I live in a location often flooded with tourist within Orange County California. Come the 4th of July, the place I reside and call home, becomes VERY over-crowded and full of people who want to party at the beach.

This year, I just didn’t have the patience for backed up traffic on the PCH, loud boom-boxes on beach cruisers, and flabby middle aged farmer tans. I was out at 5am come Saturday morning, and Thor (my dog) and I headed north to one of my favorite places in the world; Big Sur, CA.

The weather was a little more gloomy than usual, but the beauty of this place always blows my mind. While, there I took a little service road the ended up going many miles into the towering mountains. I found a little hidden camp site that I most definitely will be utilizing in the near future.

I then continued north past San Francisco to a little spot outside of Santa Rosa, where I posted up for the night. Come the next day, I woke up at the crack of dawn and voyaged on to a place I have wanted to see for a very long time; Redwood national forest. This land is a dark paradise always in the shadow of the worlds tallest trees. I found myself once again on a service road tucked way deep into the forest where I not only crashed my drone again, but was able to breath in the freshness of the leaves and listen to the majestic sounds of the forest.

I then trekked onward from the CA/OR boarder to the eastern part of California; Yosemite National park. I can’t even to begin to describe how epic this place is. But in one word, MASSIVE! The highlight once again for me was the time I took, not to film, but to just sit and enjoy the life I have, and the beauty this earth is.

I then headed home.

All-in-all, in 3 days I drove about 1700 miles and saw so many beautiful things that will become one of those mental scars that will always be with you. Ironically enough though, what I saw wasn’t the highlight of the trip. It was what I learned about myself, and the analysis of where I am in my life voyage.

The best part about travel for me, isn’t the location I visit and the things learned about that destination; but rather the discovery within me, and learning more about where I’m heading.