Ray Urner Photography

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Ray Urner Photography www.RayUrnerPhotography.com

Vancouver Wedding & Fitness Photographer, specializing in cinematic & dramatic images for ADVENTUROUS people! Strength. Confidence.

Beauty. Ray Urner Photography aims to inspire others, through powerful and high end imagery, to lead a fit, active, and healthy lifestyle, while helping the client bring out their inner and outer strength and confidence, and providing them with exclusive, luxury products. We serve Vancouver, Kelowna, and worldwide!

I took me forever to get around to seeing this park.Why? Because in all honesty, it's a bit of a pain in the ass to get ...
10/26/2026

I took me forever to get around to seeing this park.

Why? Because in all honesty, it's a bit of a pain in the ass to get to. It's close to literally nothing.

I knew almost nothing about it before planning this trip.

Now?

It's one of the national parks I'm most likely to return to.

The bristlecone pines.

The alpine lakes.

The amazing fall colors.

The solitude. (Hey, that's a BIG one in national parks)

The summit of Wheeler Peak.

Some parks impress you.

Some parks surprise you.

The rare ones do both.

Great Basin definitely did.

And there's still so much of it I didn't get to see! Most notably, the night skies and the Lehman Caves.

What's the most underrated national park you've visited?

(Obligatory photo of me destroying an overpriced national park hot dog for attention)

Great Basin National Park




Most bodybuilders don't spend their vacations doing this.At nearly 13,000 feet, every step felt earned.The funny thing i...
10/26/2026

Most bodybuilders don't spend their vacations doing this.

At nearly 13,000 feet, every step felt earned.

The funny thing is that people often assume bodybuilding and hiking don't belong together.

Maybe they're right.

One hobby rewards getting bigger.

The other rewards carrying less weight uphill.

Yet here I am.

Standing on top of Wheeler Peak after one of my favorite hikes of the year.

Turns out I don't actually want to choose between mountains and muscle.

I'd rather keep chasing both.

Great Basin National Park




This is the photo set that I keep coming back to.Not Wheeler Peak.Not the summit.Not even the ancient bristlecone pines....
10/23/2026

This is the photo set that I keep coming back to.

Not Wheeler Peak.

Not the summit.

Not even the ancient bristlecone pines.

This.

There wasn't anything spectacular happening here.

No dramatic weather.

No epic accomplishment. (Well, for me, not tripping over a tree root is pretty epic, sigh)

Just a quiet lake, fall colors, and a few minutes where I had nowhere else to be.

Funny enough, those are often the moments I remember most.

Great Basin National Park




10/22/2026

If someone asked me to name America's most underrated national park before this trip, I wouldn't have had an answer.

Now I do.

Ancient bristlecone pines.

Alpine lakes.

Fall colors.

Rock glaciers.

13,000-foot mountains.

And almost nobody around.

I've visited a lot of national parks over the years.

Great Basin surprised me more than most.

Would you visit?

Great Basin National Park




This tree was already old when the Roman Empire existed. (I mean, sometimes I feel the same, but that's neither here nor...
10/21/2026

This tree was already old when the Roman Empire existed. (I mean, sometimes I feel the same, but that's neither here nor there)

Standing beside it was legit one of the most humbling moments of the trip.

I've spent years chasing goals.

Building muscle.

Climbing mountains.

Visiting national parks.

Planning the next adventure.

Meanwhile, this tree has simply been standing here for thousands of years.

Surviving storms.

Surviving drought.

Surviving entire civilizations.

For all the amazing views in Great Basin, this might be the moment that stays with me the longest.

The ancient bristlecone pine forest - 4000+ years old. Hell yeah.

Great Basin National Park




Nobody told me Nevada looked like this.Before this trip, Nevada meant desert.Heat.Sagebrush.Long highways.Gross second h...
10/20/2026

Nobody told me Nevada looked like this.

Before this trip, Nevada meant desert.

Heat.

Sagebrush.

Long highways.

Gross second hand smoke.

Not bright yellow aspens lighting up an alpine mountainside.

The older I get, the more I enjoy being proven wrong by a destination.

This was one of those moments.

I came for mountains.

I ended up photographing fall colors every chance I got.

Great Basin National Park




Somewhere between charming and questionable.When you're exploring remote parks like Great Basin, you don't always get a ...
10/16/2026

Somewhere between charming and questionable.

When you're exploring remote parks like Great Basin, you don't always get a long list of accommodation choices. Sometimes that's part of the adventure.

Straddling the Nevada/Utah border, this was my home for the night while exploring one of America's least-visited national parks.

Was it luxury? Not even close.

Was it memorable? Absolutely.

The older I get, the more I appreciate places with a little character. They may not have all the modern amenities, but they always seem to leave a stronger impression than another forgettable hotel room.

The food in the restaurant definitely over delivered, the staff was kickass, the patrons were friendly and chatty, and hey, any time my room has a fridge and a microwave, that's a huge win!

Honestly, it fit the Great Basin experience perfectly.

Would you stay here?!

Great Basin National Park




Where is Great Basin National Park?Most people can name Yosemite, Zion, Yellowstone, or Grand Canyon National Parks.Befo...
10/16/2026

Where is Great Basin National Park?

Most people can name Yosemite, Zion, Yellowstone, or Grand Canyon National Parks.

Before planning this trip, I could honestly barely even point to Great Basin National Park on a map. All I really knew was that it would be a pretty long and boring drive from Las Vegas. But would it be worth the effort?

A few days later, I was hiking among ancient bristlecone pines, climbing above 13,000 feet, and photographing some of the most underrated scenery and most gorgeous and intense fall colors that I've seen in the National Park system.

My ultimate goal was to climb 13000+ foot Wheeler Peak, to see how my body would perform at altitude. Even on the drive in, damn she looked intimidating.

Anyway, for the next few posts, I'm sharing highlights from one of America's least-visited national parks.

Have you ever heard of Great Basin National Park before today?

Great Basin National Park




Fall colors in the alpine!Climbed that beast the next day, and MAN it was humbling. Wheeler Peak stands just a hair over...
10/01/2026

Fall colors in the alpine!

Climbed that beast the next day, and MAN it was humbling. Wheeler Peak stands just a hair over 13000 feet. Think my quads are still toast. đŸ˜‚

Great Basin National Park

Moody morning in Glacier National Park for this !This is Grinnell Point, across from Swiftcurrent Lake.I LOVE the drama...
09/15/2026

Moody morning in Glacier National Park for this !

This is Grinnell Point, across from Swiftcurrent Lake.

I LOVE the drama of this scene!

Glacier National Park

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19530 65 Avenue
Surrey, BC
V4N6M1

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