Pics & Notes From Our Summer Road Trip

[gmannerino]

Very solid! I've got a trip in two weeks, I'm also headed to Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Utah, and some white water rafting.

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[jbellousux]

That could be. We passed by the Elk Refuge a half dozen times and never saw any there. Last year about the same time we saw tons of them up in Yellowstone.

I was in Yellowstone a few weeks ago and saw lots of elk, a couple of black bears and a grizzly. Not sure why the elk were hiding in the Tetons. I’ve seen lots of moose in the Tetons, but never in Yellowstone.

 

[Ironiguana]

What a trip! Steffie and I got home last Sunday from our annual Summer Road Trip, and of course we had a blast. Here are a bunch of pics and some notes from our trip.

• Total Days: 13
• Total Miles Travelled: 3,685
• States Visited: 8 (California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Nevada)
• National Parks Visited: 4 (Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP, Grand Teton NP, Yellowstone NP, Canyonlands NP)
• Nights Tent Camping: 5
• Nights in Hotel/Motel: 7 (Includes first 3 nights in a motel in Capitan, NM, while Stephanie and her brother were working on matters related to their mother’s estate, who had recently passed away. Motel/Hotel nights during the actual touring portion of this trip were only 4 (versus 5 nights camping)
• Touring Total Miles Travelled*: 3,006
• Touring Non-Freeway Miles Traveled: 2,821
• Touring Connecting Freeway Miles: 185
• Touring Non-Freeway Miles Percentage: 94%
• Total Non-Freeway Miles Percentage: 77%

*Touring mileage excludes freeway miles during both our initial getaway (Southern California to Phoenix AZ where we first left the Interstate, and the freeway portion of the final return leg (Hurricane UT to home). Everything in between I’m calling the “Touring” portion of our road trip.​

Some Highlights & Lowlights:

• Best Camping Meal: Steffie’s Chicken & Capers
• Best Restaurant Meal: Oso Grill in Capitan NM (I had the Hatch Chile Enchilada Casserole)
• Most Exciting Activity: Whitewater rafting on the Snake River in Jackson, WY
• Most Puckery Road: Shafer Switchbacks, Canyonlands NP
• Most Beautiful Scenery: The aspen forests between Crested Butte and Carbondale, CO
• Highest Elevation: Kebler Pass, CO 9,998 ft.
• Most Pleasant Surprises: 1. The beautiful mountains of northeastern Utah; 2. The Black Canyon of the Gunnison; 3. The enormous Bear Lake.
• Biggest Disappointment: the lack of viewable wildlife in Grand Teton NP and zero viewable elk in the vast National Elk Refuge.
• Live Wildlife Viewed: Antelope somewhere in New Mexico and in northern Colorado; several nice muley bucks near Meeker CO and a big one near Kebler Pass; a herd of Bighorn Sheep ewes at Blue Mesa Reservoir, CO; Bald Eagles on the Snake River, WY; a partially domesticated Bull Elk near the Signal Mountain store in Grand Teton NP, Turkey Buzzards, Canadian geese, Pelicans and Sandpipers at Bear Lake ID; various ground squirrels, chipmunks and other small mammals throughout the trip.
• Best Roads: Utah
• Worst Roads: Arizona
• Worst (only) Vehicular Equipment Failure: Shattered the rear hatch window on the Bronco
• Favorite Camping Gear: Steffie—Jet Boil and French Press; Dusty: Starlink Mini

Just curious...
Most puckery? Shafer? Planning on taking my 77 year old mom on this route in 3 weeks. Read it was relatively tame. Don't want any heart attacks. We will be going up from Potash road. Going up has priority. Should I reassess?

 

[Dusty]

Just curious...
Most puckery? Shafer? Planning on taking my 77 year old mom on this route in 3 weeks. Read it was relatively tame. Don't want any heart attacks. We will be going up from Potash road. Going up has priority. Should I reassess?

No, don't reassess. it's a VERY easy road, and not very narrow. It's only puckery because of the sheer drop-offs. But if you keep your eye on the road while you're in motion, and let your passengers do the sightseeing you'll be fine. But for the driver I do recommend stopping several times so you can get out and take in the views without it distracting your driving.

That said, there was a guy in an SUV headed down, they passed us one time when we were out of the vehicle taking pictures. I saw him turning around on one of the switchbacks below and head back up. As he passed I asked him if everything was OK. He just said that one of his passengers was getting the heebie-jeebies and didn't want to continue on. But I've been up and down it a couple of times myself and it's no problem at all...just keep your eyes on the road LOL.

By the way it was a low bar to qualify as most puckery for this trip, as we really didn't do much off-roading.

 

[Ironiguana]

No, don't reassess. it's a VERY easy road, and not very narrow. It's only puckery because of the sheer drop-offs. But if you keep your eye on the road while you're in motion, and let your passengers do the sightseeing you'll be fine. But for the driver I do recommend stopping several times so you can get out and take in the views without it distracting your driving.

