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First it was 48 states in 30 days in Summer 2005.
Then it was the Great West in Fall 2006.
So, for Spring 2007 my folks and I have once again packed up for a 2 week road trip. This time we're going to see Utah and all of its National Parks. We're also taking routes so we can see some California National Parks, as well as the desolate central Nevada terrain. (Planning thread is here)
Joey, (Kinless) as much as I can see the logic of your intent, please post each new entry at the bottom of the thread so that it reads chronologically (you won't be able to change it by editing the thread at the end of the trip).Quote:
Originally Posted by Kinless
Enjoy Death Valley tomorrow! Which entrance are you using?
Mark
On May 13th at 12:00pm PDT, we left our home in San Juan Capistrano, CA. Ten minutes after leaving we discovered that the Chevrolet Uplander mini van we rented had dead accessory outlets. I was in a state of panic but then my dad being the mechanic he is figured it was just a blown fuse. So it was. We switched fuses with the rear A/C blower (since no one is in the far back of the van anyway) and all was well again. We'll pick up an extra fuse somewhere along the way.
Anyway we headed up I-15 past Barstow and arrived at the Calico Ghost Town at 2:30pm PDT. This was the final day of their annual Bluegrass Festival, so we got to hear some slammin' tunes. I normally despise country music, but if it's bluegrass then oddly enough I dig it.
After walking around, seeing the Maggie Mines, and having a buffalo burger, we headed out at 5:00pm PDT and stopped briefly at Barstow Station before heading directly west on Hwy 58. (Our GPS unit permanently lost satellite reception from this point on so I was driving blind with just the road map.) We turned north on Hwy 395 at Kramer Junction and arrived in Ridgecrest at 7:00pm PDT. Here we will stay for the night...
Tomorrow comes 105°F Death Valley. (Woo wee!)
We'll be heading in from the west using Hwy 178 up to Hwy 190 and then heading east through Stovepipe Wells and towards the Furnace Creek Visitor Center.Quote:
Originally Posted by Editor
The main goal for tomorrow is Badwater Basin. (It's that whole geographical nerd thing I got going.) And we'll probably take a look at the Devils Golf Course, Artists Drive, and then loop back around and see Dante's View.
I see other interesting PoIs but I want to try and stay on paved roads.
This is my first week of my Road Trip coming in now less than a month. Bay Area>Yosemite>Zion>Bryce>C. Reef>Arches/Canyonlands, so I'll be following your travels closely.
Have fun.
We left Ridgecrest reasonably early and headed out on Hwy 178 through Panamint Valley. I absolutely love traveling down the middle of the valley while high mountain ranges tower over us on either side. We turned at the 190 junction and headed east toward Stovepipe Wells. I had to stop and take pictures of the "Elevation: Sea Level" sign. Awesome.
After heading to Furnace Creek, my dad gets it in his head he has to see Scottys Castle. Grah, that wasn't part of the plan, so I initially scrapped it, but I was getting the pout show, so while at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center, I decided to sacrifice Dante's View for the Castle. In the meantime we headed first to Badwater Basin and got pics of the -282 ft elevation sign. There were a LOT of people in this area. After spending 20 minutes here, we headed back and checked out Devils Golf Course. (I snuck a few licks of some salt deposits. Mmmm...) and then we topped it off with a drive through Artists Drive (and Palette). Good stuff.
We headed back to Scottys Castle. Unfortunately the timing wasn't quite right. We got there at 2:15pm PDT and the next tour wasn't available for another 45 minutes, and we had to be in St. George, UT that night, so we made the decision to take a quick look around for 20 minutes and then book it.
From there we used Hwy 267 to head towards Hwy 95 via Scottys Junction, passing through Las Vegas for gas and food before continuing (using the 215 belt) over to the I-15 north.
I loved the I-15 portion through Arizona as we rounded about the tall rock formations. WOW. Loved that. Gotta do that again soon.
Here we are in St. George, UT with a time zone change to Mountain. We visit a long-lost friend in the morning and then head to Zion. Good times...
======== DAY 3 ======== (Updated May 16, 2007 - 7:30am MDT)
After visiting one of mom's old friends in St. George, UT (and buying some western gear 50% off from a place going out of business) we continued up the north I-15 briefly before taking Hwy 9 east heading toward Zion National Park.
Of course as we near, the signs claimed the parking lots were full, but Dad has his Golden Age passport, which gets us all into the park free. It wouldn't have been so if we had to park outside the boundaries and shuttle in. So we said we were "going through" (which technically we were, just not right away, hee hee) and found plenty of space at the Zion Visitor Center. (I'm sure it's much harder to find one of the 450 spaces at peak times on weekends or in the summer.) I know why they want to keep vehicles out of the park as much as possible, but heck we were driving through anyway, and we were only staying 3 hours.
We took their shuttle and went all the way up to the Temple of Sinawava, where the walls of the canyon completely surround you. We took a little stroll down to the Virgin River and I soaked my feet in freezing cold water. Great stuff.
Back down the shuttle path we headed, stopping at Big Bend, Zion Lodge, and the Patriarchs before coming back to the center.
We continued east on Hwy 9 through the mile-long tunnel and a little more of the park before emerging on the other side and striking Hwy 89. We headed north and made our way to Hwy 12 where we settled in at the Bryce Canyon resort. I made reservations for one of their 2-room cabins (parents loving it) and here we are.
Day 4 will be horseback riding and driving through Bryce National Park...
Man, you are making us office-bound trippers very envious! Seriously, I am enjoying the tale....Quote:
Originally Posted by Kinless
Mark
======== DAY 4 ======== (Updated May 16, 2007 - 7:45pm MDT)
Today we got an early start and headed out to the Scenic Rim Horseback Ride staged across the street from Rubys Inn around 9:30am MDT. (The girl who saddled my horse was quite easy on the eyes, I must say...) We spent the next 90 minutes riding through the forest to the North End of Bryce. I hadn't ridden a horse in over 10 years (and my folks over 30 years) but we all thought it was the greatest thing ever. Surprisingly, I'm not sore. Yet.
After that concluded, we drove to the south end of Bryce, starting with Rainbow Point, and slowly worked our way back up north. It's a good thing, too, because it saved the best viewing for last. The Bryce and Inspiration Points were the highlight of the entire run. I must have taken over 100 pictures today. After 3 hours of that we headed east on Hwy 12.
All was hunky dory for a while. But here's where the whole vacation quickly went south. I noticed most small towns on this highway posting 40 MPH speed limits, to which I always kept to the rule of "never go 10 above the post," meaning I kept it in the 45MPH area. Unfortunately when I passed through Escalante, I failed to notice that the limit in this town was 30 MPH (on a 4-lane highway??? Most 2-laners had at least 40!) so just as I'm getting out of the town, I got flashed down by the local officer who clocked me at 47 in a 30.
Son of a...
That's pretty low for a small town. Guess they were getting hard up for lunch money. I'd say something but that would drastically alter the G-rating of this thread.
He did me a "favor" and wrote me up for 11 over instead of 17, saving me $50, but that's still $107 I won't be spending on this trip. Not to mention what I'll have to do back home to keep this ticket off my record. I've never received a moving violation in my life, but the thought of higher insurance premiums kept me from enjoying the rest of the Hwy 12 scenery.
We've stopped here in Torrey, UT, just a few miles west of Capitol Reef National Park, where we'll be spending the morning. Then it's off to Moab.
*sigh* Son of a...
======== DAY 5 ======== (Updated May 17, 2007 - 10:15pm MDT)
After leaving the small town of Torrey, UT, we continued east on Hwy 24 into Capitol Reef National Park.
I was still bitter about the events of the day before. (Yes, one of my personal faults is the 24-hour "I hate my life" syndrome when something very unfortunate happens. You'll have to deal.) But I forced myself to take pictures of the highlights of the park. After hitting the visitor center, we headed down the Scenic Route and gawked at the huge rock formations high above. We didn't go into any of the gorges, since we didn't feel like dirt roads today, and cumulus clouds were starting to form.
After heading back, we continued east on Hwy 24 through the rest of the park and seeing some more hot spots. Some of them were unfortunately hiking distance and the parents didn't want to do that, so had to pass up the major Capitol Dome.
Leaving the park, we continued on Hwy 24 and connected to Hwy 95 south. Being the scenic route, the rock formations continued their steady presence, towering over us at every turn. We passed through Glen Canyon and saw the overlook of the Colorado River and onward south. After a few hours we finally arrived at the Natural Bridges National Monument.
We did the 9-mile loop and found all 3 bridges. The only one I really hiked to was the last one, Owachomo, which is the prominent-looking arch. My folks watched from the outlook as I descended to my goal. The 0.2 miles down was easy. Not so much on the 0.2 miles up. Need to exercise more. Whew.
This being our final event for the day, we continued east to Hwy 191 and headed north. We could see thunderheads looming, and by the time we neared our destination of Moab, UT, we could see the lightning bolts off to our west. *happy sigh*
I really like this town of Moab. It has everything you need (well, except the Wal-mart, but whatever). It's quaint, and we had dinner at Pizza Jay's. Excellent Italian food.
