Great American Roadtrip 2015
- Thread starter Papalud
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- #23
Yep. The more I look, the more I realize I'm going to need 3 weeks for each state. I live in the wrong part of the country.
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- #24
24 days, 8400 miles, 16 states, 12 National Parks & Monuments, one near collision with an antelope, one very near rattlesnake bite, and over 100 GB of photos and video. Back home tonight. The American West is an incredible place and we just scraped the surface. Awesome trip that everyone needs to do. Going to log it all out as I go through photos and videos.
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I love this picture - I need to see (and hear) more!
Post up some pics! Unless this was all just a wetdream.. In that case .. No pics
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- #31
alright, alright. Here's some pics from the first couple of days- Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, and El Malpais National Monument in New Mexico.
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- #32
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- #33
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- #34
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- #35
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- #36
This is inside a lava tube underneath El Malpais. The whole area was formed by volcanoes and there are lava fields everywhere. The tubes are full of sharp lava rock and are totally undeveloped (no lights, walkways, anything). There are a bunch to explore. I'm going back at some point to really explore them with better equipment. The light is the entrance to the cave.
This is light from my flashlight. It's total darkness as you drop elevation.
entrance to the lava tube
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- #37
Alright. Here's a little background. I'm naming all the players first since I'm sure you don't know all my kids names and I don't want to write "the ten year old" a bunch of times.
Wife-Lindsay
14 year old son-Gabe
10 year old son-Declan
8 year old daughter-Susanna
3 year old son-Finn
So six years ago we took a 2-week long road trip to Yellowstone and made a pretty good loop through the west. Two years ago I had work in L.A., so I took Gabe and Declan and my brother and we did a 10 day trip across the southwest. This time I wanted to do the biggest trip we could reasonably do with the whole family. It looked like everything was coming together for the summer-gas was reasonably low, I had a block of time I could keep free, and we had just gotten a Suburban for Lindsay (the 100 won't cut it for six people anymore). So we started making a hit list of what we wanted to see and drawing out a rough route. We tried to keep it as open as possible, but the real goal was to get to the Pacific Northwest, as it's geographically going to be the hardest to get back to again.
I had learned from the Yellowstone trip (and every other camping trip) that Lindsay just doesn't sleep well in a ground tent. Two weeks of crappy sleep had really worn her out before, so I sprung for the RTT with annex. It sleeps 4 comfortably up top and you could put another 4 in the annex. It ended up being a game-changer for her on this trip. She slept like a baby. It's comfortable, spacious, stays dry, doesn't move with the wind, and stays pretty clean, too. The zip on annex is big enough to stand up straight in, which is great for getting dressed, and was big enough for everyone to hang out in on the couple of rainy camp nights. All six sleeping bags rode in the tent when folded up, too, which saved room in the truck.
I also bought a 51qt. Indel B Fridge. Lindsay said it was a waste of $ before the trip, but it was also a game changer and will probably get used more than any other piece of camp equipment. Not f-ing with ice constantly, no soggy, wasted food, and maximum room for food. It's great. I do want to figure out a slide combo for that and the coleman stove, though.
The last piece of essential equipment I bought were 3 solar lanterns. MPOWERED Luci
http://www.amazon.com/MPOWERD-Original-Inflatable-Solar-Lantern/dp/B00DQ1RDWS/?tag=ihco-20
These things are awesome. Bright, weigh nothing, throw them on the dash in the morning and you've got bright LED light all night. I'll never screw with battery lights again.
Anyway-enough gear nerd talk. We packed our s*** and hit the road on June 30th.
Jackson-Shreveport-Dallas. Dallas was a nightmare-3.5 hours of standstill traffic. I hate Dallas and will never drive through that town again. We stopped in Amarillo for the night and got an early start with a stop at Cadillac Ranch- a great piece of Americana just a few miles west of town. It really was cool to see in person. From there we headed north-west for Santa Fe, NM. It's one of Lindsay's favorite cities and has some great restaurants and art galleries. We ate lunch at Palacio Cafe- cool little place in the heart of the city. Amazing mexican food and run by a husband and wife and their 5 kids.
We headed south through the mountains towards Albuquerque and popped the cherry on the RTT in the Sandia Mountains with a lightning storm to the north of us. We kept watching the radar and finally made the call it was safe enough to sleep on the roof of a car...
After breakfast we headed west toward Grants, NM where you head south into El Malpais National Monument. The boys and I had explored this some before on our southwest trip, and we knew we wanted to go back. We headed down the east side first towards the Sandstone Bluffs. These are most of the photos above. If you look hard at the first few, you can see the tiny people and put together just how huge these bluffs are. It's great fun to climb all over these things and you pretty much have the whole park to yourself. Farther south there are 4 wheel drive roads all across the park, lava fields, and long hiking trails into the wilderness. We made lunch in the canyon area called the Narrows (not to be confused with the Narrows in Zion) and then headed back up to 40 to hit the western side of the park. This is where the caves are. The caves were closed the last time we were there due to the white nose fungus that is threatening the bats in the area. I was excited to see they were re-opened, so we headed to the ranger station to get some info and the free caving permit.
The caves are actually all lava tubes under the ground. They are completely undeveloped. We didn't really have proper gear, but we threw on hiking boots, jackets (it goes from 98 degrees to 47 in about 100') and flashlights. The tubes are full of jagged lava rock and it's recommended to have a helmet, gloves and long pants. If you fell it would be rough. The tubes are amazing and completely pitch black. Lindsay decided to stay back just inside the entrance with Finn while the other 3 kids and I ventured down the cave for about an hour. The tube we were in is pretty large (anywhere from 8 to 20 feet from floor to ceiling). It's amazing and I'm definitely planning a return trip to explore the 4wd trails and caves through the park. It's a must see if you're heading through New Mexico.
