Cross Country Trip Report

[Cruiserhead05]

This last week I returned from my cross country trip so I guess a mild trip report is in order.

I graduated from school on the 2nd week of May and was given a 1 month leave from work to do this trip. June 15th I'll be returning to work and growing up, I guess.

The trip consisted of a direct shot to Colorado, then to Moab, Las Vegas, San Fransisco (Redwood N.P.), Crater Lake, Glacier N.P., South Dakota, North Carolina, and back home to VA.

Overall the trip was fantastic and now that I've seen a lot of different stuff, I know where I want to go back. The San Juan's in Colorado and Northern Montana were my favorites.



I drove my fairly stock LX450. It's got 145k miles, ome Medium, 295 terra grapplers, and dual batts. We clocked 9500 miles pulling my small trailer with RTT and other gear. The only things I did on the trip were an oil change and I had to swap in a new set of rear pads. I average 12.5 mpg with a low of 11.5 and a high of 14.5 ( flat ground, 65 degrees, 55 mph.)

I took 1700 pics and would love to post them all but the file sizes are all huge. Below are a few select pics.

 

[Cruiserhead05]

I came across this bad boy at crate lake N.P.

I searched and searched but couldnt find the owners. It was a real treat to look at something like this up close as it seems pretty rare in the US

 

[Nay]

Awesome - I love that pics of the redwoods. The San Juans are awesome.

Moving West as soon as possible are we ?

(a born and raised NOVA native living in Colorado and not coming back)

 

[retrofive]

What an experience! Sounds like a great trip. Thanks for sharing and the pics. Wish i could manage to pull off a trip like that someday.

How funny too, Im about 60miles from Crate Lk.

 

[Cruiserhead05]

Fins N Things with a few jeepers. My sliders are still in the mail so I couldn't do a ton but still made it through without a hitch.

 

[NLXTACY]

I'm about to embark on my trip coming up. Cool to see the bad ass places you went.

 

[Tenzig Norgay]

What an awsome trip, you don't know how lucky you were. I can only give you one word of advise, don't go back to work, you'll be sucked in, never to enjoy a trip like that again. Babies, house, work, taxes, more babies, no trips.

 

[CreeperSleeper]

I figure that I will be able to do a trip like this in a couple years. I need to get my house sold and the divorce finalized, then I can start saving!

 

[Cruiserhead05]

Thanks for the kind words. I do hope to do another trip of this kind. I was amazed at how fast we were able to do things. Now i need to go back and do it slowly, seeing the things I missed.

90% of my cost was fuel and campgrounds. We lived off PB&J, Pasta, and cereal.

Crater Lake:


The Shoe Tree, in Oregon, or perhaps it was Washington. I dont remember

 

[retrofive]

Damn you caught the lake on a a nice day. Still cracks me up when i meet people that live in Oregon or Cali and even locals who have never seen the crater. Glad you took the time. Its a blast to ski and snow shoe around in the winter.

 

[FirstToy]

I came across this bad boy at crate lake N.P.

I searched and searched but couldnt find the owners. It was a real treat to look at something like this up close as it seems pretty rare in the US

that looks like the same one we came across in the Grand Canyon back in January

 

[cc93cruiser]

Amazing pics Brandon, keep them coming....

 

[veeLC]

Good job bruddah!

Awesome pics of the Redwoods.

 

[Cruiserhead05]

I'll try and post up more pics when I get a better internet connection. I took all the pics at 12mp full resolution so they need to be resized or hosted online somewhere and my internet connection right now is meh.

Thanks for the kind words and I'll be back with some other stuff.

 

[Cruiserhead05]

For Glacier N.P. we took a helicopter tour. It was 1/2 hour but very cool. All the PB&J helped pay for this I guess....

 

[Cruiserhead05]

Other then the San Juan's in Colorado, Flathead Lake outside Whitefish was my favorite. The scenery is wild.

 

[Cruiserhead05]

One more of the Redwoods.

 

[Cruiserhead05]

The bugs got so much worse....

And St. Louis Arch

 

[Cruiserhead05]

Golden Gate. (I was suprised how cold it got in Northern Cali.) It had to have been 40 degrees and 50 mph winds when we took s***.

 

[vjr021]

Man, that's awesome!!! I have been thinking about a trip like this with mine, ATL to Utah, Cali and back... It would actually be for work, so cost will be in my favor...

Glad to see your rig didn't give you any issues...

Give me hope for mine..