Itinerary
Rough map of my route and the states I covered.



Date Destination Notes
May 30 Suffern, NY Left late in the morning to begin the trip.
Pittsburgh, PA Spent the night with some friends from Carnegie Mellon University.
May 31-Jun 1 Chicago, IL Went to the Chicago Blues Festival. Saw a Cubs game at Wrigley Field. Went to a music festival featuring Pat McGee Band. Stayed with some friends at Northwestern.
Jun 2 Madison, WI Visited some friends from UVA at the camp where they work in a small town less than an hour from Madison.
Jun 3 Badlands NP, SD Spent most of the day driving almost 600 miles. Got to the Badlands just before sunset.
Jun 4 Badlands NP, SD Hiked a few hours early in the morning. A beautiful place; worth spending a half to a full day. Met nature / landscape photographer Kevin Kelly (check out his photos).
Wall Drug, SD The biggest tourist trap in the world. Highway signs for this "historic" drug store / museum / novelty store begin about 500 miles to the east, in Minnesota. Another Wall Drug sign appears every few miles all along US Route 90.
Mount Rushmore, SD Lots of dynamite and some chisels left a few rocks that look like faces of four US presidents. Worth seeing for an hour or so. The movies and exhibits are very interesting.
Crazy Horse Monument, SD After over 50 years of "work", this privately funded monument to the famous Native American is not even close to done. The carving in the mountain is many times larger than the nearby Mount Rushmore.
Devil's Tower NM, WY Rising to the sky out of an otherwise flat landscape, it's an amazing site to see (it's not just a set from Close Encounters of the Third Kind). There are a few hikes around the tower, which you can do in a few hours.
Jun 5-9 Yellowstone NP, WY This was perhaps the most beautiful place I have ever seen. The park is enormous and around every turn is a scene that makes you want to pull over and take it in. I drove all around the park and did some great hiking as well. Bison were everywhere and some I saw really up close. I saw a few black bears too, but no grizzlies. The last day I was there it snowed six inches, but luckily I decided to stay in a cabin that night instead of my tent. There are so many beautiful places to see there, so it's definitely a place you need to spend at least two full days... though four would be ideal. Old Faithful was amazing, but there's so much more to explore. The 1988 fire destroyed a lot of the forests, so it's really interesting to see how they've re-grown since then.
Jun 7 Bozeman, MT Small town in southern Montana; home of Montana State University. Spent a night on a little side trip from Yellowstone.
Jun 8 Jackson Hole, WY Fabulously ritzy resort / ski town just south of the Grand Tetons. Beautiful, artsy place that's the home of Harrison Ford and $10 sandwiches.
Grand Tetons NP, WY Beautiful park just south of Yellowstone. Snow-capped mountain peaks around 13,000 feet. Beautiful flowers. Moose frequent this area, though I didn't see anyway.
Jun 9-10 Sun Valley, ID Beautiful resort / vacation town in southern Idaho. Stayed at a friend's house, did some hiking, and relaxed after over 10 days on the road.
Jun 11 Portland, OR Drove most of the day to a family friends' house.
Jun 12 Cannon Beach, OR Finally reached the Pacific Ocean at a beautiful beach / artsy town in northern Oregon. The beaches looked kinda like in that classic 80s movie "Goonies".
Jun 13 Seattle, WA Saw a Mariner's game at Safeco Field, walked around the city. Didn't go to a Starbucks.
Jun 14 Olympic NP, WA Beautiful park in many places and pretty crummy in others. Logging and other non-natural things have destroyed many of the areas along the perimeter drive around the park. The rainforest and the mountains on the northeast side were excellent. Saw my first bald eagle.
Mt. St. Helen's, OR Not much to do there besides the visitors' centers, but an overwhelming site. The destruction from the eruption on May 18, 1980 is incredible. The re-growth of the forests is also very impressive.
Jun 14-17 Portland, OR Relaxed at my friends' house for a few days before hitting the road.
Jun 18 Crater Lake NP, OR Beautiful park, but it was still covered with snow in many places, closing many hiking trails. With nothing to do but drive around, I took some photos and then left.
Jun 18-19 Redwood NP, CA A long drive down the coast got me to the park late at night. Redwood is a combo of state parks and the national park. The redwoods are the tallest trees in the world (sequoias being larger in terms of mass) and grow naturally only in this area of the world. The cliff-lined beaches are also a great part of the park, when the fog clears enough to see. Fern Canyon was an amazing little hike along a river bed lined by 50 foot falls of ferns.
Jun 19-20 Shelter Cove, CA Small, remote town in the Lost Coast area that is only accessible by a 20-mile steep, twisting mountain road that takes you to the ocean. Beautiful houses and hotels. Seals live all over the rocks. I went on a salmon fishing charter and caught three huge salmon, the largest being 25 pounds. Three days of eating salmon followed!!! 
Jun 21-22 Berkeley, CA After driving through Napa Valley I arrived at Berkeley and stayed with a friend there. Though not exactly like what I expected, it was still a nice throwback to the 1960s hippy scene (or at least my expectations of what it would be).
Jun 23 - Aug 1 Yosemite NP, CA See Yosemite page.
Aug 1-3 San Francisco, CA Picked up my friend Paige at the airport and stayed with some friends. Did the tourist stuff: Coit Tower, China Town, Fisherman's Wharf, Lombard Street, etc. The Exploratorium is a really fun interactive science museum. Couldn't get to Alcatraz; apparently it's a few day wait to see the prison.
