2017 Solar Eclipse Adventure
Days Leading up to the Solar Eclipse
Planning was a huge part of my adventure to see to Solar Eclipse. You see, I have been planning this adventure for over a year. I was planning to go to Wyoming, camping out, and then take a side adventure up into Yellowstone National Park after the solar eclipse.
Well, things changed... ALOT. There were horror stories about Jackson Hole, Wyoming not being able to handle the amount of people traveling into the town. There were stories about towns treating this event like a 'natural disaster'. There were stories of gas stations running out of gas, stores running out of food, cities sewers not being able to handle the flood of people expected to come. All these stories changed my direction dramatically and at the very last minute. I decided, the week before I was scheduled to leave, to change route and head up the California coast. This caused a bit of scrambling to ensure that I could get camping spots along the way.
My goal was to make it to Madras, Oregon; however, places were completely full or insanely overpriced... I'm not joking. A Motel 6 in Oregon was $650. Umm... No. Ultimately, I decided not to go into the zone of totality.With this decision I stayed in Bandon, Oregon on Sunday and planned to get up early to drive as far as I could in order to make it as close as I could to the zone of totality.
On a Side Note
Now, along with the planning phase, I had planned to photograph this natural phenomena. I had researched and researched how exactly to do it, but come to find out all my research lead to me not being prepared for the event. The night before the Solar Eclipse I read an article from Sony. You see, I had the wrong filter for my camera! Not to go into too much of a tangent I ended up running into a Napa and purchasing a welders lens for a welding helmet. This worked perfectly. If you want more details about this watch the video :)
The Big Day
Waking up early wasn't difficult, but not having coffee was difficult. I was a little bummed out that I woke up a bit too late and didn't have time to make my cowboy coffee like I had planned to do (you see when camping, I make cowboy coffee (; ). I ended up leaving Bandon at about 6:30 in the morning with my sight set on Roseburg, Oregon or even a bit further North.
I ended up stopping in a small town called Coquille at a local drive thru coffee shop. Let me tell you, that coffee was amazazing. Continuing on, I made it to a little town just outside of Roseburg, called Winston, just in time for the Solar Eclipse. This area was going to be about 97% of totality and that would work perfectly for me.
It was about 9 o'clock when I found a little spot along the side of a country road that worked perfectly for the image I wanted as well as the experience I wanted. There were no people around. Just me, my dog, and my camera. It was perfect.
As the Solar eclipse began, hardly anything changed. I was a little surprised waiting for something dramatic to happen. Then about 10:00 it started to cool off, the light started to get dark, and things began to slow down. 10:21 was when the moon was completely over the sun. It got about as dark as dusk and the temperature dropped to where I had to get on my jacket. As the seconds passed, the light started coming back and it began to get warm again. The full event ended about 11:40 in the morning. It was such a neat experience.
Final Image
Here is the final image that I was able to create. I am so excited with how it turned out!
If you want to read a little more about the Solar Eclipse and where it happened check it out here.
Did you experience the Solar Eclipse? Leave a comment below and let me know :) I want to hear your stories.
Wishing you nothing but amazing adventures,
Bessie
Adventuring of a Small Town Girl
P.S. All photos available for sale on my photography website here.