The trip up the Pacific Coast Higway was as wonderful as I expected. I took hundreds of pictures and we listened to hours of the Beatles. Our stay in San Francisco, or Redwood City to be exact, was short but filled with laughter and friends. I will be writing about it all as soon as I can get unpacked and get my life back on track.
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When Jake and I drove across the country this summer, we covered every state to the west of Oklahoma, except California. We had a list of locations in the state that we wanted to make sure to cover. Jake said that maybe we should do those another time since we were now officially living in California and would have time to see it. Well, it’s been six months and we’ve only visited one of those locations: Joshua Tree National Park. Our list still includes: Death Valley, Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Park, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, and driving the Pacific Coast Highway. When we decided to move to Southern California, I had never been to this part of the country. Six months before our move, we made a list of all the cities we thought we’d like to live in and then eliminated them one by one. We couldn’t live in Chicago because it was too cold and too expensive. Jake wanted to live somewhere warm; I wanted to live by the water. We both wanted something that was a decent-sized city but neither one of us wanted the expensive rents and tiny apartments of New York City anymore. We made it! Our amazing trip is finally over and we’ve now started the fun business of looking for an apartment. It will be followed by finding a moving company and a job. I suppose the vacation was bound to end eventually. Hoover Dam is on the way from the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas so we, invariably, stopped for a few minutes and took some pictures. I thought, as I knew I would, that it wasn’t that impressive. However, I am sure it must have been in the 30s. I had reserved a hotel, Treasure Island, using hotels.com, a night ago in Williams, Arizona. We drove in around 6pm and waited too long to check in. Since it was a Wednesday, the Cirque de Soleil show in our hotel, Mystere, was dark for both of our nights. We asked about tickets to the other show by the same group, ‘O’, which was sold out but we could go and wait for last minute cancellations. We rushed to Bellagio to get in line which already had 60 people in it. While Jake waited, I walked up and asked if there were any tickets for the next night and it turned out there was a cancellation so we walked out of the hotel, thrilled not to have to wain in the line. Neither of us being gamblers, Vegas didn’t promise huge excitement for us. We walked around to see the Mirage’s volcano erupt, we watched the magnificent lights of the Bellagio. On the way back, we walked into a casino, played for 2 dollars and won 45. We went to the hotel and slept. The next morning it was pouring so we took our time getting up. We visited a chocolate factory with a cactuds garden. We walked around, seeing the lions in MGM, the fish and tigers in Mirage, playing pinball, visiting Luxor, Mandalay Bay, Tropicana, Excalibur, New York New York, and went back to take a nap to make sure I’d be able to stay up through the night. The Cirque de Soleil show was breathtaking. I can honestly say I enjoyed every moment of it. We waited in the extremely long yet very fast-moving line to take a cab to Hard Rock. After dinner, drinks and winning 5 bucks we took another cab to Tropicana and walked into some more of the hotels, ending up in the same casino. An hour, drinks and losing all of our winnings later, we went to bed at 4am. A true Vegas experience. We arrived in Utah in the afternoon. We drove right to the Salt Flat and was awed by the uneding flat road. We were scared to take our little car onto the flats since the person at the cafe by them told us that many cars get stuck. But while we were standing on them, an SUV came up and drove right onto them. It disappeared into the horizon within seconds. If you’re a fan of speeding, that’s probably the best place in the States to visit. Not to mention it’s quite neat. We then drove to Provo where I decided I was too tired to continue so we spent the night in a hotel and relaxed and did the laundrey and logged in. In the morning, we took our time leaving and drove towards Zion National Park. On the way, we stopped at Marysvale around where we had read about two ghost towns. We stopped for lunch at this tiny cafe which had the best burgers I’ve eatned in quite some time. We then drove up to Bullion which wasn’t really a ghost town; it was an old town which was really no longer there. There was an exhibit with the mining equipment. It was interesting but not exactly what we were looking for. We then drove down tothrough Red Canyon to Bryce Park. It had started to rain and within minutes, it ppoured and started to thunder loudly. e saw several flashes of lightning. We drove anyway and by the time we arrived at Bryce, it was trickling a tiny amount. The shaved and cony mountains of red, pink, yellow, white and orange covered miles and miles. I was so awestruck that I couldn’t stop taking pictures. I thikn it might be the most beautiful sight I’ve seen on this trip. An hour or so later, we drove to Zion Park and got there throught the east enterance, which turned out to be interesting but a bummer. The winding roads took a long time to get through and by the time we were in the park and got on the shuttle (you can’t drive in the