A 24-day drive across the American West — solo out of Chicago, then red rock with Mom, then all four of us into Yellowstone and the Tetons. ~4,800 miles, one Tesla. A journal in photographs.二十四天,一辆车,一路向西。独自驶离芝加哥,继而与母亲同赴红岩,终是一家四口,一同没入黄石与提顿的群山。四千八百英里,一台特斯拉 —— 一本写在光影里的日记。
It began as an escape. One overnight push out of Chicago — headlights into the dark, and by sunrise the city was a thousand miles gone. FSD ate Nebraska for breakfast, flat and hypnotic, and then somewhere past the line the Front Range came up over the horizon like a wall.起初,它更像一场出逃。连夜驶离芝加哥 —— 车灯扎进夜色,天光初亮时,这座城已被甩在一千英里之外。FSD 替我吞下整个内布拉斯加:平坦,催眠;直到越过某一条无形的界线,Front Range 才从地平线后缓缓升起,像一堵横在天边的墙。
Six days, alone, climbing into Colorado. I didn't expect Rocky Mountain National Park to be the one that stayed with me — three alpine lakes off Trail Ridge Road, an elk herd at dusk, a deer close enough to scare me. I kept pulling over to shoot until even I got tired of stopping. Then Maroon Bells at last light, and a Park Hyatt suite too good to leave.六天,独自一人,一路爬进科罗拉多的深处。没料到最难忘的会是 Rocky Mountain National Park —— Trail Ridge Road 沿途三座高山湖、暮色里的一群麋鹿,还有一头近得叫人心惊的鹿。我一路停车,一路按快门,直到自己都厌倦了停。而后是最后一缕天光里的 Maroon Bells,以及一间好到舍不得离开的 Park Hyatt 套房。
I reached the lake at 8:35, just as the last light slid off the twin peaks — the most-photographed mountains on the continent, and not a soul beside me. The drive in over Independence Pass should have taken an hour; it took two. I simply couldn't stop stopping.八点三十五,我抵达湖畔,恰好赶上最后一缕天光自双峰滑落 —— 这是全北美被拍得最多的两座山,而此刻,湖边只我一人。翻越 Independence Pass 本该一小时,我却走了两个钟头:一路山色撩人,每过一程,总忍不住停下。
"我觉得这个落基山脉是 once in a lifetime —— 美到我要不停地停下来拍,都有点烦了。"6 / 2 · Rocky Mountain National Park
An elk herd worked the tundra; one stood on a slab of granite and watched me without moving. Then, lower in the aspens, a mule deer stepped out two meters from me — close enough that I froze. "前面突然有个鹿,离我就两米,太他妈恐怖了。"一群麋鹿在苔原上觅食;有一头立在花岗岩上,纹丝不动地望着我。再往下,白杨林间,一头骡鹿忽然踱出,离我不过两米 —— 近得我整个人僵在原地。"前面突然有个鹿,离我就两米,太他妈恐怖了。"
Near Colorado Springs I took the car up Pikes Peak alone — and it was snowing at the summit, in June. "山顶在下雪,我草。" It wasn't really about the photographs up there; it was about standing on the roof of the country with no one to tell. Even Garden of the Gods, the day before, hadn't quite moved me — "不就几块大石头吗?" The mountains, though, were a different story.在 Colorado Springs 附近,我独自把车开上派克峰 —— 六月的山巅,竟落起雪来。"山顶在下雪,我草。" 站在那里,与其说为了拍照,不如说是为了独自登上这个国家的屋脊,身旁却无人可与言说。连前一日的众神花园都未能打动我 —— "不就几块大石头吗?" 唯有这些山,是另一回事。
I picked Mom up in Denver and we dropped south into Utah — the first company after a week of driving alone. Arches felt like another planet: "很有外星的感觉。" Park Avenue at dawn, the Windows at blue hour, and at midnight, out under the desert, I shot the Milky Way's core for the first time — so many stars they got in the way of the frame.我在 Denver 接上母亲,一路向南,没入犹他 —— 独自驱车一周后,身边终于有了同伴。Arches 不像在地球上:"很有外星的感觉。" 清晨的 Park Avenue,蓝调时分的 Windows;而深夜的荒漠之下,我第一次拍到银河的核心 —— 星子密得,几乎要挤进取景框。
