Purposes of this trip:
1. Get the last three college signs in California (leaving two in Washington and two in Alaska to complete that photography project)
2. Visit several national parks including some attemted in the past but came up short
3. Cover parts of the U.S. where I had large swatches yet un-visited (e.g. northeastern Montana, northwestern North Dakota and northeastern South Dakota
The plans for this trip changed several times during the pandemic time. Losing the option of visiting Glacier National Park on this trip and visiting Canada in September caused me to switch some things between the two trips. I found out way too late about the National Park Service doing a lottery of entry tickets to some of the more popular parts to limit the number of visitors. Thus, I missed, for the third attempt, to drive the Going-to-the-Sun road. It never occurred to me that such a remote park as Glacier would be highly visited. So trip itineraries changed!
KANSAS: Since I had already gone to western Kansas twice earlier this year, for this trip it was just as pass-thru. I noticed
that the western quarter of Kansas is REALLY flat. That is where people must get their idea that the entire state is flat.
I did notice, for the first time, that right on the border of Kansas and Colorado is the town of Kanorado (kan-orado). Cute!
And I also noticed that, instead of numbered streets being "Street" or "Avenue" they call them "Road" and "Boulevard".
OBSERVATIONS: Some observations made while traveling in this area:
The Bests:
The Totals:
UTAH: Glen Canyon is the last of the national parks -- as far as I know -- of the many in this state that I had yet to visit. I have twice tried to get into Zion
but is also very popular and on both my attempts the lines to simply get into the park were incredibly long. I also had a chance to meet some friends in Utah, one
at breakfast and another at lunch. Poor Glen Canyon's Lake Powell is disappearing. They had to suspend the ferry rides because most of the lake is only
eight feet deep now and dropping daily. Drought!!
CALIFORNIA: Several "loose ends" for this state. Some planned for this trip and some planned for the trip the following month (September). For this trip I
limited it to photographing the signs on three of the remaining seven campuses I want to photograph. Two other places -- the town of Truckee (got snowed out of
visiting the town a few years earlier) and Lassen Volcanic National Park (also snowed out) -- were rescheduled for the September trip.
In this state both the traffic and the temperatures are unusual. Everywhere seems to have so much traffic, mostly drivers that exceed the speed limits by 10, 20 or more.
And the temperatures were dramatic too. In the mornings in some places it was around 50 degrees (e.g. along the coast south of San Francisco) to near
100 inland only as far as Sacramento.
NEVADA: I have been to this state several times in years past. And, I will be in it twice in 2021. But, I will end up driving
along the same highways on both trips between Truckee CA and Oasis NV. Since about 1995 when I did a land-but-stay-on-plane into little Elko NV I have wanted to
drive through it so as to cover up the simple dot on my map of "places I have been to". With this trip and the trip in September I will drive thru Elko once in
each direction east-to-west and west-to-east. That will take care of that "dot"! Oh, and I also drove three hours for 200 miles out of my way to drive through Ely
NV just because I wanted to drive through more parts of the state of Nevada where I had never driven before.
I left the hotel during the Reno Rush Hour and headed east on I-80. I figured there would be little traffic there then. Wrong! Numerous vehicles.
However, many exited at the road called USA Pkwy and most everyone else exited at the road called Nevada Pacific Pkwy. By then, it was down to what
I was expecting -- me a just a few other vehicles.
I-80 had few landscape features worthy of looking at. Plus, the sky was hazy th entire time -- maybe smoke from nearby forest fire?
When I flew over it 25 year ago it looked like all sandy desert. It is desert but
more than simply sand. I saw two trains paralleling I-80 and they had to have been at least a mile long.
However, after driving across I-80 this trip -- knowing I would have to drive it again next month in the opposite direction -- and encountered
seven places of construction for a total of 40 or 50 miles -- I decided I would change my trip plans for next month skip Nevada in September.
Another pain point was how the speed limit would flop between 85 MPH and 80 MPH maybe every 40 - 50 miles, for no apparent reason.
But that mattered little when we were poking along behind a huge truck or RV at 45 - 50 MPH on the one lane at the many construction places.
IDAHO: I came here to visit one of two national parks in the state that I had tried to visit in recent years but was unable to for different reasons. It seems
that of the 200-plus national parks I have thus far visited, many (maybe 15 to 20) I have to return a second time, and even a third time for some, to finally get to
actually visit the park. For this trip I made it to Craters of the Moon National Park. In the trip next month it will be the Hagerman Fossil National Park
MONTANA: I wanted to visit two national parks in this state -- Big Hole for my second attempt and Glacier for my third attempt. I also wanted to drive in the
northeastern part of the state where I had never been. Just a few weeks before this trip I happen to hear in passing that the National Park Service was doing a
lottery of entry tickets to the most visited parks to keep the number of visitors to a minimum. So I missed, for the third time, driving the Going-to-the-Sun road.
Once I left Big Hole, that was pretty much the end of the trip goals although I had a couple more days being on the road to home.
Just as I was getting to the Dillon exit I noticed the sign saying Dillon is the home of the University of Montana Western. So I went to the campus first to
photograph a campus sign. Another university added to my "collection" of campus signs!!
NORTH DAKOTA: This state was another sort-of-out-of-my-way on the way home to drive through a few other large chunks of the U.S. that I had never been
through before.
SOUTH DAKOTA: Been in this state several times in the past. After this trip I have covered most of it. Many small towns have their own airport.
Much of the state is rolling grassy hills surrounded by farmland.
NEBRASKA: Nebraska and Kansas are the only western states not bordering the Pacific Ocean, that do not have 80 MPH speed limits. Interestingly, when a
highway bridge goes over a river, instead of calling them XYZ River they call them "Creeks".
COLORADO: This state was mostly a pass-through. I did notice a new type highway sign, it says "Road Heave Area".
MISSED VISITING:
--Glacier National Park -- for the third time! Because of so many visitors to it, there was a "lottery" to get an entrance ticket. I learned about this
way too late.
--Big Hole -- for the second time! Website said it was open (although visitor center closed) but the park entrance was barricaded with a "Closed" sign.
The Worsts:
Note that these two first-time parks make 211 (of 423 total) that I have visited over my lifetime although some I have yet to actually get into: Zion (two attempts), Big Hole (two attempts), Lassen (one attempt), Hagerman's (one attempt). And, I still need a photo of the sign for Smoky Mountain and Rocky Mountain.
Just to list this as of August 2021:
Remaining to Visit by State