a normal puppy with everything else — tearing shit up, chewing anything he can — but amazingly, he is perfectly behaved in the car. He’s never even tried to get on the front seat!

Alright, while I’m giving shouts out, let me just say these LaCrosse boots have been one of the best pairs of shoes ever. These boots are about 20 years old and have been worn on almost every wet weather outdoor adventure I’ve had. They have rubber bottoms and leather uppers and they’re waterproof yet still comfortable and great to wear. I know a lot of people don’t like camping in the rain, but slip on a pair of these boots with your rain gear and you won’t even notice the rain!

And finally, I often listen to books on tape/CD when on road trips. Here are two that captured my attention. “China Road” is brilliant and will get you thinking about China in ways you cannot imagine. I learned SO MUCH from this book. I’ve long been a fan of Rob Gifford on NPR and this book really shows why he is such a brilliant reporter. Highly recommended by me!

I also listened to about half of “The Long Walk” (still listening ’cause it’s good!) on my road trip. Wow. I will try to never complain again about rustic travel! The book is a true life story about a Polish soldier captured by the Russians in WWII and sentenced to 25 years in a Siberian prison camp. Just getting to the camp ends up killing many prisoners. The author, however, escapes and walks from Siberia to “freedom” in Europe and rejoins the fight against Russia. Now this was in a day before LaCrosse boots so it’s a pretty amazing story.

Anyway, that concludes my posts about my recent California adventure. Future posts will get back to fashion, beauty, and swimwear photography!

portland photographer pete springer

Couple of snaps from a recent trip to California that included a night camping at Lake Shasta.

Discovered this Lake Shasta campground last year on a trip to California and revisited recently. It’s truly one of the most stylist forest service campgrounds I’ve seen. Terra cotta patios and firepits and custom cement USFS picnic tables.

It’s on the shores of Lake Shasta which sounds pretty cool but the reality is a whole lot of Lake Shasta looks like this from the shore — muddy and steep. With ring around the bathtub.

My dog kept wandering off and doing stupid stuff like eating poison mushrooms so he ended up getting tethered to the fire pit.

portland photographer pete springer