Then Bryce from a cabin on the rim, the cliffs of Capitol Reef, Scenic Byway 12 threading a sea of white slickrock, and the Zion Narrows — waist-deep, cold, unforgettable. Five days, four parks, one very dusty Tesla.而后,是从崖边木屋里望出去的 Bryce、Capitol Reef 的层叠崖壁、Scenic Byway 12 横穿的一片白色岩海,还有 Zion 的 The Narrows —— 河水齐腰,冰凉刺骨,此生难忘。五天,四座公园,一台落满风尘的 Tesla。
We stayed out past midnight. The galactic core rose over the Windows, and there were so many stars it was genuinely hard to compose — "多到影响我构图。" Somewhere off the trail something moved in the dark, striped and quick; might have been a snake. We did not go and check.我们一直守到午夜以后。银河的核心自 Windows 上方升起,繁星密得几乎无从构图 —— "多到影响我构图。" 步道之外的黑暗里,有什么一闪而过,带着斑纹,迅疾无声;或许是一条蛇。我们没有去看。
The cabin on the rim came together at the very last second — "草,订到了,真的吓死我了。" At night the dark pressed right up to the door and I half-wondered what was out there. But sunrise over the amphitheatre — the whole family on a log bench watching ten thousand hoodoos catch fire — paid it all back.崖边那间木屋,是踩着最后一秒才订下的 —— "草,订到了,真的吓死我了。" 入夜,黑暗一直压到门前,我暗自揣度外头究竟藏着什么。然而石柱剧场上的那场日出 —— 一家人并排坐在木椅上,看上万根 hoodoo 同时燃烧起来 —— 一夜的忐忑,尽数偿还。
"The Narrows 我们最后还是去烫水了 —— 走到最深大概到腰再往上一点,还蛮好玩的。"6 / 8 · Zion
Scenic Byway 12 runs for miles over an empty ocean of white slickrock — no town, no charger anywhere in sight. The battery dropped low enough that we eased off the pedal to stretch it: coasting the descents, holding our breath on the climbs. It held. By the far side there was range to spare — and we'd had the whole desert to ourselves.Scenic Byway 12 在一片空旷的白色岩海上绵延数十英里 —— 没有村镇,放眼望去,也寻不见一个充电桩。电量低得逼人,我们只能松开踏板,省着每一公里:下坡任车滑行,上坡屏住呼吸。终是撑住了。抵达对岸时,竟还余着几分电 —— 而这一整片荒漠,自始至终,只属于我们。
Dad and my brother flew into Salt Lake — a city I could take or leave, "虫多得不得了,这辈子见过最多的" — and for the first time on the trip there were four of us. We caravanned north through Bozeman to three nights at Sage Lodge, on the river under Emigrant Peak: "有点像二世谷的 Ritz 隐世,房间外就是大山。"父亲与弟弟飞抵 Salt Lake —— 一座留不留得住都无妨的城,"虫多得不得了,这辈子见过最多的" —— 而这一路,头一回凑齐了四个人。我们结队北行,穿过 Bozeman,在 Emigrant Peak 脚下、临河的 Sage Lodge 住了三晚:"有点像二世谷的 Ritz 隐世,房间外就是大山。"
What came next was the wildest stretch of the whole drive. A mother bear and two cubs in Lamar Valley. The Beartooth Highway reopening on a whim — up past 10,947 feet through snow and tundra. Geysers, bison standing in the road, and on a new-moon night, the core of the galaxy straight over the lodge pond.接下来,是整趟旅程最野的一程。Lamar Valley 里,一头母熊领着两只幼崽。Beartooth Highway 临时开禁 —— 一路攀上 10,947 英尺,穿过积雪与苔原。间歇泉、立在路心的野牛,还有新月之夜,银河的核心,正悬在木屋门前那一池静水之上。
We were driving the valley road when the cars ahead slowed. Out of the treeline came three bears — a mother and two cubs — walking the slope shoulder to shoulder, unhurried, close enough to count. Nobody in the car said a word for a while.车正行在谷中的路上,前方的车流忽然慢了下来。林线后钻出三只熊 —— 一头母熊,两只幼崽 —— 并肩走在坡上,不慌不忙,近得能看清每一道毛色。有那么一阵,车里没有人出声。
"出现了三个熊,一个妈妈带两个小孩,三只并肩走在树底下 —— 帅了一逼,贼可爱,非常值了,我靠。"6 / 14 · Lamar Valley
I'd been chasing this shot the whole trip. New moon, no light, the galactic core rising over the cabins and the still pond. I stacked frames until past one in the morning and finally had it — "完美,搞定,太漂亮啦。" A classmate told me my first edit ran too yellow. He was right; this is the one I fixed.这张照片,我追了一整趟旅程。新月,无光,银河的核心自木屋与静止的水塘上方缓缓升起。我一帧帧叠到凌晨一点多,终于得偿所愿 —— "完美,搞定,太漂亮啦。" 一位同学说我的初版调得偏黄。他说得对;眼前这张,是我重新修过的。
The morning gate said closed. By afternoon the beacon had gone dark — so we just drove it, the whole road, up through switchbacks and snowbanks to the highest pass in the northern Rockies and down the Montana side into Red Lodge for dinner. Lakes still frozen solid in June, a mountain goat picking along a cornice, a vintage 911 parked at the top like it owned the place. "一路从 Beartooth 一路把它开完了,贼漂亮。"清晨,关口的牌子还写着封闭。午后,那盏警示灯悄然熄灭 —— 我们便径直驶了上去,将整条路从头走到尾:翻过一道道回头弯与雪堤,登上北落基山最高的垭口,再从蒙大拿一侧盘旋而下,在 Red Lodge 落脚吃了顿晚饭。六月时节,湖面仍冻得严严实实,一只山羊沿着雪檐踱步;垭口最高处,一台老 911 静静停着,神气得像这片山本就归它所有。"一路从 Beartooth 一路把它开完了,贼漂亮。"
Four of us out of the Four Seasons at Teton Village for the final days. Jenny Lake, the Signal Mountain drive, the Cathedral Group rising straight off the valley floor with no foothills to soften the blow. By the fourth park even the most jagged peaks start to feel familiar — a little mountain-fatigue setting in — and then the Milky Way pulls you right back in.最后这几日,四个人从 Teton Village 的 Four Seasons 出发。Jenny Lake、Signal Mountain 的那段路、Cathedral Group 自谷底拔地而起,没有一道缓坡替你铺垫,也没有一处余地让你缓冲。行至第四座公园,连最嶙峋的峰峦都渐渐眼熟 —— 难免生出几分审美疲劳 —— 直到银河又一把将人拽了回去。
The little road sign pointed to "Moose" — we took it as a place name. Then, around the next bend, in the willows at the meadow's edge, head down in the last grey light: there one was, exactly as advertised. The valley keeps its promises.那块小小的路牌指着 "Moose" —— 我们一径当它是个地名。岂料转过下一道弯,草甸边的 willow 丛里,一头驼鹿正低头啃食在最后一点灰光中 —— 与牌上所写,分毫不差。这条山谷,从不食言。
"从科罗拉多一路看山看到这儿,有点审美疲劳了 —— 然后银河又把人拉回来。"6 / 17 · Grand Teton
On the 19th the family flew home from Jackson and the car turned northwest, alone: Schwabacher Landing at first light, then 830 miles in one push — over Teton Pass, a long day of high desert and wind farms, then across the Cascades — straight through to Seattle.19 号,一家人自 Jackson 飞返,车独自掉头西北:天光初亮时赶到 Schwabacher Landing,继而 830 英里一气呵成 —— 翻过 Teton Pass,穿过一整日的高原荒漠与连绵风车,再越 Cascades —— 直抵西雅图。
It's parked now at a friend's place outside the city, and rides home to Chicago by enclosed transport in the fall. ~4,800 miles, eight states, six national parks, one matte-black Tesla. The long way west — on purpose.此刻,它停在城外一位朋友家里,待入秋,再由封闭货车一路托运回芝加哥。约四千八百英里,八个州,六座国家公园,一台哑光黑的特斯拉。这一路向西的远道 —— 是我有意为之。