TRIP ROUTE ACTUAL (altered due to deer strike in southeast Idaho on Day #3):
TRIP ROUTE AS PLANNED:
TRIP ROUTE ACTUAL (altered due to deer strike in southeast Idaho on Day #3):
April-May 2013. Two main reasons for this trip. One, to visit four friends I otherwise rarely see. Two, to tie up some loose ends (although one still remains) and visit/photograph certain type places that I like to visit such as state capitol buildings and major universities and national parks. This is the last big road trip I have planned for the western states (but do have a couple of small fly-then-drive trips planned for in the next ten months). And that one loose end (re-visit and completely traverse Glacier National Park) will probably be a fly-to-nearby-and-drive-through-the-park) will need to be taken care of in the near future.
TRAVELING IN GENERAL: By this time, I have already spent a night in all 48 continental states. The remaining goals
in them are:
Of course the west has many beautiful areas. I am guessing that in order to help preserve it, states have passed
laws not allowing PT Cruisers to be sold because I hardly saw any. :>)
NEBRASKA: Nebraska was mostly just to get through on this trip. Making distance my first day. I went on
I=80. From my trip in the 1980's I thought I-80 paralleled the Platte River which looked cool. But this time I
did not even see the river. Unknown what happened. I was able to watch a distant rqin wtorm going on. Maybe 75
to 100 miles in the distance. Cool to watch that. In the panhandle area, all sloping places along the interstate
still had snow.
WYOMING: I had previously been through the beautiful northern part of the state. Now it was time to traverse
the southern half. The north is mountains and trees. I had heard that the south was boring, featureless terrain.
Time to find out for myself. However, I knew that the Flaming Gorge area in the southwest would probably be worth
a look, so I drove around it which briefly took me into Utah. But I was wrong about that. It was basically just
featuresless mountains and trees. The highway to it had construction. So I abandoned the hour-and-a-half trek
around the park. I was surprised at how much snow was still on the ground in southern Wyoming, especially the
south central part. The snow was melted west of the town of Rawling. I really liked the town of Green River.
And Rock Springs is quite a built up area. Impressive.
IDAHO: This was my third visit in five years to the state. This time I covered some places I had not been
to before. Plus, I wanted to visit a very dear friend living there. We were on our way to tour several small towns,
including some ghost towns, in the mountains and forests of the southern half of the state plus parts of Nampa-Boise.
But the deer strike cancelled that. I also intended to drive through the central part of the state, south to north,
on the way to Glacier National Park then spend a night in Post Falls. But that was cancelled due to the deer strike.
GLACIER NATIONAL PARK: Soon the glaciers will be gone. So much of them have already disappeared due to
global warming. (okay, for those who choose to deny global warming, it IS here. There is too much overwhelming
evidence of cold things, such as glaciers, disappering. Maybe the political beef is what caused global warming.
I will not debate that here but only state the fact that things are disappearing). I missed seeing much of it
in 2009 because of locking the keys in the rental car. This time I did not even make it to Montana because of
car repairs needed after striking a deer in southern Idaho. Maybe third time will be the charm for this park,
someday.
SEATTLE-TACOMA: I have two friends living in this area, plus, the northwest corner of the U.S. is simply
an incredibly beautiful place. Puget Sound, the mountains and trees, Olympic National Park.....Wow! And what is
fun is that these two friends had never met although they knew about each other. So, on the Saturday when I was
in the area, we all went to tour Olympic National Park. The day before we toured a number of places in Tacoma
both on foot and driving.
VICTORIA and VANCOUVER: Only time I have ever been out of the U.S. was in 1983 when we just went over the
border into Ontatio at Ste. Sault Marie. The plan was to eat dinner somewhere just to say we had been in Canada.
No passports needed then. However, once we got into Canada, my wife at the time got nervous and wanted to return
to the U.S., immediately. So, just a few minutes in Canada then.
OREGON: Wanted to visit some of the western Oregon towns plus see the University of Oregon in Eugene and
visit the Crater Lake National Park. And near Crater is the town of Klamath Falls. Decided to spend some time in
that area. Oregon, while pretty in some places, just did not have, to me, that WOW factor that some mountain states
have. Oregon does not allow service stations customers to pump their own gas. And the state might have a law
saying vehicle headlights should always be on. Logging trucks are everywhere and as one drives north on I-5 from
the California line, the terrain slopes downhill. Lastly, I-5 traffic in both directions are two sets of long
car chains. I am glad I am done with visiting Oregon.
