Summer 2004 Road Trip: map, pics, stories inside

[Mariner]

i took this one as i was on the phone with colin (jczeroman) about meeting the next day. holding a cellphone and a clunker of a big old camera at the same time was a little hard.

[DeadSwan]

Originally posted by Mariner


is too! not a tropical rainforest, but a rainforest nonetheless.

i drove into washington from astoria, oregon. i stayed at ft. canby state park, right in the southwest corner of the state. had a close encounter with a bear there. drove up the coast on a still, misty, beautiful morning. spent the day hiking in olympic national park (where i took that picture). went swimming in the pacific ocean there, much to the surprise of the raincoat-sporting tourists checking out the tide pools. it was like 50 degrees and rainy, and there's me in my shorts jumping into the 35 degree ocean. i got some pretty entertaining looks on my way back to the jeep. stopped in port angeles for lunch, then made my way out to fort flagler state park for the night. explored the awesome ruins of this huge old early 1900s fort/gun batter there, where i took the following pictures:

my parents lived in port angeles and sequim. that area is really beautiful.

[Mariner]

Originally posted by DeadSwan



my parents lived in port angeles and sequim. that area is really beautiful.

heh, my mom just told me she's visited those same two towns when she was my age.

[DeadSwan]

Originally posted by Mariner


heh, my mom just told me she's visited those same two towns when she was my age.

your mom sounds hot

[distance]

Originally posted by Toby
I'm doing this next year...

me too. except i'm wanting to ******* alaska in my driving.
my plan is to work as much as i can for several months and then take july/august (or so) (hopefully) off to wander around.. maybe off and on.. maybe straight through.

i've done quite a few trips this year, though..

[distance]

Originally posted by Mariner


i never really found myself saying "man, i hate this place", but i wasn't impressed at all with Albuquerque, NM.

albuquerque wasn't bad for me (except for the fact that I40 was closed when i was coming into town), but man... wasn't I40 through the texas panhandle awful? i guess part of it could have been that i'd already driven 800+ miles the day before and then drove 800+ more that day that *******d that section of texas..

I80 through northern nevada is just about as bad.

[Mariner]

Originally posted by DeadSwan



your mom sounds hot

unfortunately, i'm used to "your mom" and "hot" being in the same sentence around me.

When I drove to NJ this May I decided I wanted to do a roadtrip similar to yours. Maybe after I graduate.

You were in Say Town and you didn't call a niggah up? That's fucked up.

[DeadSwan]

Originally posted by Mr. Rhinoceros

and you didn't call a niggah up?

that's b/c you can never understand what they're saying. why waste your quarter, when you could buy candy?

PS Two questions:

1) How's Wyoming. I want to visit so bad.

2) Why did you skip West Virginia? Everyone should see West Virginia at least once (and visit Morgantown and get roaring drunk).

[daydreamer999]

man those pictures are awesome, sounds like you had a great time as well...

music would be the only thing that'd keep me sane on a trip like that.

[Mariner]

Originally posted by distance


albuquerque wasn't bad for me (except for the fact that I40 was closed when i was coming into town), but man... wasn't I40 through the texas panhandle awful? i guess part of it could have been that i'd already driven 800+ miles the day before and then drove 800+ more that day that *******d that section of texas..

I80 through northern nevada is just about as bad.

yeah, that 800+ miles thing might've had something to do with it. i kinda liked 40 through the panhandle. big, open, slightly rolling country...and then you drive up that little 50' cliff and all the sudden it's like you're driving on top of a giant pool table at the top of the world - ridiculously flat, green, and endless. it was so monolithically, poignantly empty that it kinda got to me a little bit.

yeah, I-80 through nevada is probably the worst long drive i've ever done. that and the mojave desert around I-15 once it crosses south into california. like driving through a gravel pit for 3 hours.

I-80 incedentally follows the trail along the Humbolt River that settlers followed to get to California.

And you guys complain about driving across it...

[Mariner]

Originally posted by Mr. Rhinoceros
PS Two questions:

1) How's Wyoming. I want to visit so bad.

2) Why did you skip West Virginia? Everyone should see West Virginia at least once (and visit Morgantown and get roaring drunk).

i backpacked a night through the grand tetons. 21 miles and a 7,000 foot vertical climb and descent in 24 hours. absolutely, indescribably spectacular. just...damn. best. mountains. ever.

i'll hopefully have some better pics of the tetons in a day or two (the roll's still getting developed), but this is what i took on the backpacking segment of my teton visit.

[Mariner]

fresh off the melting teton glaciers

[Mariner]

my high school bud and his little brother, above a glacial lake at about 9,000 feet

[DeadSwan]

i think i've been to most of the places you visited. i think that's neat. national parks are totally under-rated.

[Mariner]

a lot of the hike was across steep, loose rock piles and snow fields. i was wearing hiking sandals and shorts, making my way across 3 foot deep snow formations hanging precariously off the side of the glacial valley walls. it was awesome. i stopped in the middle of one of them and took another pic of jon and mike.

note the trail disappearing off into the distance down the slope and off to the right of the picture - and that doesn't even do justice to the scale of this place

[Mariner]

i wish the color in these would've turned out right. the scenery on the hike was usually so big you couldn't even fit it all in one camera shot. just absolutely ridiculous. if i was gonna be a wilderness hermit, i'd want it to be there.

I should get my travel photographs developed.