We're staying here 2 nights, so no excessive driving for Day 6. Arches comes first, then Canyonlands the day after. More rock gawk for us tomorrow.
There is a cool place on the south side of town overlooking the river with good food and nice views. Also a pretty great mural....Still enjoying your telling-of-the-tale.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kinless
Oh, and I finally got the dcTPP award in the mail to you.... It will be waiting for you upon your return home.
Mark
======== DAY 6 ======== (Updated 9:45pm MDT)
We made no haste this morning in getting out of our hotel. After a quick McD breakfast and some supply replenishment at the local shopping center, we headed off to Arches National Park, a distant 5 miles away, about 10:00am MDT. Being a Friday, you could tell the tourists were out on the prowl, as there was more people around today than we've seen all week. Tomorrow would probably be worse, which is why we're doing "Island in the Sky" Canyonlands then.
We began by driving to the very top, Devil's Garden. I wish my folks had the endurance to make the 1.6 mile round-trip hike to the Landscape Arch, but all we could really do was the Pine Tree and Tunnel Arch. We also took a few minutes to visit the Sand Dunes arch. From here we headed back down, stopping at random viewpoints. We took the east fork past Wolfe Ranch to the Delicate Arch. Again, the parents took the easy 100 yard lower trail. I went ahead and took the upper trail, which was only 0.2 miles but steep in elevation climb. Exercise is good. Still seemed far away, and my camera is only a 3.0x zoom. Bleah.
After that, down and down the paved road we headed, until we took the fork that headed to the Windows section, the most prominent cluster of arches. We managed the easy hike to the North and South Windows, as well as Turret arch. Plenty of pictures to be taken. We sat inside the North Window arch for a while and took the amazing view in.
Our final stop was the Balanced Rock, then we headed out. After the typical Visitor Center deal, buying souvenirs and watching the presentation, we left the park at 4:00pm MDT and spent the rest of the day lounging in Moab.
A somewhat long driving day tomorrow. After Canyonlands we have to get to Salt Lake City. Should be fun.
======== DAY 7 ======== (Updated 9:30pm MDT)
We filled up the gas tank and our stomachs before leaving Moab and heading north on the 191 to the "Island in the Sky" district of Canyonlands National Park, the last of the 5 Utah "Rocks" we intended on visiting.
We drove all the way as far as we could go to the Grand Viewpoint that overlooks the center of the park where the "Island in the Sky," "Maze," and "Needle" districts intersect.
As we headed back, looking at all the other viewpoints, we took the west fork to Upheaval Dome. We made the 0.5 mile roundtrip hike up to the dome viewpoint, which was absolutely magnificent.
Our final stop was the Mesa Arch, which was another 0.5 mile loop hike, but totally worth it. This arch hangs out over the edge of the cliff so it's not something you could exactly stand under. Great pics as usual.
At the visitor center, after watching the video and getting the postcard/magnet stuff, there was a scheduled "ranger talk" discussing what we liked about the park and what we'd like to see, such as better access, facilities, etc. My mom had plenty of input to give. There was a lot of discussion about balancing the need for better access without disrupting the natural beauty of the landscape.
We left the park about 1:00pm MDT and finished up the 191 and headed west on I-70 for a while before exiting and taking Hwy 6 as a shortcut to Salt Lake City. We went through the old historic downtown of Price, which looked extremely rustic. As we headed up the summit, the mountains were very green over here, which was a nice 2 hour drive through this area, and as we emptied onto Hwy 89 North, we could see patches of snow still on the peaks. I stayed off the I-15 just long enough to go through the town of Provo, which I always wanted to do. From there we cut over to I-15 and we're now in downtown Salt Lake.
We'll be seeing the Tabernacle Choir in the morning and doing a little touring of Salt Lake before heading back south.
It's really great how you take this time with your folks to travel. And it sounds like you're having a heckuva good time. Enjoy and keep the reports coming!
I've really enjoyed reading your report, keep it up, it's bringing back some happy memories :) Do you have any photos to share?
(UKCraig I'll get some pics on Flickr as soon as I get home...)
======== DAY 8 ======== (Updated May 20, 2007 - 10:15pm MDT)
We started the morning by a complimentary shuttle ride (courtesy of Best Western) to the Temple Square for the 4,055th taping of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's radio show. The acoustics were incredible and of course the choir and orchestra were amazing. We sat right behind the sound mixer so I was able to watch the mix in action.
After getting shuttled back, we packed up and headed back to the Square a few hours later and took pics of the rest of the historic gardens and of course the big temple. Lots of friendly guides at different points to tell us about the history of the gardens.
Next was the Capitol building. I've made a personal side goal of seeing all 50, although my total count is still in single digits. The grounds in front were all under construction, but my goal to see it was complete.
The last destination for the day was the actual Salt Lake. We headed west on I-80 and exited to the south area of the lake, called Saltair. The lake was pretty low from drought, so I had to walk a few hundred feet to the edge, where there were loads of brine shrimp floating about.
The goals were accomplished. We went south on Hwy 36 to get back to Hwy 6 and head even further southwest to the remote town of Delta. Everything here is closed up, but I guess that's what happens when you arrive on a Sunday.
Tomorrow is the Great Basin and the trek through Nevada. More than half way...
======== DAY 9 ======== (Updated May 21, 2007 - 9:30pm PDT)
Delta, UT seemed like sort of a ghetto town, so we left pretty early and headed out on Hwy 6 west. We crossed over into Nevada and back into my native Pacific time zone. Shortly thereafter we arrived at the Great Basin National Park.
After getting tickets for the 11am Lehman Caves Tour, we had 70 minutes to head up to Wheeler Peak, which we were able to do. At the end of the paved road we got out and took the normal pics and even walked the short trail to the stream where the snow was there but melting fast. Spectacular views of the valley and of course Wheeler.
Back down we headed, just in time for the 60-minute tour. I've seen similar caves in Texas, but that was a while ago so it was nice to see the stala(ct/gm)ites again. Unfortunately a lot of them within reach were broken because people at one time were allowed to take a piece home with them, way back before they knew they were seriously damaging the process.
My favorite part was where we took the long tunnel out of the cave, which had acoustics ripe for echos. At the end, the ranger showed us the "heartbeat" by quickly slamming the outside door, and hearing the slam echo back and forth. You could feel the boom in your gut every time the soundwave hit you. *shivers* Ooo that was so cool....
We left and headed back to Hwy 6 and kept our westward route. Nevada is exactly how I imagined it. Alternating ranges and valleys throughout the rest of the day. It wasn't too boring, but I have a feeling we'll see a little more of that tomorrow. We stopped at Ely for that famous Jailhouse steak across from Hotel Nevada, but I guess they don't do lunch. Their first reservation was for 5:00pm PDT and we were hours early. *sigh* So we had lunch at their normal restaraunt and took off by 3:00pm PDT.
We are staying here in Tonopah. Tomorrow is one of the most exciting days of the trip, as I get to experience the famed Tioga Pass as we make our way into Yosemite. We'll be leaving early and get a jump on the day.
======== DAY 10 ======== (Updated May 22, 2007 - 9:45pm PDT)
After a great breakfast, we continued west on Hwy 6 from the town of Tonopah, crossing the Nevada/California border, and heading west on Hwy 120. As Mono Lake came into view, we made a spontaneous decision to go to the southern end and take a look around. Here, they had a loop trail with a bunch of Tufa columns. There were very few people here, so it was plenty quiet. It was a nice stop.
We continued west until we hit Hwy 395, and took a brief jaunt north until we came to Hwy 120 again, this time starting up the famed Tioga Pass. It seemed only fitting that I scale the very road that made me a dcTPP.
As we neared the pass (aka the east entrance to Yosemite National Park) we still saw plenty of snow on the high peaks. We were stopping every 5 minutes to take pictures because each view was more grand the higher we got. Tioga Lake was half frozen but it was a beautiful site. Onward...
After the entrance, we stopped at several more points where lakes and mountain peaks were the main feature. It took us a while to even get to Yosemite Valley. Once we did, we got pics of all the waterfalls, which were at their peak. We went to the visitor center and store to get the usual tourist trap stuff, and also saw the 22-minute movie of Yosemite in the theatre.
Once we finished with that, we continued on the road that led to Glacier Point. We spent an hour driving up to the top, overlooking and taking pics of the entire view of Yosemite Valley, and driving back down again.
I wanted to see the Sequoias at the southern end, but it was getting to be 6:00pm and we had a ways to drive, so I had to sacrifice that, which would have been another 1-mile hike. (Booo...)
From there, we travelled south on Hwy 41 to Fresno. Unfortunately there was a pretty gruesome accident, which caused us a 40-minute delay, so we didn't get to our destination of Selma, CA until 8:15pm PDT.
A lot of driving today. We're probably going to go straight home after visiting Sequoia National Park and not stop in Bakersfield. We're all anxious to get home.