park, you have to take the shuttle) it was already 8:30pm. We went up to Weeping Rock and walked a trail that was only a quarter of a mile long before it got dark. We made a note to definitely come back to this park as the huge mountains that towered over us in multicolor fascinated Jake and he wanted to do some of the longer and steeper hikes that we hadn’t had the time to do. A truly inspiring park. We drove to St. George for the night and plan to take the quicker, though by no means quik, route to the Four Corners, Canyon of the Ancients and then Canyon de Chelly.We’ll see how far we’ll get. Utah, albeit hot, was amazing and we haven’t even seen half of it. Lodging: La Quinta Inn, Provo @ $62.10 , Singletree Inn, St. George @ $41.50Car’s Mileage: 16,110 Gas: $11.87@1.69 & $14.07@1.78 Roads: 80 to SLC, 15 to Provo, 70 and 89 to Bryce and to Zion, 15 to St. George Sites: Bonneville Salt Flats, Provo, Bryce National Park, Red Canyon, Zion National Park Our visit in Arizona turned out to be racing from one end to the other. FromZion Park in Utah, we drove all the way to Canyon de Chelly through smallroads, passing Grand National Staircase, Glen Canyon National Recreation Areaand Monument Valley on the way. The drive was a feast on our eyes. A site wehad never experienced previously. We drove to Four Coners, paying 6 bucks to get in and being majorlydisappointed. The one place that definitely wasn’t worth the time. Canyon de Chelly was quite beautiful but we’d heard so many stories about itbeing the best place to visit in the US that I think it was a tiny bit of adisappointment. We then drove all the way back west, almost immediately south of Zion Park tospend the night in Williams. We drive to the Grand Canyon at 7 in the morning,thankfully missing much of the crowds and traffic but not enough of the heat. The canyon is immense, words cannot adequately describe its size. The hillsare pale and I am worried my camera didn’t do justice to its beauty. We took asmall hike and decided to call it a day. We’d already skipped Sedona because wewanted to save a day so we started on the drive to Vegas. On the way to Nevada, we took a side exit to visit another ghost town, Oatman.The town was overpopulated with people selling items and burros left from themining days. It was interesting but not what we had in mind. Lodging: Mountain Side Inn, Williams @ $49.10 After a very long day of driving we decided to skip Boise and get as close to the Craters as possible. Around 10:30, we passed the last large (population of about 1,500) town on the way and decided to turn around to stop for the night. It was getting tool late to camp and we weren’t sure the two tiny towns up ahead had hotels. We spent the night at the only lodging in town and got back on the road at 8, right after eating the pancakes cooked by the owner. We chatted with a Seattle couple who were also going to the Craters. The lava at the Craters was very different than the one in the Valley of Fires, NM. You were not allowed to walk on this one because there was a high chance of its caving in. The chunks looked like wood but sounded like metal. The entire place was one big bed of black. We had read the one of the caves, the Boy Scout Cave, had ice on its ground all year round so we decided to check it out. We took our flashlight and walked down the path. The entrance to the cave looked like nothing more than a tiny hole. Jake was skeptical that it was the entrance but sure enough it was. We walked in to the cave which had low ceilings, sharp rocks and ice. There was a family of three in front of us so it felt less lonely and dark than it would have. We walked/crawled all the way to the end and back. The inside of the cave had been cold and drippy so going back out to the steaming weather was a bit of a shock. Since our next stop was the Salt Flats in Utah, we decided it would be faster to cut through Nevada. As we entered the state, we saw a sign on the map for a Ghost Town and decided to drive out of the way a bit to find it. We spent the next half hour searching for it. Unsuccessfully. Do any of you know a ghost town in Utah or Arizona? Lodging: Governer’s Mansion B&B@$55, Shoshone We arrived in Portland around noon. We drove down to the historic district where the saturday market made its home. We walked around for a while and bought a postcard. I read that Powell’s bookstore was in the city so we asked around and drove to it. After the two Sedaris CD sets and Cause Celeb by Helen Fielding that my friend Ashlie had lent me, we were out of audio CDs so we bought Reefer Madness by Eric Schlosser, Fraud by David Rakoff, maneater by Gigi Grazer, Dirk Gently’s Detective Agency by Douglas Adams and the Kid Stays in the Picture by Robert Evans. Cause Celeb was quite dumb really. But I am not a fan of Fielding anyway. I imagine Maneater will not be so great either but it might be fun. Schlosser’s voice is too monotonous but the reasearch, like in Fast Food Nation, is quite detailed and interesting. Though obviously biased so far. We’re now on the way to Idaho; spending the night in either Boise or Craters of the Moon. Even though we stayed in Portland only 2 hours, the city was very clean, very green and quite beautiful. Lodging: none We arrived in Seattle around 9pm. We checked in the hotel, surfed and slept. The next morning I called my friend, Zeynep, to see if she was up for lunch. We made a date and went to checkout Pike Place Market. It was a beautiful day in Seattle, cool but sunny. We walked around the market, going in and out of stores, watching the flying fish, and