We made the obligatory stop at Blake's Lottaburger in Grants, since Gabe and Declan had been talking about it non-stop since we crossed the NM border. Blake's is a little counter service burger joint chain that's only in NM. Nolen turned us onto it before the L.A. trip.
Wife-Lindsay
14 year old son-Gabe
10 year old son-Declan
8 year old daughter-Susanna
3 year old son-Finn
So six years ago we took a 2-week long road trip to Yellowstone and made a pretty good loop through the west. Two years ago I had work in L.A., so I took Gabe and Declan and my brother and we did a 10 day trip across the southwest. This time I wanted to do the biggest trip we could reasonably do with the whole family. It looked like everything was coming together for the summer-gas was reasonably low, I had a block of time I could keep free, and we had just gotten a Suburban for Lindsay (the 100 won't cut it for six people anymore). So we started making a hit list of what we wanted to see and drawing out a rough route. We tried to keep it as open as possible, but the real goal was to get to the Pacific Northwest, as it's geographically going to be the hardest to get back to again.
I had learned from the Yellowstone trip (and every other camping trip) that Lindsay just doesn't sleep well in a ground tent. Two weeks of crappy sleep had really worn her out before, so I sprung for the RTT with annex. It sleeps 4 comfortably up top and you could put another 4 in the annex. It ended up being a game-changer for her on this trip. She slept like a baby. It's comfortable, spacious, stays dry, doesn't move with the wind, and stays pretty clean, too. The zip on annex is big enough to stand up straight in, which is great for getting dressed, and was big enough for everyone to hang out in on the couple of rainy camp nights. All six sleeping bags rode in the tent when folded up, too, which saved room in the truck.
I also bought a 51qt. Indel B Fridge. Lindsay said it was a waste of $ before the trip, but it was also a game changer and will probably get used more than any other piece of camp equipment. Not f-ing with ice constantly, no soggy, wasted food, and maximum room for food. It's great. I do want to figure out a slide combo for that and the coleman stove, though.
The last piece of essential equipment I bought were 3 solar lanterns. MPOWERED Luci
http://www.amazon.com/MPOWERD-Original-Inflatable-Solar-Lantern/dp/B00DQ1RDWS/?tag=ihco-20
These things are awesome. Bright, weigh nothing, throw them on the dash in the morning and you've got bright LED light all night. I'll never screw with battery lights again.
Anyway-enough gear nerd talk. We packed our s*** and hit the road on June 30th.
Jackson-Shreveport-Dallas. Dallas was a nightmare-3.5 hours of standstill traffic. I hate Dallas and will never drive through that town again. We stopped in Amarillo for the night and got an early start with a stop at Cadillac Ranch- a great piece of Americana just a few miles west of town. It really was cool to see in person. From there we headed north-west for Santa Fe, NM. It's one of Lindsay's favorite cities and has some great restaurants and art galleries. We ate lunch at Palacio Cafe- cool little place in the heart of the city. Amazing mexican food and run by a husband and wife and their 5 kids.
We headed south through the mountains towards Albuquerque and popped the cherry on the RTT in the Sandia Mountains with a lightning storm to the north of us. We kept watching the radar and finally made the call it was safe enough to sleep on the roof of a car...
After breakfast we headed west toward Grants, NM where you head south into El Malpais National Monument. The boys and I had explored this some before on our southwest trip, and we knew we wanted to go back. We headed down the east side first towards the Sandstone Bluffs. These are most of the photos above. If you look hard at the first few, you can see the tiny people and put together just how huge these bluffs are. It's great fun to climb all over these things and you pretty much have the whole park to yourself. Farther south there are 4 wheel drive roads all across the park, lava fields, and long hiking trails into the wilderness. We made lunch in the canyon area called the Narrows (not to be confused with the Narrows in Zion) and then headed back up to 40 to hit the western side of the park. This is where the caves are. The caves were closed the last time we were there due to the white nose fungus that is threatening the bats in the area. I was excited to see they were re-opened, so we headed to the ranger station to get some info and the free caving permit.
The caves are actually all lava tubes under the ground. They are completely undeveloped. We didn't really have proper gear, but we threw on hiking boots, jackets (it goes from 98 degrees to 47 in about 100') and flashlights. The tubes are full of jagged lava rock and it's recommended to have a helmet, gloves and long pants. If you fell it would be rough. The tubes are amazing and completely pitch black. Lindsay decided to stay back just inside the entrance with Finn while the other 3 kids and I ventured down the cave for about an hour. The tube we were in is pretty large (anywhere from 8 to 20 feet from floor to ceiling). It's amazing and I'm definitely planning a return trip to explore the 4wd trails and caves through the park. It's a must see if you're heading through New Mexico.
We made the obligatory stop at Blake's Lottaburger in Grants, since Gabe and Declan had been talking about it non-stop since we crossed the NM border. Blake's is a little counter service burger joint chain that's only in NM. Nolen turned us onto it before the L.A. trip.
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- #38
From Grants, we drove into Arizona across the Navajo and Hopi reservations and spent the night in Tuba City so we could get an early start heading to the Grand Canyon. The Navajo reservation has some of the most severe poverty I've seen outside of Mexico. There are plenty of people living in shacks with no electricity and outhouses. It makes the Delta look prosperous. It's an interesting drive.
I'll add some more later.
I'll add some more later.
Very cool and excellent pictures!