Two adults. One small dog, and a Lexus 350. 5000 miles in ~4 weeks.
As you might know, Sharon and I have arrived. And so we’re making the most of it. We’re trying to visit National Parks and Monuments, and spend most of it roughing it. Roughing it…sleeping in the back of the Lexus, or in cabins, or on rare occasion a motel when we need laundry.
Where have we been? I’m glad you asked. Sharon left two weeks before me and hiked from Denver to Twin Lakes; I spent two days driving there from Austin, and we spent a couple of days there before moving on to…
Moab, New Mexico. It’s home to Arches, and Canyonlands. You know Arches – at least, if you’ve seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade you do – it’s the red stone stuff at the very beginning. You know Canyonlands because that’s where Thelma and Louise drove off the cliff. Absolutely beautiful, and reminiscent of Uluru, which lifted my heart as I miss the NT.
After that, a couple of days drive to get to Yellowstone. It’s an odd NP – everyone wants to go see the geysers and waterpots – Old Faithful, for example. But the wildlife and green areas trump that for us, and by a long way. Rolling green hills and mountains, bears, bison, elk, and pronghorns. Unfortunately, no deer. We spent three nights there, all in the back of the car.
After that, off to Glacier, stopping at an excellent distillery on the way. They do a cucumber gin in a way that Hendricks should learn from. It is, as the name suggests, about glaciers, and lakes, and…we spent some time at Lake Bowman, which involved a trek on some unfinished roads, and was totally worth it. Mountains and snow in the distance, and an absolutely tranquil lake.
And on to Grand Tetons – it’s like Glacier, but redux.
And Monument Valley. Do you know Monument Valley? Of course you do. Once Upon a Time in the West; The Searchers; Stagecoach… It’s a difficult two hour road trip, but you’ll not see anything like it.
I’ve given the individual parks short shrift, because there are common themes across all of them.
Each is beautiful, in its own way. Some are stark, some are lush, but I would defy anyone to leave them without having their heart moved.
America founded National Parks – it really is their (our?) gift to the world, starting with Yellowstone under Ulysses S Grant. They might be the best part of the US government, and the people who work there really do believe in the mission.
Ordinary America is full of great people. We’ve been travelling through mainly Red states, with the occasional outcrop of blue (hello Moab!), and the asshole factor has been incredibly low. We had a minor traffic incident, and couldn’t have asked for better help from onlookers and Tribal Police. It’s a timely reminder that the vocal idiots don’t represent the majority.
We used Shaka Guide Apps; basically, it’s a GPS generated sountrack to your NP, and I think it’s a genius idea. “Up ahead is a turnout for a waterfall view; it’s OK to skip it because there’s a better one just ahead.” As long as you stick to the speed limit, their timing of the material is spot on. The only issue that a lot of the presentation is “enthusiastic middle school teacher”, but if you can get past that they are invaluable.
We ate out once – Jennifers, in Coram Montana. It was a salutary lesson is that simple food, prepared well, is tough to beat. Expertly seasoned salmon on charred seasonal veg, cauliflower puree with crispy pancetta, and meatballs, accompanied by an excellent cocktail.
It’s a long post, so why make it? Well, America has – justifiably – a bum rap right now. This was a great reminder that there is a lot of beauty left here, filled with good people. A reminder that I can never, ever, live in anything bigger than a small village again. Montana is the Big Sky state, and I love that. If you come to the USA, try to do a NP or two. There’s 63 of them.
We’re doing the PNW next.
https://imgur.com/a/2dkUMJA
Great trip. And good to be reminded that the USA isn’t Washington, although I seem to remember that the national parks service has been getting a bit of a hammering from the Orange Turd. Any sign of this?
Not really – smooth sailing all the way.
That said, right at the end of the trip he shrunk the size of some National Monuments.
With luck, in his extended descent into a deluded second childhood, the Orange Turd will state categorically that he is a really, really good climber, the best, in fact always has been, all the experts agree, all of ’em, and decide to free-climb El Capitan.
I did wonder how far this thread would get before he was mentioned. First reply, though – I should have had a bet!
It sounds like a wonderful trip. Bringing a small dog seems like a bold move, if you were all living in the car! How did he/she get on?
I hope you’ll write a bit more, as your trip progresses.
Hope – the dog – does really well.
She gets herself sorted on the mattress and down duvet we have and semi dozes as we travel. Any chance we have we give her a break outside the car. Her eating is a little off, but not in a concerning way.
The only slight challenge is the sleeping, but we work round that. Trans: I cede space to her…
It’s nice to see a post that calls out how many good people there are in the US and how many fantastic places there are to visit. Only ever managed to get to 4 of the national parks but they were simply stunning.
There are many nice people in the US, just don’t criticize their country or offer any opinions that other places could be better
The most spectacular geyser I saw in Yellowstone is the one called Steamboat. It’s not as regular as Old Faithful, nor as popular. But if it’s erupting it’s a sight to see. I guess I was lucky.
Paintpots is a really interesting area too.
Unfortunately @sitheref2409 because it’s on Imgur I can’t see your post
A late thought.
As you can see, we did a lot of driving. And a not very much of it was on Interstates. Most of it was US highways or State Highways/Routes. So, lots of mileage between really small communities.
What struck me is how much of America has just been left behind. Small towns and cities (which has a very flexible definition) just slowly deteriorating away. Next bit of civilization possibly a hundred miles away.
It’s easy to mock the ~40% of Americans who don’t vote, but going through these places made me think: why would you? If your local “big” place is in that kind of state, through multiple different presidencies and governorships, why would you bother?
It’s hot, or windy, or both. It gets horrid in the winter. There’s very little industry, and there’s no big company coming to the locale’s rescue. The poverty level, for all ethnicities, is bad.
If your education barely got past GCSE and you were living there, how invested would you be? How open would you be to someone who look3d like disrupting the status quo that got your community to the state it’s in?
I’ll be honest, it made me stop and think a bit.
Funny you should say that – I’ve had the same thought. One of the things I like to do when I’m bored with doing what I’m supposed to be doing is wander around small US towns in the middle of nowhere courtesy of Street View. The sort of places the Street View car hasn’t been to since 2008. The sort of places Jack Reacher shows up to in fact, which is what got me started.
It’s impossible not to wonder about the lives of the people who live there. If indeed there are any people – it’s remarkable how few you see walking the streets.
I lived in small town US for a couple of years. Upstate New York about 90 miles north of NYC. It was certainly eye opening, the fact that many people had to work multiple jobs in order to make ends meet, no paid vacation, ridiculously high medical expenses, horrid weather at times. But nearly all of them still believe they are living in the “best country in the world” and that the rest of the world doesn’t have “freedom”.
* was a nice place to live though (Hudson Valley)