buying cashews. We walked over to my friend Sarah’s dad’s gallery, the William Traver Gallery, and chatted with her friend Ben. When I talked to the dept of transportation, they told me to rush and take an early ferry to Bainbridge island so we would be able get across faster. I called and apologetically cancelled with Zeynep and we drove to the ferry. It turned out we were too late and were going to have to wait almost two hours so we chose to drive instead. The Olympic Peninsula was covered with evergreens and lakes. On our way to the Hoh rain forest we ran into a huge line or cars. Miles and miles of cars. We tu!rned back, trying to find out what went wrong. As it turns out, a cement truck turned over and the road had been blocked since 9am. We decided to turn back and take a small hike in Sol Duc. There was a small trail which was like a rainforest. The trees were tall as far as the eye can see. Moss covered the trunks and branches. Mushrooms spurted out of the ground and bugs covered the forest. It was my first time in a forest like that and I couldn’t get enough of the lush green. All the guides said not to go to the forests in the weekend due to huge crowds so we decided to skip Mt. Rainier National Forest and drove south to Portland. We stopped in Centralia for the night and are currently on our way to Portland. Seattle and Washington is beautiful. The weather was really pleasant, the people fun. Lodging: Fairfield Inn Bellevue@$71 & Centralia Inn@40 The drive from Yellowstone to Glacier Park was long and uneventful. We stopped by Bozeman but it seemed empty. We then stopped at Big Spring and saw the waterfalls which also weren’t as impressive as we expected. So far, the smallest town we’ve seen is Emblem, WY with a population of 10. Northern Montana is completely empty with farmland as far as the eye can see. We drove through the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and all the roads everywhere in Montana were scarcely populated. We arrived at the park at 9pm, went to the campground even though it said it was full and got a spot. The gusty winds made for a very hardy night. Our crappy tent thrashed around in the wind. I kept thinking it would fall on us any minute. As a result, we got maybe 3 hours of sleep all night. We kept waiting for the sun to ocme up hoping it would signal the end of the wind but even as late at 8am, the wind was still going full force so we gave up and decided to get going. We drove the going-to-the-sun road and hiked, saw deer and longhorns, saw a glacier and waterfalls. We saw bighorn sheep just lying on the grazz and sun bathing. A deer looked us in the eye at about 5 feet. The peeks of the mountains were covered with snow but the meadows had wild flowers. Streams of water trickled down most of the mountains. Bird chriped everywhere and we saw at least 7 chipmunks running past us. One even approached us thinking we had food but quickly lost interest when we didn’t. St.Mary’s waterfall had a rainbow going ight through it and the water was icy. The park had magnificent views and falls. It was one of the most beautiful parks I’ve ever been to and I’m glad we decided to go out of our way to come here. I’ve officially become a fan of Montana. Lodging: St.Mary Campground in Glacier Nat. Park@$17 At 4pm we arrived at Devil’s Tower. The tower is visible from the horizon. You need to register to climb it so we took a hike around it and Jake went up as far as they let him. On the way back, we saw two doe with two fawns. We also stopped to watch the prairie dogs which were endlessly entertaining. Since it was already late, we spent the night in Gillette. Our dialups didn’t have a local number but the hotel had a business room where you could use their computer. We wanted to download the linksys drivers for the wireless to my laptop so we grabbed the crossover ethernet cable in the car and stuck it in their computer and, ta-da, it could see my laptop. There had to be some advantages to carrying all the computer equipment around. The drive to Yellowstone was pretty but long. It took us 5 hours to arrive at the east gate. By the time we saw the lake, went down to the Grand Teton Park and back, it was already 8pm so we decided to spend the night at the park. The camp ground was really pretty but had no water and only pit toilets. We set our phone to alarm at 5am and watched the rest of our movie on my portable DVD player. We had to watch it inside because the mosquitoes were swarming us. The Grand Tetons were amazing but obviously need to be hiked because the road didn’t get too near them so that was a bit of a disappointment. Yellowstone proved otherwise. The night we arrived, we didn’t get to see much as it was already late and the speed limit in the huge park varies between 35 and 45. We did see elk and a bear and we drove south bu that was mainly it for the day. We camped for the night and decided to get an early start. At 5:30am we got on the road and saw Old Faithful, the geyser. It erupted 20 minutes or so after we got there. We watched it wrapped around my blanket cause it was still freezing out. We stopped at the many geyser basins, we hiked to the lower falls, saw the mammoth hot springs and finally, 6.5 hours later, we left. Lodging: Hotel in Gillette@68 & Lewis Lake Camp in Yellowstone@10 Car’s Mileage: 13,029 Gas: $14.21@1.61 & $9.99@1.62 Roads: 90-14 to Devil’s Tower, 90-14 to Yellowstone, 191 to Grand Teton, 89 to Montana Sites: Devil’s Tower, Bighorn Mountains, Yellowstone Nat. Park, Grand Teton Nat. Park |
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