[distance]

Originally posted by Mariner


yeah, that 800+ miles thing might've had something to do with it. i kinda liked 40 through the panhandle. big, open, slightly rolling country...and then you drive up that little 50' cliff and all the sudden it's like you're driving on top of a giant pool table at the top of the world - ridiculously flat, green, and endless. it was so monolithically, poignantly empty that it kinda got to me a little bit.

yeah, I-80 through nevada is probably the worst long drive i've ever done. that and the mojave desert around I-15 once it crosses south into california. like driving through a gravel pit for 3 hours.

green? i guess my going through in april made it not-so-green.
i don't remember the panhandle being interesting at all until around the NM border.. it was just flat with basically nothing in any direction.... nothing at most of the exits either....
except 'the largest cross in the western hemisphere".

I15 i didn't think was that bad because it's not that long of a drive.. and the speed limit is high.. i really don't remember much of my drive from vegas down 15.

i wish i would have had the time to get out and hike @ zion. i'm definitely going back sometime. we just drove through and there's really almost nothing that you can really see driving through.

i'm actually thinking of trying to check out those southern utah parks this winter.

[Mariner]

Originally posted by Mr. Rhinoceros
I-80 incedentally follows the trail along the Humbolt River that settlers followed to get to California.

And you guys complain about driving across it...

well, every place has its beauty, and i distinctly remember appreciating it there. unfortunately i have bad memories attached to that drive that have nothing to do with how scenic or not it was. the whole nearly identical ridge-and-valley over and over again thing got kind of old after 4 hours.

Originally posted by Mariner
the whole nearly identical ridge-and-valley over and over again thing got kind of old after 4 hours.

It's funny because I was reading a book about people going to California in 1849 and they would think that Cali would be over the next ridge and it wasn't it was just another ridge in the distance. It was pretty harrowing for them.

I'd like to make that drive just to see what it looks like, for historical understanding. I'm such a history nerd, when I went through Kentucky I stopped in Boonesborough and toured the replica of the fort that was first established there. It was so rad.

[Mariner]

Originally posted by distance


green? i guess my going through in april made it not-so-green.
i don't remember the panhandle being interesting at all until around the NM border.. it was just flat with basically nothing in any direction.... nothing at most of the exits either....
except 'the largest cross in the western hemisphere".

I15 i didn't think was that bad because it's not that long of a drive.. and the speed limit is high.. i really don't remember much of my drive from vegas down 15.

i wish i would have had the time to get out and hike @ zion. i'm definitely going back sometime. we just drove through and there's really almost nothing that you can really see driving through.

i'm actually thinking of trying to check out those southern utah parks this winter.

ha! i forgot about the "largest cross" thing. that got a laugh out of me. the best part was later in the trip when i saw signs for another cross claiming to be the "western hemisphere's largest" in a completely different place (and dammit i don't remember where it was).

definitely check out zion. of all the parks i visited that one was right up there. do the angel's landing hike.

Texas is fucking awesome.

[sppunk]

Aaron (Ace) and I did a drive similar to this two years ago, but we went north from Houston, toward the east to New York state and just kept going past the border. We came back down through Nevada, etc.

I want to do it again.

[distance]

Originally posted by Mariner


ha! i forgot about the "largest cross" thing. that got a laugh out of me. the best part was later in the trip when i saw signs for another cross claiming to be the "western hemisphere's largest" in a completely different place (and dammit i don't remember where it was).

definitely check out zion. of all the parks i visited that one was right up there. do the angel's landing hike.

well, one reason i'm wanting to do it in the winter is because i know the park is open year round.
also, i bought a national parks pass and so far the amount of what my park entrance fees would have cost me is only equal to the cost of the pass.. so if i don't go to more parks before next may, it won't have done much for me.

i have to do something.

i didn't see any other largest cross signs in other places, so i must not have gone where the other one was (or i wasn't paying attention).
if i was going to make something as pointless as that, i wouldn't put it so close to the interstate. why get off the interstate to see something like that when you can get more than enough of a view of it from the highway as you drive by at 70-80mph?
i also didn't really think it was all THAT big. i was expecting something a lot bigge.r

[Mariner]

Originally posted by Mr. Rhinoceros


It's funny because I was reading a book about people going to California in 1849 and they would think that Cali would be over the next ridge and it wasn't it was just another ridge in the distance. It was pretty harrowing for them.

I'd like to make that drive just to see what it looks like, for historical understanding. I'm such a history nerd, when I went through Kentucky I stopped in Boonesborough and toured the replica of the fort that was first established there. It was so rad.

you might really like fort flagler state park, then. for about a mile along the cliffs overlooking the entrance to puget sound, there's half a dozen huge old gun batteries/bunkers a few hundred yards across, some going 3 stories into the ground, each a big maze of concrete and rusty iron and steel.

[Mariner]

Originally posted by distance


why get off the interstate to see something like that when you can get more than enough of a view of it from the highway as you drive by at 70-80mph?
i also didn't really think it was all THAT big. i was expecting something a lot bigge.r

i had exactly the same thoughts when i saw it.

and yeah, use that pass a bunch. there're national parks all over the place, especially out west, and they all seem to have pretty cool stuff to experience. i bought one for the road trip and used it at 13 + nat'l parks. good stuff.

[distance]

Originally posted by Mariner

and yeah, use that pass a bunch. there're national parks all over the place, especially out west, and they all seem to have pretty cool stuff to experience. i bought one for the road trip and used it at 13 + nat'l parks. good stuff.

there's nothing terribly interesting around VA for me to use it on, though.

i guess acadia isn't THAT far away, but the coolest stuff is all in western states/alaska/hawaii

the east seems to be mostly historical sites/national monuments/etc. i am not terribly interested in battlefields/dead people's houses.

i think i only used the pass at zion, petrified forest, yellowstone.
originally i was going to yosemite and grand canyon, but didn't. almost went to glacier too.