CALIFORNIA: To date I had only been in central California, twice to San Francisco with a drive to Yosemite.
This time I got to cover the north half. A future trip (?next year?) will cover the southern half.
Then when I came into Nevada from Oregon thus got to see northeastern California which is quite beautiful, especially
highway 139 for about 50 miles north of Susanville. Then I went to on South Lake Tahoe (was here in 1996 or 1997).
I went in and out of Modoc National Forest several times in northeast California while driving. Pretty area. And Lake
Eagle was a special place. I need to return to Lake Tahoe someday and explore its western shore plus the town of
Truckee and stay at its Donner Lodge.
NEVADA: I have been to Nevada twice before. Once, I flew into Reno (with a stop-over in Elko), then drove into
the incredibly beautiful Lake Tahoe area -- and fell in love with that place -- plus visited Virginia City and saw
the "Ponderosa" building from the 1960's television show "Bonanza". On another trip I was in Las Vegas (and was not
impressed). This time I was in the state just to photograph the state capitol in Carson City so stayed in the South
Lake Tahoe area (a very nice, and reasonable, Best Western that includes a full breakfast. Beyond the Lake Tahoe
area, much of Nevada seems so desolate. Same can be said for the extreme southeast corner of Oregon.
UTAH: I got to pass through the state twice on this trip -- once coming out and then again going home.
Utah is a beautiful state with quite a variety of terrain. Their snow-capped mountains looked postcard picturesque.
Got to visit a long-time friend, a person whom I have kept in touch with longer than anyone else in my life.
On the way out of the state I noticed I could swing by to see Arches National park, so I did.
COLORADO: Lots of states have great mountains, both in the west and the east. But no state has mountains
like Colorado does. Their just seem bigger and more omnious and overwhelming. The White River Forest area still
had LOTS of snow.
I have been to Colorado several times in the past. This time it was only to photograph the state
capitol building while heading home.
Since I have been a Peyton Manning fan since he became the starter for the University of Tennessee (which I have
been a lifelong fan) and I root for whatever NFL team he is on, I was hoping to find a #18 jersey while in Denver.
But, alas, I was in town too early on a Sunday when no stores were open.
NEW MEXICO: Being in this state was not in the original plans for this trip. Was scheduled to be here in
October when I fly to Phoenix. But because this trip's plans were altered by the deer strike, I decided to trek down
from Denver to Santa Fe and photograph the capitol. Just as well to get it over with now because, while I love much
about the state of New Mexico, I consider Santa Fe to be my #1 least favorite place on the planet. It is absolutely
amazing how difficult it is to find anything in town, or even drive around the block. Even the GPS was confused.
So, I am glad I got the photos of the capitol completed there.
OKLAHOMA: Like New Mexico, I did not originally plan to be in this state on this trip. This state was
scheduled for the trip in September. So, on this trip, I completed a portion of the two fall trips which means their
iteniary has now changed. Besides photographing the capitol, I wanted to visit the Oklahoma City Memorial which was
established after the bombing of the government building in the 1990's. It is part of the national park service, thus,
counts towards my goal of visiting 100 national parks/memorials/battlefields.
IMPRESSIONS: The western U.S. has so much beauty and is so different from the eastern half. The western states
are so much larger than the eastern states and it takes much longer to drive between places. There seems to be more
national parks of rugged beauty than in the east. And certainly the population density is much smaller in the west
than in the east. The west is for seeing/visiting nature while the east is for older historical sites and where most
all of my ancestors lived (all but a few in South Dakota). So trips through east and west are quite different. I
appreciate the diversity.
OBSERVATIONS: Some observations made while traveling in this area:
The Bests:
The Totals:
This trip will greatly help the above by adding nine state capitols and six national parks/sites/recs.
I was supposed to complete the visit to Glacier National Park (but the deer strike cancelled that visit).
I was there in 2009 but locked my keys in the rental
car and lost visiting time waiting to get it unlocked. So, round two. I also get to visit some friends. I have
friends and relatives scattered all over the U.S. and always make a point to visit them when in their area.
This time, one of my friends in Seattle had challenged (we often do that to each other) to get my passport before
I arrive. That way, we could visit Victoria and Vancouver via the ferries. For months I looked forward to visiting
Canada again. After I finish covering my U.S. trip goals (by 2019), I will then take on the Canadian provinces. Lots of
incredible places in Canada -- Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, St. Lawrence River (love that name!)
and more. But the place I am most looking forward to visiting in Canada is Banff National Park and Lake Louise.
That is probably the most beautiful place in all of North America.
The Worsts: