California 2011 | Part Two | Travel Photographer

27 May 2011•Travel

Finally got around to putting together Part Two of my California trip. I’ve decided to split this one up into 2 posts as well, so stay tuned for Part Three. Incase you missed Part One, here’s the link, https://chriszachary.com/blog/2011/04/16/california-2011-part-one/. The last post ended on Day 4, the night before we made the trek up to San Francisco. This last leg of the trip had a few mishaps, but still turned out to be pretty fun. Read on to get the scoop and view the photos.

Day Five – March 18, 2011 – We woke up early Friday morning and began our drive North to San Francisco. I rode up with Brett and Ashley in the convertible. We passed through L.A. and stopped in Ventura for a great little breakfast. After breakfast, Brett and Ashley took the main highway up to San Fran for the quickest route, while we opted to take the the Pacific Coast Highway for the scenics. After driving through the coastal mountains we made our first stop in Malibu.

After scoping out the break and exploring a little we hopped back into the car and continued our journey north, making countless stops along the way. One stop that was noteworthy was at this point (where apparently a pretty decent little point break wave shows its face from time to time) the road took a sharp right around this rock formation, it looked the the mountain was broken off in order to pave the road through, leaving this huge rock sticking straight out of the ground. Looked really cool. We tooled around there for a bit, took a pee break and started back on the road.

Starting back on the road, we stopped by a little break, not sure of the name if this one. Might be Zuma, not 100% on that, but we thought we’d stop and check it out. It was a little blown out, but we saw a couple guys paddling out. Hung out and watched them for a bit before heading up the road to Rincon.

Rincon is one of the most famous surf spots on the California coast. So we weren’t surprised when we pulled up to a full lineup. This spot is frequented by the likes of Kelly Slater, Bobby Martinez, Connor Coffin, Josh Kerr and many more big names. The only one I recognized out there was Connor Coffin. There were some pretty decent sets reeling off the point, and dudes were ripping. I sat out on the point and shot some photos, while John went for a little surf.

When we left Rincon we continued up the Pacific Coast Highway, heading towards San Fran. Made a quick little stop at a mexican deli for some jalepeno croissants and popped in a Walmart for a AUX cable for some fresh jams. Now here’s where it starts getting a little hairy. We were really stoked on this section on the PCH. The section between Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz, this is where it passes through the Big Sur, there are redwood forests, waterfalls, and sea lion colonies that we really wanted to see. We knew we were running a little behind on time, so we started scoping out cabin locations in the Big Sur to stay for the night. After finding one, we called to make a reservation. When talking to the folks at the camp ground they informed us, just two days earlier, a landslide had washed out a 15 ft section of the PCE, forcing them to close a 40 mile section. Meaning we had to back track and take another highway up to Santa Cruz. As a result, we missed all the cool scenic stuff we were so excited about seeing. Needless to say, we were a little bummed. And on top of that some storms were moving in. So we made to Santa Cruz as fast as we could and decided to stay there for the night.

Day 6 – March 19, 2011 – After a good nights rest in a sketchy little bed & breakfast in Santa Cruz, we explored the downtown area in search of a Starbucks. We awoke to more storms including some pretty good size hail. We came to the conclusion that Santa Cruz is a pretty sketchy place, especially at night. We came across some pretty interesting characters. Our hotel was located right in front of the popular Santa Cruz surf break called Steamer Lane. There wasn’t much going on as far as waves, pretty much victory at sea, big, choppy and stormy. There appeared to be a surf-kayak competition going on. We scored some Starbucks and reunited with the PCH. There was one spot I had mapped out before hand that I wanted to shoot some landscapes at. Natural Bridges State Park. I didn’t get to set up a good shot like I wanted to, due to the rain but I put together a couple HDRs. I think you’ll see why they call it Natural Bridges. After that we headed on up to Half Moon Bay, to scope out the big-wave spot, Mavericks.

We eventually made it to the big wave spot; Mavericks. A well-known hawaiian surfed drowned here just a week or so earlier and there were memorials in honor of his passing. The ground was wet and muddy, but me and John still hiked up to the cliff to get a over-view of the wave. We hung around here for a bit checking out the scenics. After stopping for some fine italian cusine for lunch, we jumped back on the PCH.

