Living in Northern California, my friends and I have had our fair share of coastlines, mountains, and snow, so we wanted to see something new—the desert.
My good friend and fellow photographer, Bailey Diemer, and I loaded up his Toyota 4Runner and hit the road, heading east with a rough schedule and an approximate timeline.
Our first stop was Mammoth Lakes for a quick bath in a hot spring before continuing the drive to Alabama Hills where we would camp that night. We found a nice spot, set up our tent, and got out everything we needed to cook dinner … except one important item. We had left our camping grill in Bailey’s garage. We ate bagels for dinner.
It wouldn’t be the first time we'd get skunked out of a warm meal—over the course the trip we would end up buying a new grill only to have it break within 24 hours, have a grill grate that wouldn’t stretch across the fire pit, watch a cooler full of meat and cheese go bad in heat, and find no can opener for canned food.