This is a small portion of the BIG trip that Jeannine Parker, David Beery, and myself embarked on June 2nd, 1999, at 6:30 a.m. It meandered through 16 states over the course of 3 1/2 weeks, and was a Hell of a lot of FUN!
From there we headed south, and passed by Vail Colorado (far left) which, as you can see, was gorgeous! Also that day, we passed through northeastern Utah, which is absolutely desolate, and even had "no service next 100 miles", like in Bugs Bunny Cartoons! But, it was scenic, as you can see in the middle shot. On the far right is the Fairyland overlook at Bryce Canyon National Park. WE didn't actually go INTO Bryce Canyon, because I have little to no patience for road construction, but this is right before it, and also quite stunning.
That night we stayed at Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, which was also gorgeous, but COLD AS HELL. Er, that's an oxymoron, but you get the idea, right? TO better illustrate the idea: it didn't snow, but north of us it did (Salt Lake) as well as south of us (Grand Canyon North Rim, AZ).
The Grand Canyon was pretty phenomenal, in its sheer size and depth. It had snowed 6 inches when we were there, which I believe was June 5th. We tried to buy nice warm hats at teh souvenir shops, but other cold toursits had already bought them, so I just got that silly green one. That's me in the mioddle shot, in typical "Amy Garb" as Dave calls it. After the Grand Canyon, we also went to Zion National Park that same day, which was MUCH warmer, and hiked to the lowerand upper falls of Emerald Falls. The picture on the far right is the Upper Falls of Emeral Falls. This is where Dave go the nickname "Goat Boy" For the way he climbed aroud on the dangerous, wet, and steep boulders mid-stream.
Following Zion, our trip led us through Las Vegas, the Mojave Desert, and to Visalia, CA. It was a boring, mid-size town, but we ended up spending 2 days there because of problems with Bessie. We had just hit the 3,000 mile mark, and had to change the oil. She was also overheating, so we took her to a shop and had the fan fixed, after an attempt at the steep, hilly, and winding roads of the Sequoia National Park / King's Canyon National Park. This was also the site of the one and only KOA we went to, which I have to admit was very nice!
The picture above is of Bridal Veil Fall in Yosemite National Park. A very beautiful park, but I felt it was spoiled by the commercialism. Too many resteraunts and tourist shops! The Ansel Adams Museum was pretty nifty though, Dave drooled a lot!
The Pacific was pretty neat, it was my first time seeing the ocean. It was pretty much like Lake Michigan, and I was very surprised that it didn't smell like salt, which I was hoping for. Maybe the Atlantic is moreso? Anyways, the far left is a shot of the Pacific, pretty self-explanitary. The middle is a COW inthe ROAD! There were quite a few in Northern California, which shocked us, and became an ongoign joke between Jeannine and myself. Dave had left the troupe in San Francisco, and got the nickname "goddamdave" right about this point, because he had left us with all of his things (backpack, tent, etc.)
Northern California was pretty stunning, Oregon looked like Michigan, but SEATTLE was pretty neat. WE stayed with Jeannine's cousin Dave and his roommate Mark, both pretty cool guys. The righhand shot is at a park, 2 blocks from their apartment. Pretty sweet, eh?
From there we went to the Hoh rainforest in western Washington, and we also visited Mt St Helens, which was OK, but we went on a cloudy day and couldn't see the peak. We also almost went to Vancouver BC to see Jeff, but we didn't have time and he's thrown his back out snowboarding a few days before. From the Hoh we headed East, crossed the Cascade Mountaind under cover of darkness, and awoke to find that our cookstove had BURST its gasket, and we were without a way to cook our Ramen. JEannine and I were both running low on cash at this point, so this was some VERY bad news; we had been hoping to eat nothing but Ramen the rest of the trip. Oh well. We did experience the joy of "No Sales Tax" in Montana, when I bought a new fuel tank for the cookstove, which was a small consolation.
Yellowstone was pretty Phenomenal, I'd say the definite highlight of the trip, I recommend going if you ever have a chance. There are buffalo all over the place, this one was 2 feet off the boardwalk at the Mud Volcano. The pictured paint pots were also phenomenal. I thought I had a picture o fthem scanned, but I guess not; I guess I'll have to do that later. Old Faithful was pretty neat, but I was surprised to see the hundreds, maybe over a thousand people there to watch it go off. *shiver* It makes it feel almost commercialized, which bothers me!
The thrid picture is the Yellowstone river, flowign through what I *believe* is the Yellowstone Canyon, but don't quote me on that, it might also have been painter's-something-or-another. Very neat looking, whatever it was. The last shot is just a PHENOMENAL sunset which we saw after leaving Yellowstone, and kidnapping some rocks. I think I'll have to add that story in later as well.
Devil's Tower is in northeastern South Dakota, and is a central part of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," which is both a book and a movie. I don't remember the details, because I read the book quite a while ago, but the site itself is pretty neat. There's a prairie dog village at the base, and they're pretty cute. Probably a little tamer than they should be, but they still know to scamper away! Unfortunately, I didn't get any good shots of them.
Mount Rushmore was OK, but you can't go climb the faces anymore, or touch them or anything; they just have a viewing area you can stand at. An awe-inspiring work of carving on grand-scale, but only worth, maybe, 30 minutes. We also went to the Crazy Horse Monument, and went through Needles HIghway in the early morning. There were bighorn sheep, which was pretty darned cool!
The Trip wound down with a trip to "Wall Drug" in South Dakota, a trip to the Badlands, which was neat, but just "more ROCKS" (also a joke as the trip progressed). Wisconsin and Minnesota were un-inspiring, but similar to home, and I was getting homesick, so they were a welcome change. WE spent a night with Liz and Joe and Liz's roommate and Dad, which was nice, in Marquette MI.
The following morning we left for Pictured Rocks at Copper Harbor, near Meunesing. That's the left photo, and "Miner's Castle" is at the top of the photo. The right photo is Tehquamenon Falls (sp?) which is hte largest waterfall in Michigan, if I'm not mistaken. That was pretty cool, after all the skinny falls out west.
That afternoon we headed back to Traverse City, reaching it at 6 p.m. on Saturday, June 27th, 3 1/2 weeks after the journey began!!
If you'd like to see the old links, or my resume, etc, just click here.