That said, there was a guy in an SUV headed down, they passed us one time when we were out of the vehicle taking pictures. I saw him turning around on one of the switchbacks below and head back up. As he passed I asked him if everything was OK. He just said that one of his passengers was getting the heebie-jeebies and didn't want to continue on. But I've been up and down it a couple of times myself and it's no problem at all...just keep your eyes on the road LOL.

By the way it was a low bar to qualify as most puckery for this trip, as we really didn't do much off-roading.

Thanks for reply. Great pics by the way. Very inspiring.

 

[MannyG20]

Thanks for sharing Dusty. Love the two door white with blue stripes. One of my favorite use of vinyl I have seen on the forum.

 

[Squatch]

• Favorite Camping Gear: Steffie—Jet Boil and French Press; Dusty: Starlink Mini

That Starlink Mini looks way bigger than I expected.


Awesome share!

 

[Beach_Bum]

@Dusty Thank you for sharing your trip photos and experience. Little jelly seeing parts of this country that I'll likely never see with my own eyes. Your photos were excellent. What camera/lens do you use?

 

[NORCALGXP]

As always your post of you travel adventure is amazing love it. Two door for the score.

 

[AXMRDR]

Looks like an outstanding trip. Thanks for sharing.

I have to say as a hobbyist photographer that your photos are top notch. I have some photos of some of the same things in my travel photos 'catalog'. Wall Street, Canyonlands overlooking Shafers, Newspaper Rock to name a few.

This is one of the best trip threads I've seen.

 

[KT_bronco]

A few more...

Beautiful! love the photos! What an epic trip.

 

[Dusmw]

Elk Refuge outside Jackson are their wintering grounds. They are still in the NP till late fall early winter.

looks like you had an awesome trip and the Bronco did you right!

sorry for your wife’s loss, losing a parent is hard experience. We know it will happen just difficult to experience, prayers for her family.

 

[Robs]

What a trip! Steffie and I got home last Sunday from our annual Summer Road Trip, and of course we had a blast. Here are a bunch of pics and some notes from our trip.

• Total Days: 13
• Total Miles Travelled: 3,685
• States Visited: 8 (California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Nevada)
• National Parks Visited: 4 (Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP, Grand Teton NP, Yellowstone NP, Canyonlands NP)
• Nights Tent Camping: 5
• Nights in Hotel/Motel: 7 (Includes first 3 nights in a motel in Capitan, NM, while Stephanie and her brother were working on matters related to their mother’s estate, who had recently passed away. Motel/Hotel nights during the actual touring portion of this trip were only 4 (versus 5 nights camping)
• Touring Total Miles Travelled*: 3,006
• Touring Non-Freeway Miles Traveled: 2,821
• Touring Connecting Freeway Miles: 185
• Touring Non-Freeway Miles Percentage: 94%
• Total Non-Freeway Miles Percentage: 77%

*Touring mileage excludes freeway miles during both our initial getaway (Southern California to Phoenix AZ where we first left the Interstate, and the freeway portion of the final return leg (Hurricane UT to home). Everything in between I’m calling the “Touring” portion of our road trip.​

Some Highlights & Lowlights:

• Best Camping Meal: Steffie’s Chicken & Capers
• Best Restaurant Meal: Oso Grill in Capitan NM (I had the Hatch Chile Enchilada Casserole)
• Most Exciting Activity: Whitewater rafting on the Snake River in Jackson, WY
• Most Puckery Road: Shafer Switchbacks, Canyonlands NP
• Most Beautiful Scenery: The aspen forests between Crested Butte and Carbondale, CO
• Highest Elevation: Kebler Pass, CO 9,998 ft.
• Most Pleasant Surprises: 1. The beautiful mountains of northeastern Utah; 2. The Black Canyon of the Gunnison; 3. The enormous Bear Lake.
• Biggest Disappointment: the lack of viewable wildlife in Grand Teton NP and zero viewable elk in the vast National Elk Refuge.
• Live Wildlife Viewed: Antelope somewhere in New Mexico and in northern Colorado; several nice muley bucks near Meeker CO and a big one near Kebler Pass; a herd of Bighorn Sheep ewes at Blue Mesa Reservoir, CO; Bald Eagles on the Snake River, WY; a partially domesticated Bull Elk near the Signal Mountain store in Grand Teton NP, Turkey Buzzards, Canadian geese, Pelicans and Sandpipers at Bear Lake ID; various ground squirrels, chipmunks and other small mammals throughout the trip.
• Best Roads: Utah
• Worst Roads: Arizona
• Worst (only) Vehicular Equipment Failure: Shattered the rear hatch window on the Bronco
• Favorite Camping Gear: Steffie—Jet Boil and French Press; Dusty: Starlink Mini

Great detail and pix. Would love to take the same route — can you share the actual route you took?

 

[Dusty]

That Starlink Mini looks way bigger than I expected.

Yeah I got it with the High Bandwidth upgrade...

...but I might return the Mini-Very Large Array. It just takes too long to set up and take down.

 

[ROKBRNC]

Badass Dusty!

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