23 states; 35,000 miles and lots of new prints

As 2021 wraps up I’m thinking back on my year, and it’s been another one defined by travel. I’ve logged more than 35,000 miles this year, traveling from to the Canadian border twice, covering most of the states between the Atlantic Coast and the Mississippi River before crossing into the Southwest twice.

During those travels, I’ve created fine-art landscape photos in 23 states, added five national parks to the list of those I’ve photographed and finally made it to several bucket-list states. It’s been a grueling 21 weeks on the road, but I enjoyed every single mile of every single road trip. 

It all started in the swamps

My first trip of the year was a short hop to the South Louisiana swamps with buddy and fellow photographer Tim Stanley on New Year’s Day. We started with an amazing sunrise in Henderson Swamp between Baton Rouge and Lafayette, and banged our way south to Flat Lake near Morgan City.

It was a fun time that ended with some really great additions to my Swamp Collection.

The real travel begins

My first out-of-state trip was in February, when I headed to Florida for the first Bassmaster Elite Series event of the year. That ushered in a schedule kept me on the road for 21 weeks. In fact, the only months this year I was home more than 2 weeks in a row were August and December.

I logged more than 36,000 miles this year, shooting landscape photos in 23 states. Road trips took me to South Florida, Upstate New York twice, New England, all over the South and finally to the Southwest twice.

Here’s a list of the states in which I shot landscape photos in 2021:

• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• Alabama
• Georgia
• Florida
• Tennessee
• North Carolina
• Virginia
• West Virginia
• Kentucky
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• New York
• Vermont
• New Hampshire
• Maine
• Texas
• Oklahoma
• Kansas
• Colorado
• New Mexico
• Arizona
• Utah

SOME SWAMP TIME

During a spring lull in my travels, buddy Rick Berk drove down from Maine to experience the South Louisiana swamps for the first time. It was so much fun running him around and seeing the wonder in his eyes.

I even convinced Rick to get out of the boat to wade around on the edge of Lake Maurepas, an area that does have alligators. He was a bit hesitant at first, but once he was in the water he had a ball and produced some really amazing photos.

He’s already wanting to come back.

A year of firsts

A number of locations were ticked off my bucket list this year. For instance, I’ve dreamed of shooting at Maine’s Acadia National Park for years, and my wife and I spent a few wonderful days there over the summer after I finished up a couple of Bassmaster tournaments in New York. 

We added a stop in Freeport to visit with Rick and his lovely wife, who took us to the grand Portland Head Lighthouse that has guided mariners since it was built on orders from George Washington.

That trip also included first my visit to New Hampshire, and my wife had never been to Vermont so she added that to her list.

We also enjoyed our first trip to the Colorado plains in October. We began in the sand hills area, staying with our friends Matt and Robin Vincent. Matt and I covered a lot of dirt roads as we shot sunrises, sunsets, mule deer, old barns and wind mills, and beautiful golden cottonwoods.

Yvette and I then drove all the way to the southern end of the eastern plains to spend a couple of nights in the Comanche National Grasslands before high winds ran us into the San Juan Mountains for a stay at a friend’s cabin for more photos of that amazing region of Colorado.

I really want to return to the Grasslands so I can really work the area over. It was just a wonderful region of the state.

Another dream trip was to the Grand Canyon. I was joined by buddies Tim Stanley and James Eastham for an early November trek to Fredonia, Arizona, to hit the North Rim. We crossed into Utah to add Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park to our photo blitz of the area.

I had never been to any of those national parks, so it was amazing to add them to my hit list.

As a bonus, we also made stops at the Colorado River's famous Horseshoe Bend in Page, Ariz., and the South Rim of the Grand Canyon (although this one was very brief).

On the way to Arizona, we also shot some cool Route 66 photos in Tucumcari, New Mexico.

I also was able to check off New River Gorge National Park with a quick trip to its wonderful Sandstone Falls.

Some time for rest

I finally arrived back home in mid-November, road weary but happy to have spent so much time traveling around this great country. I’ve only had time for one trip into the swamps to shoot some fall colors in my home state, but the photos were simply amazing!

The rest of the time has been spent working on images from the year’s travel, catching up with on honey-doos and most importantly spending time with my wife and family (especially my granddaughter Ivy, who many know as Jellybean).

It’s been a truly amazing year — and I’m already looking forward to what 2022 has in store for me as another travel season quickly approaches!