What I Did on My Winter Vacation, Part I: Arizona

Now that I’ve accepted a new job starting next summer, it’s my stated goal to minimize the amount of time I spend in Oklahoma. Sorry, Oklahoma. To that end, though, I spent most of the winter break in Other States.

First up: I’m not sure which state I should list as first. I got in my Jeep in Oklahoma at 6:00 in the morning on 12/23. It was unusually rainy. It turns out that there are no lane markings on I-40 heading west out of OKC because, I dunno, Oklahoma gonna Oklahoma. Seemed dangerous. And then the first non-Oklahoma state I hit was Texas.

It’s not a bad photo for northern Texas. Good sky. The rain had stopped. The wind was blowing about 30 mph in my face, of course, and the Jeep was eager to plumb the depths of low gas mileage on most of the trip.

Spent the night in Holbrook, Ariz., because I stayed the night in Gallup, N.M. last time I was through the area. All the hotel and restaurant employees in Holbrook were bizarrely good. I dunno. The diner where I had dinner was selling Navajo blankets for what seemed like a really good deal. Holbrook.

Also, Northern Arizona has some really pretty roads. The stretch from Holbrook most of the way down to Phoenix is pretty good.

My parents flew down to Phoenix Christmas Eve and we holed up in my brother’s place in Ahwatukee for the week.

This isn’t particularly interesting. You can skip ahead if you want.

My mom has stylish bathrobes.

Day after Christmas (I think), my brother Rick brought his family through town on the way to Utah to disgorge my nephew at the MTC as he makes his way to yet another central American jungle (it’s *his* first, just not humanity’s). I probably have a representative picture of that somewhere.

You understand this is mostly just a journal intended for my own future consumption, right?

So there’s my dad with Ammon and Jacob and mad props out to Noelle on the photo bomb. We shake hands an inordinate amount in my family. I’m jealous of Jacob’s tie.

All right, then there’s a really good airplane museum down in Tucson that I wanted my parents to come to, and they kindly acquiesced to this keen desire. It’s the Pima Air and Space Museum; most of the airplanes are outdoors where you can climb under and around them. It’s nice to go to an outdoor museum for once.

Here’s my dad with the A-4 he always wanted to fly:

The extra fuel tanks really stand out on that one.

And then my mom showed an unexpected fondness for the F7F Tigercat. Big Grumman fan.

The museum is also the jumping-off point for the AMARG, the military aircraft boneyard out there. We went, but the old guy at the bus depot told us the wrong side of the bus to sit on. You know how bus depot old guys are. Anyway, it was cool enough, but the museum actually seemed more interesting.

And then on the way back from Tucson, we took a quick loop through the Saguaro National Park (eastern part), making it officially my 39th national park visited. And when I say national park, I mean National Park, which is different from National Recreation Area, National Wildlife Refuge, National Forest, and National Battlefield. For one thing, it’s a park. Anyway: they had a lot of Saguaros.

Also a pretty good selection of ocotillos and prickly pear.

Visited Hole in the Rock right by the Phoenix Zoo. Photographic evidence:

And also a real ghost town whose name I don’t remember, but where new buildings were being erected, making me wonder how “ghost town” was being defined.

And then on New Year’s Eve I took off for Taos, because that’s just what I do.

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My 6-State Road Trip: Road Photos

Day 1: Norman, Okla. to Gallup, N.M.

I can attest to the factualness of the number of construction zones. Breakfast: cold pizza on the road, lunch: Rudy’s Barbecue in Amarillo, dinner: Panda Express in Gallup. Lodging: EconoLodge. Much luxury. Gas mileage was very poor — around 16. Rudy’s’s reliability notwithstanding, least interesting day of the drive (by a pretty fair margin).

Entering Texas:

And then New Mexico:

Somewhere just east of Albuquerque, the scenery picks up and you’re in worth-driving territory. I think this one is somewhere west of ABQ though.

Day 2: Gallup, N.M. to Flagstaff, Ariz. via Petrified Forest National Park

Breakfast: bad waffle at the EconoLodge, lunch: Mexican place in Winslow, dinner: Flame Broiler in Flagstaff. I realize I am the only person on earth who likes Flame Broiler. So be it. The Flagstaff branch did itself proud. Lodging: Days Hotel in Flagstaff.

Entering Arizona. Nothing says “welcome” quite like making people drive on the shoulder.

And then, once inside Petrified Forest National Park…

Some of these reflections off the hood turn out all right. The one below is somewhere closer to Flagstaff.

Day 3: Flagstaff, Ariz. to Hurricane, Utah

Breakfast: probably something at the hotel, lunch: Hurricane DQ at like 4 PM, dinner: with Brit-Dev and the Erors at… some Utah chain that’s like Café Rio, but isn’t Café Rio. First time in my life I ever ordered a salad at a restaurant (as the main course). Milestones. Lodging: Super 8 in Hurricane. Gas mileage improved into the 18s.

This drive, btw, is one of the prettiest drives on earth. You do hit a little bit of RV traffic north of the Grand Canyon, but, man, the scenery is non-stop. I hadn’t driven it since I was an undergrad 20+ years ago.

