Road Trip - May 2006
After a couple of days decompressing in Austin from my road trip, I finally have some time to write up a trip report.
I left Everett on Tuesday, May 22nd after over sleeping a couple hours. I missed the traffic any how on the other end of it. I got to Crater Lake NP that evening but there was still a bunch of snow on the ground and it was cloudy so I didn’t stay long. Didn’t feel like camping on the snow, so I drove back down lower to some camp ground north of Klamath Falls, OR.
Got an early start Wednesday and drove to Yosemite. Camp 4 was full so I paid $20 for the pleasure of sleeping among the RVs. I was seriously the only person on my row in a tent. It was depressing. Got up early on Thursday to secure my spot at Camp 4 for 2 more nights.
Yosemite is both the most incredible and most depressing national park I have ever been too. Its so beautiful but then there is all this infrastructure right there in the valley. Hotels with swimming pools, restaurants, housing, and hundreds of RVs all in this gorgeous place. It’s a shame we have to wait until the next ice age for glaciers to come and scrape that valley clean again. The place is impressive though and made me really want to do some climbing there. On Thursday I hiked up to the top of Yosemite Falls. That was a cool hike, but crowded of course. Friday I hiked up to Glacier Point and then on to Sentinal Dome. Such good views from up there. Mesquites were bad in the valley though. I’m in love with the High Sierras now! What an incredible place. I can’t believe I’ve just now made my first trip there. I’ll be back soon to do some climbing.
On my way out of Yosemite early Saturday morning I stopped near this meadow to get a view of El Cap. I walked down this little path into this meadow. What a sight!! There was only 1 other couple there, about 30 feet away from me on a similar path. As the girl turned to walk back to their car, I noticed she looked very familiar (and cute!!). I thought “could it be?” Then I saw the license plates on their car. Colorado. Yep, it was Beth and Tommy standing there in the meadow with me admiring El Cap in the early morning light. Of course they saw it from a different perspective than me….. I said nothing to them as I’m sure they just wanted their time alone.
As I was driving off Beth was standing out side the car. I rolled down my window and said “Beth, I love you. Leave Tommy and come climb 5.6 with me” and then sped away.
I actually didn’t think of that until after I had driven off. I was in a strange mood that morning so I likely would have said that if I had thought about it at the time.
Then I stopped on the south end of Yosemite and did a short hike through one of the Sequoia groves. Those Sequoias are big trees, but we have some pretty big trees over in the Olympics too. It was cool and cold. It snowed a little while I was walking back to the car.
Then I drove down to Sequoia NP and because it was memorial day weekend all the camp sites were full so I had to keep driving. Bummer, it looked like a great place from the road. On the way out of the park I saw a bear from the road. That is my first bear sighting!
I kept driving south and then headed back up into the mountains south of Sequoia NP. There were no Forest service roads on the road I was on so I ended up turning around after a couple hours driving and driving back down. That evening I slept in the front seat of my car at some state park at a lake. Pretty uncomfortable. I was desperate and I would have slept anywhere, but there was nothing!!
Sunday I drove across SoCal to Lake Havasu City, AZ. I knew LHC was a hot spot for spring breakers, so I expected a spring break type atmosphere on this memorial day weekend. Fortunately due to cancellations there were campsites available. I set up my tent and went to the beach. I was not disappointed. The lake was packed. Lots of chicks in bikinis and many wearing much less! It was definitely spring break! Actually worse than spring break according to one person I talked to.
Monday, I packed up and drove to Flagstaff. Checked into a cool hostel there and then had lunch on Ken’s old stomping grounds (Northern AZ University). Used the internet at the library there and walked around the campus and the town. Flagstaff rocks. The weather was perfect and I really dig the town. I’m definitely staying at that hostel again. Lots of travelers there which was cool and the people that worked there were cool too.
Tuesday I drove on down to El Paso, one of the butt holes of Texas, to pick up my Dad at the airport. We then drove a couple hours to Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Camped out under perfect stars that night. Wednesday we hiked up to the top of Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas at ~8,759 feet. Having done the same hike a year and a half ago, it was still a bunch of fun, especially hiking it with my Dad. That evening we drove to this resort ranch that my Dad’s friend is managing right now. He told us that Tommy Lee Jones had been there the night before and we just missed him. On the way there we drove through a Texas-sized thunder storm complete with hail, wind, lots of lightening, and zero-visibility rain. Fun, fun. The ranch was really cool actually, even though they do have some exotic animals you can pay to shoot. Its “that type” of place. Fortunately I didn’t have to witness any of that as it was weighing heavily on my mind as we drove there. Saw a couple of camels on the drive out the next morning.
Thursday we drove over to Big Bend NP and did a hike there that afternoon. The last time my dad was on that trail he had an encounter with a large mountain lion so he pointed out were it all happened. Kind of freaky to be hiking along, alone and run into a mountain lion laying in the trail! I was hoping to run into one myself since there were 2 of us this time but no luck.
Finally on Friday morning we woke up leisurely and made the 8 hour final drive to Austin.
All told, my road trip was 3,274 miles, 65 hours of total driving time, 168 gallons of gas (yikes), and $515 in gas. Averaged around 20 mpg in my jeep seeing as high as 22 mpg on one particular tank, but also as low as 17 mpg on some of the really steep mountain roads. Gas was the cheapest here in Austin at $2.65/gallon I paid $3.45/gallon at one place in CA and saw it for as high as $4/gallon in Sequoia NP. Glad I didn’t have to fill up there!! I don’t think a mile went by that I didn’t feel guilty for driving around in my SUV! That’s a lot of guilt eh?
Its hot here in Austin. Went for a run this morning and nearly died! And it was only 85° at the time! The hotties are still around too. Don’t know what they are putting in the water here, but its working…… Forgot how great Austin is for that. I could never live here again though.