Aug 4 Monterey, CA Went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which was really impressive. The jellyfish and otter exhibits were great. Walked down Canterbury row as well and saw all the fancy shops that I can't afford.
Aug 4 Big Sur, CA Went down scenic 17 Mile Drive just south of Monterey. Beautiful drive down scenic Route 1, which winds along the cliffs high above the ocean. Not a good place to run out of gas as it's pretty far from anything.
Aug 4-5 San Simeon, CA Small town that exists to house tourists for Hearst Castle, which was an amazing display of unbelievable opulence. Oh to dream.... On the way there, we saw tons of elephant seals laying on the beach.
Aug 5-8 Los Angeles, CA Checked out the promenade and the pier in Santa Monica. Spent a few nights in Huntington Beach. Checked out Long Beach. Fought traffic on the infamous 405 freeway.
August 6 San Diego Zoo Huge, world famous zoo. Saw the pandas. The rest of the zoo was really cool, but nothing I hadn't seen at the Bronx Zoo in NY.
Aug 7 Disneyland & CA Adventure Knew someone who worked there, so we got free passes into the parks. I haven't been to a Disney park in a long time, so it was a lot of fun. Lots of great rides and great to act like a goofy kid (no pun intended).
Aug 8 Los Angeles, CA Dropped off Paige at the airport and then fought lots of traffic to leave the maze of highways that run through the city.
Joshua Tree NP, CA Interesting park that would've been better had it not been 110 degrees. Joshua Trees were really weird looking. No signs of U2 anywhere though.
Lake Havasu City, AZ Little resort town just east of the California border famous for having the London Bridge. Yes, like in the song "London Bridge is falling down, falling down....". Well, now it's in Arizona. Logical place to put it, right?
Aug 9-11 Grand Canyon NP, AZ The Grand Canyon is one of the most popular tourist spots in the world, and you can instantly see that. Hearing foreign languages becomes the norm. You could win the license plate game in a few hours driving around there. NY, Florida, etc.... who cares if it's 2,500 miles away, everyone's there. The views are amazing, the sunsets unbelievable. It's hot as hell though with temperatures in the high 90s. I hiked seven miles to the bottom and stayed at Phantom Ranch, where the temperature hits 110 during the day on a regular basis. At the bottom I hiked 12 miles roundtrip to Ribbon Falls, which was this amazing oasis in the middle of the desert. It was shaded and beautiful. The falls were such that you could stand under them and cool off... and be surprised that your burning feet don't give off steam like in the cartoons. Even in the middle of the night, it's still really hot at the bottom of the canyon. The hike back out was about 10 miles and it gained over 5,000 feet. Yikes, I was beat by the end.
Aug 12 Sedona, AZ Cool artsy/resort/retirement town with lots of shops. Home of the famous Red Rocks.
Aug 12-14 Phoenix, AZ 110 degrees is no big deal because it's dry heat, right? Yeah, you give it a shot. Spent the next week with my mom touring the southwest. We went to Frank Lloyd Wright's home, Taliesen West. We also went to the Heard Museum of Native American culture. 
Aug 14 Very Large Array, NM All of a sudden along a deserted highway appears an array of 70' tall satellite dishes. I was hoping this was the home of SETI, but it turned out to be the Very Large Array (VLA), the most powerful radio telescope in the world. The telescope consists of a "Y" pattern of 29 dishes, which can be moved around by a train.
Soccoro, NM A long day of driving through the middle of no where in Arizona and New Mexico and we arrived at, I guess, east of the middle of no where. Contrary to what I expected, it was very green and forested along most of the drive.
Aug 15 Bosque NWP, NM Bosque National Wildlife Preserve is home to hundreds of thousands of birds in the fall, winter, and spring. It was August; there weren't many birds. There were tons of hummingbirds (and mosquitoes) though.
White Sands NM, NM After driving through a missile range (which, during testing, can close the highway down for over an hour) we arrived at White Sands National Monument. In the middle of the day it was in the 100s, so we checked out the Space Center and then returned for sunset. The white gypsum sand dunes can move about 30' a year and so roads through the park are constantly being re-routed. We had the most beautiful sunsets I'd seen all summer  followed by an abrupt lightning and windstorm that sent us to our cars and out of the park.
Aug 16 Carlsbad Caverns NP, NM Truly one of the most amazing places I've ever seen. The caverns, which are over 700' underground) are enormous and extremely elaborate. One cave they found continues for over 100 miles. Bacteria they found their are as diverse as life found in the Amazon Rainforest. One species of bacteria discovered attacks cancer cells and not healthy ones in controlled experiments.
Abilene, TX After a lot of driving through New Mexico and Texas we arrived at a small city and spent the night.
Aug 17 Dallas, TX I dropped off my mom so she could fly home and then hit the road.
Nashville, TN After 900 miles of driving in a day through Texas, Arkansas, and Tennessee, I arrived at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. I spent the night with a friend and hit some bars.
Aug 18 Lots of driving! The home stretch was a long one indeed. Another 900 miles in a day sent me through seven states and back to my home in NY.
Aug 19 @ 2am Suffern, NY Tired and ready for bed, I pulled into my driveway just before 2am and slept in my own bed for the first time in almost three months.
 