Below is the Days Hotel room. Decent place, good wifi, glass elevator with view of the pool. Wall art was hung too high though, so deduct 1.5 stars for that.

And back on the road:

Above is from the bridge over the river Colorado. I got out of the car for this one, but this is literally the view from off the bridge you drive over on Highway 89 (89A? whichever).

Out of the desert, into the high hills nearing the AZ-UT border:

Then back down into the desert:

And the Utah state line. If I’d seen a Lost Boy around there, I would have at least given him a ride into St. George. (Although I don’t suppose they get dropped off along the highway in the town where they actually lived.)

Day 4: Hurricane, Utah to Zion National Park

Breakfast: uh — I feel like I ate something, but don’t know what it was; I was too proud to eat at the Super 8. Lunch: a mounds bar I think, dinner: crackers with peanut butter and a pouch of beef jerky (about which I should probably come clean — it was only 80 calories/oz.). Lodging: Campsite 5. This was the first day of the Narrows hike, so didn’t cover a whole lot of miles in the car.

And, since I’m being post facto honest, I think the above photo was actually from the previous afternoon when I drove into the park to pick up the permit. It’s between Hurricane and the park, though, so — right scenery regardless.

Day 5: Zion National Park to Richfield, Utah via Chamberlain Ranch

Breakfast: granola out of a Ziploc bag, lunch: shelled pistachios at the Temple of Sinawava bus stop, dinner: DQ in Hurricane (again). Lodging: Comfort Inn in Richfield (one of the best budget hotels ever — super happy and helpful employees, room was very clean and modern-enough, wifi was strong, breakfast was a smorgasbord).

The Chamberlain Ranch dot looks like it’s in the wrong place. Oh well. It’s where we parked one of the two cars we needed for the shuttle situation required by the Narrows hike.

Trailhead parking lot:

And back on the freeway:

Day 6: Richfield, Utah to Gunnison, Colo. via Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

Breakfast: Richfield Comfort Inn, rich and varied; lunch: KFC in Montrose, Colo. (neither rich nor varied); dinner: pb&j sandwich at the hotel in Gunnison. Lodging: Quality Inn, Gunnison. Gunnison had the attitude of a tourist town, but looked run-down. FWIW. Gas mileage up near 20 — maybe the engine finally got broke-in.

Also, I-70 from Richfield to where highway 191 cuts in is a gorgeous stretch of interstate. But when you drive it in the morning, the sun’s right in your windshield. Just: don’t hold the lack of quality photos in this section against that stretch of freeway. Which I know you were totally going to do if I hadn’t said something.

Viewpoint at the side of the freeway. Very desert:

And, entering Colorado, splattered bugs say “hello”:

Day 7: Gunnison, Colo. to Lake City, Colo. via the Animas Forks

Breakfast: Quality Inn (was okay), lunch: pb&j again?, dinner: Mountain House Spaghetti in Meat Sauce (that had expired in 2013). Lodging: Mill Creek Campground Site #21, the last campsite available and the only one in the campground with insufficient trees for privacy (it was fine, the neighbors were discrete).

The drive from Gunnison to Lake City was a nice one, aside from the guy who was driving full-speed in the wrong lane for not reason (I moved over to the left lane to get around him, he decided that he, after all, wanted to be in that lane, so I corrected back into the right lane and we missed each other by, oh, less than a car length anyway; then he went back to driving in the wrong lane for no apparent reason). (I assume it was a he.)

I chronicled elsewhere the Alpine Loop off-highway drive to Animas Forks, but, rest assured, it was also awesome and scenic.

Here, all vehicles are in their correct lanes:

Day 8: Lake City, Colo. to South Fork, Colo. via Chimney Rock National Monument

Breakfast: one Pop Tart, lunch: Taco Bell in Pagosa Springs, dinner: one small carton of blackberries. Lodging: some hotel in South Fork with a made-up name, despite looking like every other Quality/Comfort/Days/Econo/8/6/etc. Inn ever (though on the cleaner side of that roster). Also, Chimney Rock was not exactly on the way between Lake City and South Fork. But then, I couldn’t find a decent hotel price in Pagosa Springs, my tent was still wet from the night before, and, well, things occurred.

The worst part about that detour was that the good Chimney Rock National Monument was already closed because I arrived SO LATE (2:45 PM). I looked at the bad part instead. Then talked to some older female rangers, who — well, I don’t think they have PhDs in Puebloan Studies. They were nice, though, and at least as far as Pagosa Springs, the drive was pretty.

This was a roadside waterfall:

Probably still is.

Chimney Rock National Monument, the boring part that I got to see:

The 8th of 12 station-fulls of wonder! Anyway, driving:

Day 9: Soth Fork, Colo. to Norman, Okla. via Taos, N.M. and Capulin Volcano National Monument

Breakfast: hotel I think, lunch: blue enchiladas, Christmas style at that diner-like place in Taos, dinner: KFC in maybe Guymon, Okla. Lodging: own bed.

Then, re-entering New Mexico:

Below: Capulin Volcano!

I figure the more photos of prairie I give you, the more endless it seems. There was an Entering Oklahoma back there too somewhere.

