In 1982 Bruce Gregory and Ross Walker started a camping tradition that went on for 38 consecutive years and 50 trips through 2019. They started in the Eastern Mojave Desert and for many years the trips were always in the same area.
In 1984 Stephen Johnson joined the trip and went on most of the trips since then.
Others joined the group for just a year or two, then Jim Deibler in 1995. He went on all the trips through 2004 when he passed away.
The three friends are all photographers who lived in Alameda and Oakland, California when the trips started, and continued camping even though scattered from Oakland to Idaho. Now all retired, they expanded the camping trips to twice a year and traveled all over the west. Still referred to as the "Desert Trip", they camped in California, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, and Washington.
The group liked to explore and photograph unusual areas often bypassed by most people. Favorite topics included ghost towns, historic sites, petroglyphs, and remote landscapes.
BACKGROUND PHOTO:
Steve Johnson looking through a knothole at the round barn near Steens Mountain, Oregon.
Steve Johnson looking through a knothole at the round barn near Steens Mountain, Oregon.
The last trip was in 2019, then the COVID-19 pandemic, old age, and health problems finally ended the trips.