John, my eldest, graduated from UVA and took a job as a raft guide in Missoula, MT for the summer.
I decide to drive out there with him. In case you were unaware, Montana is a long way away from Virginia. I’ve looked at driving there many times in the past. Strangely, one of my best friends from Alabama and my college roommate from Richmond both live in Montana (as does another guy I was friends with in South Korea). I often thought of visiting them but would map it and say . . . I thought it was closer. 36+ hours of driving is a lot of driving. That’s 3 days driving 12 hrs a day just to get there! It’s simply insane. Little did I know.
While I did see a proposed route my wife made, and made some assumptions based on driving 10-12 hrs a day and sleeping at night, I left the planning to John.
Day 1: Monday, May 18
Temperature is 95 degrees. The trip odometer is set to 0. My body weight is 231 lbs.
I have a cup of coffee at 7AM. This will be my last caffeine until May 21st or 22nd. There is no reason for this.
Our departure is delayed to get an oil change. We get out of Richmond around 9AM. First stop is Charlottesville to pick up the mountain bike from his house (and maybe an onion, some Parmesan cheese, and a 1/3 stick of butter . . . now we drive.
Our driving pattern is sophisticated. We drive until we are at around 1/4 tank. At that point, we stop for gas and switch drivers. No food/drink stops. No extra bathroom breaks. Any sleeping is done in the passenger seat. We do have a bunch of bottled water, some powdered drink mix, a cooler with sandwiches and burritos (made by one of John’s friends and which he ate in various scenic locations), granola bars, and some fruit.
This is apparently how John went all around the West several times chasing snow melt for kayaking. It was a new experience for me.
From this picture, I see I took over driving one of the times at 1:59AM1 in Garfield Township, Kansas. It was cold. I had slept some but I am not built for sleeping in car seats.
Day 2: Tuesday, May 19 – Oh Be Joyful
At some point we hit the town as I’m trying to get good enough wifi/cellular to manually add myself to a WP multisite as super admin via phpMyAdmin. I do not recommend this. Reclaim support helps me out and I’m able to transfer several WP issues that have cropped up. That was a big deal. Nothing like being sleep deprived, on bad wifi, trying to do technical support.
We arrive at Oh Be Joyful near Crested Butte, CO around 2PM. We have been driving for 28 hrs.
At this point, we hike up the mountain. We see waterfalls, deer, elk, and a marmot. It is sunny. The temperature is around 45 degrees. It is windy on the mountain and there are still decent patches of snow. I am glad I decided to bring long pants and at least a light jacket. That almost didn’t happen.
Then we walk back down. I sleep on a metal picnic table for a bit. Two of John’s friends show up to kayak the waterfall. We head back up the mountain. The two friends do it with kayaks on their shoulders. Everyone decides the lack of water volume and the placement of a tree trunk means no big waterfall kayaking. It is comforting to see sensible choices being made. I am a bit worried about light fading because I climbed Camelback in Arizona once and nearly wandered off the trail and, more importantly, a cliff coming back down in the dark.
I sleep in the back of the Highlander with the seats down amidst the luggage. It’s not bad but it gets pretty cold that night- reportedly lower 30s. The kids are just sleeping out on the ground but they do have good sleeping bags, youth, and experience on their sides. I’m not entirely a wuss, but it’s close.
Day 3: Wednesday, May 20
We get up in the morning and look at the weather for Yellowstone. It’s going to be raining so we decide to go to Moab, Utah. That’s about 5 hrs away. We go to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park on the way and then end up in Arches National Park. This is a place John has been a number of times.
The juxtaposition of crazy landscape elements and just regular crappy strip-malls kind of blows my mind. It’s also a unique color/light situation that I really liked.
Nothing magical from me photography-wise. I could see spending many years trying to do a decent job here finding the right light and the right framing.
John filled his water bottle at a spring that they’ve used multiple times in the past. Crazy how drinking untreated water seems so . . . crazy.
At some point, we leave Utah and start heading for BLM land in Wyoming. BLM stands for Bureau of Land Management– AKA public land. It has to be around 11:30PM when we’re driving down a narrow dirt road in the dark to find a slightly wider area to park and sleep. We do. We get out to shift things around. John ties his tarp to the car as it’s raining some. There is a stream we can hear just off the road. It’s windy. I wake up at some point to the tarp going nuts as the wind has picked up considerably. I find out the next morning that John has to take the tarp down and just wraps it around himself.
Day 4: Thursday, May 21
This is the road the next morning.
We head on through Wyoming and see all sorts of cool things. I miss about 75% of them by being too slow with the camera or having to drive.
We wind our way through to the Grand Tetons.
Then we are on to Yellowstone. Plenty of elk, bison, and marmot abound. One elk looks pretty embarrassed when we almost hit it on the road. It was wearing a collar so that could also play a role in being embarrassed.
I need to get camera batteries charged and, late on day 3, could really use a shower. I had been tempted to jump into some of the lakes we passed but John, who spends much more time in frigid Western waters, thought it wouldn’t be a great idea. So we got a room at the Yellowstone Riverside Cottages in Gardiner, MT. The view from the back porch is below. We cooked a pound of pasta, used John’s 1/3 stick of butter, and added 5 or 6 packets of tuna. This was our first hot meal. Although John did attempt to warm up the burritos by placing them on various parts of the car’s engine while we drove. Somehow the burritos did not fall out on the road. I think he eventually got it to work decently at some point in the trip.
