Driving trip 2005

Back in May 2005 my dad, brother and I went around the western half of the country on a whirlwind driving trip. We visited Devils Tower and Badlands on the way to Mt. Rushmore, hit Chimney Rock, drove through Rocky Mtn National Park, then went through Black Canyon in Colorado, Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef (quickly, at dusk), and Bryce Canyon NP's. We drove through Vegas, then up through Death Valley (we missed the record breaking wildflower blooms by a couple months), then up through Reno, and finally back up to Washington. Did I say that this was whirlwind?

We drove through the night to get to Devils Tower as the visitor center was opening,


saw Badlands midday,


and got to Rushmore almost as it was closing (but no busloads of people!).

We stayed in Chadron, Nebraska, that night and saw Chimney Rock in Nebraska before the visitor center opened the next morning.


Then we went on through the Rockies in northern Colorado, where I managed to misload my roll of film, so I have no pictures of the deer or caribou or whatever frolicking in the creek (no pictures at all, because I happened to not take any digitals then. Halfway out of the Rockies we ate at a fine mexican restaurant in Leadville (really pretty area). Then drove through Black Canyon of Gunnison NP. We stayed that night in Fruita, I think.


Next day was Arches NP first, where I got my film fixed. I was, and am, pissed about that. Now I take digital backups of most everything I take film pictures of.


Anyway, after Arches was Canyonlands NP,


and then through Capitol Reef. We didn't actually see the Reef, I don't think, but we saw some Indian drawings on the rocks. It was getting dark quickly, so taking pictures was not possible. We stayed within an hour or two of Bryce that night. Got the last room in the area, actually, because some guy didn't reserve his room with a credit card. So we got it because we were there and had a way to pay. So Bryce was awesome, of course. We stayed there quite a while (well, compared to our pace over that previous couple days). Then on our way to Vegas we didn't drive through Zion NP. I was upset about that. I don't know why we did that except we had a schedule to keep, I guess.





So then we drove through Vegas and through Death Valley to Badwater.


It was late in the day and time to start looking for a place to stay. The power was out in the valley, so the people who were staying there and at the big resort were displaced. This made lodging so late in the day hard, but we got a place out in Lone Pine, CA. That morning was nice, with a nice view of the other side of the Sierras, Mt. Whitney in particular.

And a bigger version of the picture at the bottom of the screen:


Then up to Reno to visit relatives and on through the night again back home. Whew! The whole trip wasn't more than 5 days.

Can you spot the film pictures vs. digital? It's pretty obvious sometimes. The two Aches pix are film, through the telephoto. And the first three Bryce pix are film, and for some reason have a black streak running down the middle of them (I sort of was able to Photoshop them out).

Here's a GoogleMaps map of the route (click for a readable version):