And, finally, I leave you with Boise City:

And then another six hours and I was home.

Average speed while photos were taken was probably in the low-50’s. A lot of tuning of the vibrance slider went into these and I think my windshield has a slight blue-green tint to it.

This is probably a better post without the commentary.

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My 48-State Road Trip in Road Photos

This trip was from 2009. I’ve been promising myself since some time around then that I’d get all my photos centralized and start really doing something with them once I had a desktop computer I believed in. Got the 5K 27″ iMac a couple weeks ago, DL’ed Lightroom for free through OU, and with that we’re on our way.

On the 48stateroadtrip.com website (currently accessible here: http://c3d.50b.myftpupload.com) and, well, on the trip itself, I was mostly about the locations and the means of transportation was just a means of transportation. OTOH, I *did* drive over 22,000 miles and so some significant time was spent in the vehicle itself. So, then, all these photos were taken from the vehicle, in most (I think) cases while the vehicle was moving and I was behind the wheel.

It’s a lot of photos in one post. You’ll pull through.

Leaving SoCal

Somewhere around San Luis Obispo

Central Coast/Big Sur somewhere

Approaching Mt. Lassen

Ring road around Crater Lake

Mt. Thielsen (Southern Oregon)

Donny T, constant companion

Oregon (on the way to the coast probably)

Bridge into Washington (the state)

Somewhere around Mt. St. Helens

Somewhere in the Muckleshoot reservation

Somewhere in Mt. Rainier NP

Somewhere on the Olympic Peninsula

Entering Port Townsend

I-5 heading into Seattle

In Montana, near the Washington Idaho border

Going to the Sun Road in Glacier NP

Somewhere else in Glacier NP

Bison refuge in southwest Montana

Somewhere in Yellowstone

Yellowstone traffic

Somewhere in northern Wyoming (Hwy. 14 probably)

Somewhere on the Norbeck Byway in South Dakota

Theodore Roosevelt NP (Medora) in North Dakota

North Dakota-Minnesota border (near Fargo)

Minnesota (near the Bear River apparently)

Somewhere around Duluth I think

Mackinac Bridge near St. Ignace, Mich.

Iowa from Illinois

Somewhere in a Great Lakes state (probably Illinois)

Somewhere in Dearborn, Mich.

Entering New York, not far from Erie, Pa.

Backwoods in upstate New York somewhere

The road up Whiteface Mountain

Base of Whiteface Mountain

Lake Placid Main Street (I think)

Crossing Lake Champlain

Entering Vermont

Somewhere in/around Dartmouth, N.H.

Somewhere else in New Hampshire

Also in New Hampshire somewhere

The road going back down Mt. Washington

Inside the Holland Tunnel under the Hudson River

Somewhere in Shenandoah N.P.

In and/or around the Smoky Mountains

Somewhere on/near the coast in South Carolina

South Carolina somewhere (on the way to Georgia)

At the Georgia border (from South Carolina)

Somewhere in the Florida panhandle

Pensacola, Fla.

Somewhere on the Natchez Parkway

Also on the Natchez Parkway

Natchez Parkway, somewhere near the Tennessee border

Ferry in Mammoth Cave N.P. in Kentucky

Crossing into Missouri (I think)

Entering Kansas

Somewhere in west Texas

Big Bend N.P. in Texas

North and/or west of Big Bend N.P.

West Texas ghost town-in-progress

Heading toward the Guadalupe Mountains

Entering Guadalupe Mountain N.P.

White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

Downtown Santa Fe, N.M.

Northern New Mexico somewhere

Near the New Mexico-Arizona border

Valley of the Gods

On the Moqui Dugway

Crossing Lake Powell

Highway 12 in southern Utah

In Escalante National Monument

Leaving Provo

Right, so that was it. 4+ months of windshield views. Apparently it would have been a decent enough trip even had I never gotten out of the car.

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Colorado National Monument: Canyonlands for People Who Don’t Want to Get Out of the Car

Real Canyonlands is better, or course, but it also requires getting out and hiking some.

Colorado National Monument is located near Grand Junction, Colorado. The drive is the interesting part; it looks like southern Utah, so long as you look toward the mountains. If you look toward the valley it looks like Grand Junction. And if you reach the top of the drive, it looks like a bunch of boring, scrubby trees. The in-between, though!

As testimony of the thing that Colorado National Monument does well, then, here are photos I took while driving.

• I think the photos are shown in reverse order of when they were taken. I don’t know how WordPress decides.
• For variety, one of those photos was taken through the passenger window rather than the windshield.
• It seemed like they could have used more guard rails in places.
• The road and trails and stuff were apparently a CCC project. Of course.
• I hadn’t taken a bunch of pictures of red rocks since last time I was in southern Utah.
• It was definitely worth the, oh, 90 minutes including bathroom time?
• I did also take a walk to some view point. It was mostly for walking’s sake.
• I was driving a rented Nissan Versa hatchback. It looked like this:

It looks better than it drives.

I’m still planning on one day putting together a photo essay entitled “Through the Windshield”. Maybe after the dissertation. Or maybe FOR the dissertation…! Probably not though.

That’s plenty.

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