In the summer of 2014, my husband and I roadtripped across the Western United States - over the course of two and half weeks we travelled from Regina, SK (where we lived at the time) to Yellowstone, through the Tetons, to Green River UT, to Arches, to Canyonlands, to Bryce Canyon, to Goblin Valley, then Zion, the Grand Canyon, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco and finally home. Even now, I look back and think it was an audacious plan, inspired by a recent read of the beat classic 'On The Road'. Our plan was to sample a bit of each place as one might graze appetizers at a party, with plans to come back for 'seconds' of those places we liked the most. The changes in the countryside were truly awe-inspiring, as we went from frost-bitten mornings in Yellowstone, to the baked terracottas of Utah, to sun-soaked California surf beaches. But of all the places I am most keen to return to (and there are many), I was most inspired by Utah - a cross between your childhood fantasies of an alien landscape and the archetypal Hollywood western: a link created in one's mind because Utah's landscape has been the well-known backdrop for both types of film. They say Arches is a photographer's Mecca, and that's not far from my experience. Utah is starkly and unforgivingly (those oranges) beautiful and I can't wait to go back.
Sunset, Canyonlands