Back to Top
 
 
Some Statistics on My Trip
 
12,702 Miles traveled for the whole trip
6,280 Miles traveled from NY to Yosemite, CA through the north
6,422 Miles traveled from Yosemite, CA to NY through the south
82 Days from beginning to end
23 States visited
11 National Parks and Monuments visited
2 Squirrels crushed by my car (accidents, I promise)
912 Most miles I drove in a day (Nashville, TN to Suffern, NY)
2.02 Most I paid for a gallon of gas (in Yosemite Nat'l Park)
5 Bears seen (all black bears)
3 Population of the smallest town I drove through
13,050 Highest elevation I hiked to (Mt. Dana, Yosemite Nat'l Park)
112 Highest temperature (Phoenix, AZ... but it's a dry heat)
110 Temperature in the shade at the bottom of the Grand Canyon
20 Most miles I hiked in one day (Grand Canyon Nat'l Park)
54 Rolls of film (not including over 200 shots with my digital camera)
100 Most miles of road traveled without seeing civilization (California)
75 Highest posted speed limit (MT, CA, AZ, NM, & TX)
0 Number of speeding tickets (unbelievable!)
0 Number of Mastercard "Priceless" rip-off spoofs on this website
 
Back to Top


All material on this site, except where otherwise noted, is my original work.
For questions or comments, please email me.
Copyright 2004, Evan Rapoport.