That night, I talked to my childhood friend from Alabama who has been living in Whitefish, MT for 15 or so years. He recommends we get up at 4AM and go to the Lamar Valley and Slough Creek.
Day 5: Friday, May 22
We do. I drive, avoiding a herd of deer who attempted to jump in front of the car in the dark. It is amazing how far you can see.
We spend maybe 6 or 8 hours driving around photographing mainly animals. The bison are frosted in the morning which is pretty cool. There are various steaming pools of geothermal activity. There are a lot of cars and when an animal is spotted, they descend. It’s kind of crazy. The coyote in the picture above must have been photographed hundreds of times in a few minutes. The moose were easily photographed thousands of times. It’s also easy to get caught up in jumping from animal to animal and being disappointed you aren’t seeing wolves or bears. I hope one day to go back and leave the road. I just want to walk the animal trails out of sight and see what I see. If I’m older than 65 bears are welcome to eat me. Please don’t blame the bear.
At some point that day, we decide to head to Whitefish and just skip Missoula for now. That’s a 7 hour drive which now feels like nothing. I am not sure if I’m desensitized or just a bit crazy from lack of sleep.
We make it to Whitefish and my friend’s house. It turns out that the road for Glacier National Park is still blocked by snow. It turns out some planning ahead is useful. We could go up with bikes, but it sounded like a mix of hassles around parking, getting another bike etc. I was talked into staying in the house. It was a short walk to Whitefish lake.
Day 6: Saturday, May 23
We get John’s mountain bike fixed up in the garage bike shop. We then head to Whitefish Mountain Resort where my friend works. John gets to borrow a crazy downhill bike and he rides the trails that are open. I go on up to the top of the mountain. We can see Canada from there.
After that, I drive a couple bikes back to the house. John and my friend take the bike trail back to the house. Another hot meal and sleeping indoors.
Day 7: Sunday, May 24
My flight back is at 2PM. We head to Missoula where John will be all summer.
My flight gets delayed. I have 12 minutes to make it from concourse B to A in Denver. It should take 22 minutes from the app. I am not going to be stuck in a hotel overnight. I manage it in 7. I do not recommend sprinting in the Mile High city while carrying your bag. I was gasping when I got the gate. I did, however, really impress the person checking me in. I am, and I quote, a hero.
We’ve put 3,427 miles on the car. I now weigh 214 lbs. In addition to a great time and countless hours with my oldest child, I’ve seen my old college roommate, gotten to spend two days with an old childhood friend, and see a huge number of national/state parks. It was a great time and I was lucky to be able to do it. I told John that I get why he loves it out West, but I do wish it was not so far.
1 (4AM-ish EST I believe).
I was curious as I saw some Montana/Wyoming like land scapes in your flickr. The travel is more fun with a slower pace, but still amazing how you fit in the wildlife fittings and aborted waterfall kayak. John is some kind of adventure junkie, though I admire the burrito warming attempt.
When did you hike Camelback? Was that after I left AZ? I lived in bikable distance. There’s a great locals only trail up the east side that is much less crowded and more boulder climbing.
Loved the travel notes.
And look how far that butter went!
I was thinking back on your red truck round the USA trek. I’ve got new appreciation for it and need to revisit the posts.
Camelback was back in 2010 during some conference. It was a spur of the moment thing.
It was nice to have the butter. I did question bringing it.
I know everyone says this all the time. But I’ll say it now, growing up in Viriginia and traveling up to Skyline Drive. Blue Ridge Mountains,… those are maybe scientifically mountains, but they are not the Rocky Mountains. Whether it’s, CO, UT, WY, or MT, it looks DIFFERENT, not the same as a mild Sunday drive up to Skyline Drive. This is Purple Mountain Majesties.
I think there are rock/snow mountains and there are the green hills of VA. I don’t know the height difference but it definitely feels different to me as well.
Still, I remember from my 9 month living time in Fredericksburg road cyclists say that some of the grades in the Appalachian’s are decievingly steep, especially the Gap roads. So not so hilly
Walking/riding mountains are a much lower bar than visual/photography mountains.
I want my visual mountains to be snow-capped and rocky.
After a long time, I suddenly got an email today about another Bionic Teaching post, about Pressbook and matters well beyond my ken. I clicked around and found this post, also beyond my ken, but not so far beyond.
Some great, great photos here. I think this one is my favorite: https://flic.kr/p/2sf4YaG
Quite an accomplishment to graduate from UVA at age 12! Um … oh. Well, what did he major in? History?
No one should have to wander the server worlds of Pressbooks.
That shot was during some fairly decent snow. The whole place was just amazing looking.
John ended with a BS in Environmental Science. He seems to be the reverse of 12.
We’re planning our own insane road trip in October to attend a wedding on the rim of the Grand Canyon. My wife’s cousin and his fiancee are both boat guides on the river and they’ve convinced us all that we need to be there. My family will be driving so we can adventure a little bit through Colorado and Utah on the way.
This trip was certainly epic. I’ll have to try the burrito heating method.
What a great story.
My wife and I are planning a similar adventure this coming October. Her cousin is a river guide on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon and is marrying someone who is also a guide on the river through the canyon. So, we’re going to drive from Michigan through Colorado to Utah for the wedding. Here’s hoping that we see even half the wildlife you did with less engine burritos.
It was a great trip. I’d do it again. Your trip sounds awesome. I really want to go to the Grand Canyon. I think that’s even worth going to a wedding.
I just read A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon which might be worth a read prior the trip.