I left Everett on Tuesday, May 22nd after over sleeping a couple hours. I missed the traffic any how on the other end of it. I got to Crater Lake NP that evening but there was still a bunch of snow on the ground and it was cloudy so I didn’t stay long. Didn’t feel like camping on the snow, so I drove back down lower to some camp ground north of Klamath Falls, OR.
Got an early start Wednesday and drove to Yosemite. Camp 4 was full so I paid $20 for the pleasure of sleeping among the RVs. I was seriously the only person on my row in a tent. It was depressing. Got up early on Thursday to secure my spot at Camp 4 for 2 more nights.
Yosemite is both the most incredible and most depressing national park I have ever been too. Its so beautiful but then there is all this infrastructure right there in the valley. Hotels with swimming pools, restaurants, housing, and hundreds of RVs all in this gorgeous place. It’s a shame we have to wait until the next ice age for glaciers to come and scrape that valley clean again. The place is impressive though and made me really want to do some climbing there. On Thursday I hiked up to the top of Yosemite Falls. That was a cool hike, but crowded of course. Friday I hiked up to Glacier Point and then on to Sentinal Dome. Such good views from up there. Mesquites were bad in the valley though. I’m in love with the High Sierras now! What an incredible place. I can’t believe I’ve just now made my first trip there. I’ll be back soon to do some climbing.
On my way out of Yosemite early Saturday morning I stopped near this meadow to get a view of El Cap. I walked down this little path into this meadow. What a sight!! There was only 1 other couple there, about 30 feet away from me on a similar path. As the girl turned to walk back to their car, I noticed she looked very familiar (and cute!!). I thought “could it be?” Then I saw the license plates on their car. Colorado. Yep, it was Beth and Tommy standing there in the meadow with me admiring El Cap in the early morning light. Of course they saw it from a different perspective than me….. I said nothing to them as I’m sure they just wanted their time alone.
As I was driving off Beth was standing out side the car. I rolled down my window and said “Beth, I love you. Leave Tommy and come climb 5.6 with me” and then sped away.
I actually didn’t think of that until after I had driven off. I was in a strange mood that morning so I likely would have said that if I had thought about it at the time.
Then I stopped on the south end of Yosemite and did a short hike through one of the Sequoia groves. Those Sequoias are big trees, but we have some pretty big trees over in the Olympics too. It was cool and cold. It snowed a little while I was walking back to the car.
Then I drove down to Sequoia NP and because it was memorial day weekend all the camp sites were full so I had to keep driving. Bummer, it looked like a great place from the road. On the way out of the park I saw a bear from the road. That is my first bear sighting!
I kept driving south and then headed back up into the mountains south of Sequoia NP. There were no Forest service roads on the road I was on so I ended up turning around after a couple hours driving and driving back down. That evening I slept in the front seat of my car at some state park at a lake. Pretty uncomfortable. I was desperate and I would have slept anywhere, but there was nothing!!
Sunday I drove across SoCal to Lake Havasu City, AZ. I knew LHC was a hot spot for spring breakers, so I expected a spring break type atmosphere on this memorial day weekend. Fortunately due to cancellations there were campsites available. I set up my tent and went to the beach. I was not disappointed. The lake was packed. Lots of chicks in bikinis and many wearing much less! It was definitely spring break! Actually worse than spring break according to one person I talked to.
Monday, I packed up and drove to Flagstaff. Checked into a cool hostel there and then had lunch on Ken’s old stomping grounds (Northern AZ University). Used the internet at the library there and walked around the campus and the town. Flagstaff rocks. The weather was perfect and I really dig the town. I’m definitely staying at that hostel again. Lots of travelers there which was cool and the people that worked there were cool too.
Tuesday I drove on down to El Paso, one of the butt holes of Texas, to pick up my Dad at the airport. We then drove a couple hours to Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Camped out under perfect stars that night. Wednesday we hiked up to the top of Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas at ~8,759 feet. Having done the same hike a year and a half ago, it was still a bunch of fun, especially hiking it with my Dad. That evening we drove to this resort ranch that my Dad’s friend is managing right now. He told us that Tommy Lee Jones had been there the night before and we just missed him. On the way there we drove through a Texas-sized thunder storm complete with hail, wind, lots of lightening, and zero-visibility rain. Fun, fun. The ranch was really cool actually, even though they do have some exotic animals you can pay to shoot. Its “that type” of place. Fortunately I didn’t have to witness any of that as it was weighing heavily on my mind as we drove there. Saw a couple of camels on the drive out the next morning.
Thursday we drove over to Big Bend NP and did a hike there that afternoon. The last time my dad was on that trail he had an encounter with a large mountain lion so he pointed out were it all happened. Kind of freaky to be hiking along, alone and run into a mountain lion laying in the trail! I was hoping to run into one myself since there were 2 of us this time but no luck.
Finally on Friday morning we woke up leisurely and made the 8 hour final drive to Austin.
All told, my road trip was 3,274 miles, 65 hours of total driving time, 168 gallons of gas (yikes), and $515 in gas. Averaged around 20 mpg in my jeep seeing as high as 22 mpg on one particular tank, but also as low as 17 mpg on some of the really steep mountain roads. Gas was the cheapest here in Austin at $2.65/gallon I paid $3.45/gallon at one place in CA and saw it for as high as $4/gallon in Sequoia NP. Glad I didn’t have to fill up there!! I don’t think a mile went by that I didn’t feel guilty for driving around in my SUV! That’s a lot of guilt eh?
Its hot here in Austin. Went for a run this morning and nearly died! And it was only 85° at the time! The hotties are still around too. Don’t know what they are putting in the water here, but its working…… Forgot how great Austin is for that. I could never live here again though.
posted by Dustin at 1:28 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home