We finally made it to San Francisco! We stopped by a little wave called Pacifica on the way in. I think this is where the Ripcurl Pro Search is going to be this year. Thats it for this post. I will have Part Three up in a day or so, keep a look out!

To be continued….
Up Next: Our visit in San Francisco, stay tuned…

California 2011 – Part One

16 Apr 2011•Travel

Okay, so im gonna try to fit all the best photos from our trip into one post. I took more photos on this trip then any other trip I’ve ever taken, so it’s gonna be hard to narrow down enough for a blog post. Might have to do it in sections. It might be a little bit till I get to Part 2, I’ve been really busy and haven’t really had time to put it all together. It will probably be a big one for sure. First, I’ll give a little recap of what went down.

Day One, March 14, 2011 – We flew into San Diego on monday, March 14. When we arrived, we drove to Michael, Tami and Alex’s (our cousins) house in San Clemente and had a great lunch at La Siesta Mexican Restaurant. After dinner we cruised up to this Ripcurl outlet where we scored some sweet discount threads. After a trip to the grocery store to get some necessities for the week, we drove down to the beach to see our first Cali Sunset. We then drove to our Aunt Mary Lou’s house in Laguna Niguel, where we stayed for the next few days. Can’t thank her enough for letting us borrow her house (and jacuzzi) while she was out of town.

Day Two, March 15, 2011 – The next few days we spent exploring around the area. My friend Micah (http://fotoboxed.wordpress.com) came out from Rancho Cucamonga and joined us in our quest on tuesday. John went for a little surf at Salt Creek while we shot some photos. The fog was pretty intense, it rolled in just over the water, making it a little tough to shoot some surf photos. After that we cruised North a little ways towards Huntington Beach, stopping in Laguna Beach for some more shopping/shooting. Between Huntington and Laguna, we took a little detour to the infamous Chipotle and some delicious burritos (it lived up to the hype). We spent the next few hours hanging out on the Huntington Beach Pier, watching/shooting the surfers and doing some shopping in the endless amount of surf shops in Huntington. We also stuck around to shoot the sunset before heading back to Laguna Niguel for the night and Micah headed back to his woman in Rancho (thanks for coming out dude!).

Day Three, March 16, 2011 – Wednesday morning started with another surf check at Salt Creek. Waves weren’t looking to good so we booked it down and made the hike to Trestles, where it was breaking a little better. After Trestles we headed to San Clemente for a good ole fashioned backyard barbecue at Tami and Michael’s. Enjoyed some good food, conversation and cervezas (thanks guys!). After dinner, Michael took us up to this sweet little trail up to the peak of this little hill/mountain, overlooking San Clemente and the Pacific Ocean. We hung out here for a bit after sunset, taking photos and whatnot before heading back to Laguna Niguel.

Day Four, March 17, 2011 – Thursday turned out to be a big day of driving. Once again we got up a went down to Salt Creek to check the surf. Probably the best it had been in the past few days. John surfed for a good while, while I shot some photos. After the surf we made the trek up to Los Angeles/Hollywood. We knew we didn’t have a lot of time, because our friends Brett and Ashley were flying into San Diego that afternoon. So we didn’t even get out of the car, we just drove around LA, checked out the famous Hollywood sign, cruised down Rodeo drive, sunset blvd and all that good shit. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to make it up to Venice Beach or Santa Monica, maybe next time. At about the time Brett’s plane was landing in San Diego we left LA starting the 2 hour drive south to meet them in SD. We booked it there to meet Brett, Dre, Julian, Carson and Killa Kai at the Razors house (mansion) in Escondido (Brett sporting the convertible Mustang). We assembled our crew and set out to skate this new ledge Aragon had found the previous week. Had to be made for skating, an up-across-down ledge with coping in the middle of the park. We skated that for a while, I did the gnarliest trick i’ll probably never be able to do again (some dude filmed it, hit me up if you got dat clip). The left the ledge spot, grabbed some mexican from Mr. Taco, and headed back to the Razors crib. After some shots and conversation, we departed ways, and headed back to Laguna Niguel.

