For Behind the Shot Part 2, we are featuring photos and stories from Belle Grove Plantation, Quartzsite, Arizona, and many more! Click here to participate in the 2024 Truck Camper Magazine Calendar Contest and be considered for a Behind the Shot feature.
Rich Bain
Long Lake at Seep Lakes, Washington
2004 Dodge 3500
2022 Rugged Mountain Granite 11RL
Camera Used – Galaxy S21
Our travels on that weekend trip took us to the Seep Lakes area and our stay was along Long Lake. We camped in the area a few years ago over at Heart Lake. During the early springtime, we really enjoy that part of Washington. It’s the season before the ticks and rattlesnakes really start coming out in full force. The bonus is that it is less busy that time of year as well. For that trip, we wanted to camp at a different lake and got a spot exactly where we wanted to be.
We spent a wonderful weekend camping there. We hiked around, found a few geocaches, and then simply relaxed and took in the sights.
Mike Morin
Belle Grove Plantation, Virginia
2022 Ram 3500
2023 Arctic Fox 1150
Camera Used – iPhone 8 Plus
We were heading back to New Hampshire after our first trip out with our new rig. We spent five nights in Shenandoah National Park and we found this boondocking spot when we left the highway to get diesel. It looked like a beautiful place to stay and they were closed for the evening. We broke out the grill and had some ribeyes and a great night’s sleep.
Steve Reeck
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Arizona
2022 Ford F-350
2022 Nimbl Evolution
Camera Used – Motorolla One 5G Ace phone
This photo was taken on Ajo Mountain Road, a 20 mile gravel one-way loop. The road had been closed for repairs and just reopened a few days before we arrived in early January. This was approaching the aptly named Arch Canyon. I thought the combination of cacti and cliffs made for a great photo. We were camped at the monument campground which is just across the highway from the loop road. There are several great desert hikes you can do right from the campground.
We were out for all of January and February exploring the desert before making our way back to Washington State. The return trip took some careful timing to get through the terrible weather California was experiencing.
Eddie Brannon
James “Sloppy” Floyd State Park – Summerville, Georgia
2022 Ford F-250
2022 Palomino
Camera Used – Phone
Our first camping trip after purchase.
William Hibbard
Quartzsite, Arizona
2018 RAM 3500
2022 Northern Lite 10-2EX
Camera Used – Canon EOS RP
Actually, it was taken after coming back from a very early morning hike in the hills around Quartzsite. I spend a lot of my time with the stars. I had envisioned a particular milky way photo I wanted to capture and left the campsite at 2am to capture it. I knew that the core of the milky way would pop up off the horizon around 2:30, so I had plenty of time.
The idea I had was to capture an old gold mine and its remains in the foreground and the milky way soaring above. Sometimes fumbling around these hills with just a head lamp and flashlight can be difficult. So in order to get the shot I had to partially climb one hill, turn around, and get my shot. By then it was 4am and I started back to our campsite. Once I arrived, I noticed that the milky way was well above the horizon and perfectly positioned above our unit. So I set my camera and tripod down, set the ISO to 6400, W/B to Kelvin 3800, the Aperture to f2.8, and took a 13 second photo of our camper using my 15-35mm wide angle lens. The skies are mostly clear here, albeit at times very dusty. This morning I was pretty lucky to have captured such a clear shot of the milky way. The yellow glow at the horizon is from Phoenix, Arizona which is about 90 miles to the east of us.
Click here to see all of the photos entered so far in the 2024 TCM Calendar Contest. Enter your truck camper photos today!