Wow, that was a long day of driving! Thanks for sharing it all with us!
Mark
======== DAY 11 (FINAL) ======== (Updated May 23, 2007 - 10:30pm PDT)
We left Selma, CA, and headed back up north on Hwy 99, then using Hwy 41 as an access to Kings Canyon Road (Hwy 180) and steered east for Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks.
Now I thought that Kings Canyon was only accessible via Cedar Grove. I didn't realize until this morning that the boundaries of Kings Canyon included the tiny area which encompassed Grant Grove. Groovy. That means my total National Park count for this trip is 10. A nice round number.
Upon entering the park, we did the Visitor Center shindig, and then headed up Hwy 180 to Grant Grove. I remember the Redwoods from my 2005 roadtrip, but the size was nothing compared to these. Woo-wee. They are plenty big. I took way too many pictures of trees that didn't fit in the entire camera viewfinder.
An hour later we head down Hwy 198 and into Sequoia. Because of construction near the south end, we were trying to time our visit right, because they were only letting traffic through once an hour, on the top of the hour. As soon as we entered Sequoia, the giants of the Lost Grove came into view. More awesome. More pics.
Then we headed down to the Giant Forest. Because of time constraints, my folks didn't want to hike to the biggun, General Sherman tree. Oh well, this park is practically in my backyard so there's no reason not to return soon. We passed it up, but we did check out the Tunnel Log, as well as Mora Rock. I went ahead and climbed it, not knowing you had to go 300 feet up! I was once again out of breath climbing those stairs, but ah, well worth it. Excellent views all around.
It was 1:45pm PDT when I finished, so we booked it down the highway. When we reached the construction, there was no work being done. Figures. All that was there was a 9-minute alternating stoplight for traffic. *sigh*
Leaving the park, one of the awesome sights was Lake Kaweah, outside the park by Three Rivers. Absolutely gorgeous. If I ever get a boat or RV, I'm coming back here for sure.
We used Hwy 65 as a shortcut to Bakersfield, where we had an early dinner at Chipotle before taking off at 5:30pm PDT. Using Hwy 99 and then I-5 for the rest of the journey home, we made it in 2.5 hours. No traffic.
Good times. It is over. I'll organize my pics and get something for all to see soon. I'll also write a finale complete with trip stats when that is tallied.
Nice to be home, once again.
Today I've gotten everything squirt away. I'm glad I have until next Tuesday before I go back to work. There's so much to do trying to get settled back in.
Anyway, I have pics for all to see. Unfortunately Flickr only let me put a max of the last 200 pictures I uploaded (and I didn't know this until I uploaded over 400) so it was impossible to delete enough to get the entire trip in. Therefore it officially starts at around the Utah border (Day 3) and covers all National Parks from there to home. Unfortunately this means that Day 1 (Calico) and Day 2 (Death Valley) are not viewable at this time. Eventually as I get more picky with the pics, I can make room.
Also, as great as my Sony DSC-P200 camera is, there's a bunch of particles that got in there beyond the lens, and depending on the focus/zoom, you'll see blurry dots in some of the pictures. Nothing a little Photoshop work can't remove, but it's annoying, and it's been getting worse over time. Looks like a new camera is in the cards for 2008, before the next roadtrip anyway.
And finally, here are my stats for the trip:
Total miles: 2,990
Total stops: 24
Elapsed time: 10 days, 8 hours, 10 minutes
Total states: 4 (California, Arizona [briefly], Utah, Nevada)
Total national parks: 10 (Death Valley, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Arches, Great Basin, Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Sequoia)
Total national monuments: 1 (Natural Bridges)
Number of speeding tickets: 1 (Son of a...)
Gallons of fuel: 136.654 (21.88 MPG)
My own cost: US$1,252.93 (That includes my share of lodging, gas, minivan rental, food, personal expenses, and of course the $107 ticket. Watch those small towns, kids!!!)
Thanks for watching everyone.
haha...yeah, small towns in Utah are killer about speeding. They make half their revenue from nabbing tourists who happened to miss the one sign alerting the change in speed limits (so, if it makes you feel any better, your $100+ ticket is probably funding their next 4th of July parade. :P)
I live in Utah, so it's always fun to read the responses from people who visit! sounds like a great trip, I love Moab as well.
Nice Details
As a note, just passed through Escalante today. Didn't get a ticket, but someone else was being written up as I passed (doing the limit, I saw this thread) ;)
Probably the same jerk who wrote me up. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Twilight
I'm glad my caution of Utah small towns helped somebody out from contributing to their revenue.