To be continued….
Up Next: The following day we begin our drive North to San Francisco, stay tuned…

Linville Gorge Backpacking – November 6th & 7th 2010

10 Nov 2010•Landscapes, Travel

Took another trip out to the Linville Gorge this past weekend. We (John Zachary, Allie King, Drew Hayes, Justin Wilson and Myself) headed up there without a decided itinerary and we weren’t sure whether there was going to be any fall color left. But we lucked out and scored some great weather. There was still some great color at lower elevations. The weather channel was calling for snow, but we only came across a few flurries and a few spots where some snow had stuck the previous night. After arriving mid-day saturday, we ended up parking at the Table Rock picnic area. We then hiked the mile up to the summit of Table Rock for some great panoramic views before heading back down to the Mountain-to-Sea Trail and Spence Ridge Trail to reach the Linville river. After crossing the river and hiking down a ways we found a great spot to camp up on a ridge above the river. I’m not sure the mileage, but we probably hiked a total of about 10 or so miles. It was cold but we came well prepared, had a good fire raging for a good amount of the night and brought a heavy supply of hot tea. On the hike back we took a different route, which involved hiking a very strenuous up-mountain route to the summit of Little Table Rock which offered an amazing view of the gorge and the surrounding mountains. A great way to commence the hike. Here are some of the photos I made during our trip.

Puerto Rico Photo Book…

19 May 2010•Travel

The Puerto Rico book I put together is here. It turned out really nice. It is 40 pages and features 160 photos from my trip in late March. Here are a few photos I snapped of it.

In other news. A bird couple decided to make the fern on my porch into their home. Further documentation of this hostile act coming soon.

Hola from Puerto Rico!

22 Apr 2010•Travel

Well, not really. I’m home now. Took a week and a half off and headed down to Puerto Rico for some adventuring March 28-April 6. Took all kinds of photos and did all kinds of fun stuff. Had a really great time. I’ve put together a photo book of my favorite photos. It’s 40 pages and features 150 photographs from our travels and is available in softcover for $59.99 and hardcover for $89.99. Click on the following link to view a PDF of the book. http://www.chriszachary.com/photos/PR2010BOOK.pdf. Contact me for ordering chris@chriszachary.com. Here are a few photos.

Nothing new…

10 Feb 2010•Travel

Nothing new to post. However, I recently came across an old film album from a Costa Rica trip in 2005. This was before I upgraded to digital and the scans aren’t the best, but you’ll get the gist. Here are two albums.

http://good-times.webshots.com/slideshow/299181089BNfNhB

http://good-times.webshots.com/slideshow/299203025AMnITU

Also I posted a album from a Puerto Rico trip in 2008 on my facebook page. Click the facebook link on the left side of the blog to see those. And don’t forget to become a fan!

Linville Gorge Backpacking Trip Gallery

26 Oct 2009•Travel

Click on the image below to view the gallery.

From August 05-07, 2009. Located in the Pisgah National Forest. Full story can be found here. Trip map and itinerary can be found here.

Linville Gorge Death Trip

19 Sep 2009•Travel

So me and my brother took a 3 day, 22 mile backpacking trip through the Linville Gorge Wilderness. It was intense. Apparently choosing an advanced route for our first real backpacking trip was not the greatest of ideas. Not only did we get lost, but we completely lost the trail (to our defense, the trail was actually not established) and ended up high up on the side of a mountain shortly before dusk, with no where to camp. To add to that, we had been using Iodine tablets to purify the tributary water that we were drinking (we ran out of water the first day), which it turns out, if you drink large quantities of this water, it works against you, and makes you dehydrated. So there we are, on the side of the mountain, at night, with no trail, no decent water, no appetite, and absolutely no energy. Somehow, we found the connecting trail (if you can call it a trail), and continued on till we found a decent place to camp. And repeated this process for three days. All in all, in many places we climbed 1000ft or more in less than a mile, swam in the linville river rapids, bushwacked over mountains, forded a river with all our gear, nursed blisters, dehydration, and exhaustion, constantly swatted at the knats swarming at our sweaty heads, spewed up trail mix, hiked 12 hours straight, shared a 10×5 backing tent, and lost 10 pounds each. And if you ask me if I would do it again, the answer would be, Yes.

As expected, I carried my camera with me for the first half, but shortly after getting lost, it was tucked away in my pack. (I didn’t want it to get ruined while scrambling up and down mountains) Here are a few shots, I will put together a gallery at some point. Click HERE for a FULL gallery slideshow.