Katman1356...Jason

I think I broke it, Ed. :rofl2:

That didn't take long.

What?

That's awesome.

And so is this trip report.

Great job on the photos. You did a great job capturing the majesty of some of those places.

And, of course, I am cracking up at your swipes at the Fort Rangers.

TCD

I threw those swipes in just for you TCD. :thumbsup1:

What a trip! Colors in the photos are wonderful and you say even prettier in person...WOW!

Absolutely. While we had a nice point and shoot and I do pretty well taking pictures, there is nothing that can capture the images as they truly are when you are standing there. It's one of those things that engages so many senses at once that a picture can not do.

I interrupt this trip report for some totally awesome news. I just got a phone call that I had one a contest. Unfortunately it was a not a trip to Disney but it was pretty cool. I had one a free night at Mohegan Sun Casino. My wife and I love to go there for dinner and she has always wanted to stay there but I have trouble paying around $200 for a night in a hotel 30 minutes from my house. She is so excited right now. I am glad I entered and won so she can scratch this off her bucket list.

"EPIC" might be the only word that carries enough weight to describe this journey.

Awesome pics

Thanks!

Continuing on from the National Park we again turned west. We were going to go back down through Arizona cutting through Sedona and then turning west again on Interstate 5.

Heading down the road.

Driving down into the valley where Sedona is.

The rock formations in Sedona are amazing and in real life the red is very vibrant. The camera just can't capture it.

We didnt get any shots of downtown Sedona as we were just passing through. We had reservations for the next couple of nights made and really wanted to get there that day.

One last shot on the way out of Sedona.

When we stopped at the first rest area after getting back on the highway you could see Sedona in the distance.

There was also some signage that made us keep our eyes open in other ways.

Another view at the rest area.

Purple Cactuses. all the need is a Snarky

As we continued down the highway we saw something Silvia had been waiting for. One of the big cactuses like you see in the movies and cartoons.

Little did she know they would become old hat before long.

We passed through Phoenix, AZ heading for I5.

Mostly took the pictures to remind us where we were. It definitely helped with identifying pictures after the trip.

Yeay we finally saw a sign with our destination listed on it.

Unfortunately that was still a long way down the road. It was about 4:30 and we had about 7 hours of driving till we would get to San Diego.

Yeay a sign with how far we have to go! Boo! it says 171 miles to San Diego.

Driving by the Imperial Sand Dunes in California. Unfortunately the welcome sign was missed since it was the size of a postage stamp.

We arrive at our hotel at about 11:00 thanks to my driving faster than I really should have. When we went to check in though there was a problem. They took out debit card to make the reservation but would not let us use that for checking in. We did not have credit cards so we had a problem. They also would not let us put down a cash deposit. After "discussing" this for a while with the idiot night guy(probably a former Fort Ranger) we left and went to the car to figure out what we were going to do. I did some checking made some calls and found a Comfort Inn that was cheaper that the original place, accepted our AAA discount and did not need a credit card.

We checked in. Ordered some pizza from a local place. ate and crashed. We were beat and had a fun day ahead. Mor on that in the next post.

Very cool, Jason! It's been 26 years since I've been to the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. My kids were just toddlers then. The day we were there it was overcast so we didn't get great pictures of the desert. I can't wait to see yours!

It was a little hazy due to the heat but the picture look nice. Nothing compared to the view in person though.

Continuing in the Petrified Forest.

A close up.

This was a tree that was buried in the ground. Over time erosion exposed it and left it a bridge. In the earlier days of the park service the reinforced it with concrete. Now the policy would be to left it as found and let nature takes its course.

Continuing to another part of the park.

The train tracks run through a part of the park.

And at a certain point Rt. 66 ran through it as well. The have placed a marker where that was and left certain things in place to illustrate its location.

You can see the telephone poles on the right hand side of the picture with no lines running on them. If you look closely you can also see the raised earth that was the roadbed back when 66 ran through here.

Finally we made it to the part I missed last time. The Painted Dessert. In my defense it was as black as night and there are no lights on the road through the park. My buddy is very upset that he missed it though.

It reaches from here almost all teh way to the Grand Canyon.

There are no roads in that part of the park to preserve it so this is as close as you can get. It is amazing though.

And now we are back on the road. I think I will take a break here for a little bit. This was a long day due to the lost time the day before.

Jason...beautiful pictures!! I was right along there with you until you came out of Oklahoma. Every other year or so we make the 26 hour drive to my in-laws in NW Oklahoma, we tend to follow the same route, RT81 in VA to I40 in TN, then on to AK (which I HATE driving in). I would LOVE to drive out west with my kids...who knows maybe we will eventually. :rofl3:

Oh and P.S. - I think its great that you are tent camping along the way. We tent camp but I cannot imagine taking our gear for a road trip of that magnitude. :camp1:

Thanks for joining us. Tenting was really the only way we could afford this trip. And in our minds it was part of the experience so many others had when cars first became affordable and the road trip began.

Ok so when we left off we had made an unscheduled stop at Lyman Lake. It was a beautiful place but we had a date with our first National Park of the trip. So we packed up and headed out around 7 a.m. One thing I have found especially in the wide open campgrounds is that once the sun comes up, its pretty much to bright in the tent to sleep much more.

We got on the road and continued north in Arizona until we finally reached our destination. The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park. This is one of the lesser known national parks but it is very striking.

Heading north

And the road just goes on and on.

At the unofficial visitors center. We were to early to get into the park by about 30 minutes.

We made it!

Last time I was here it was only an hour till we had to be out of the park. Which meant we could enter but we were going to have to drive straight through with a minimum of stopping. As a bonus though the Ranger at the entrance station saw our guitars in the back seat and said she would let us in for free if we played her a song. So my buddy grabbed his guitar and played her Smoke on the Water and we got in for free. It was great.

This time we paid. I didn't mind. For those of you that have not yet visited a national park here is some general info on them that has seemed to hold true to all I have been to so far. You pay for you entrance by the carload. The fee does vary but is usually around $20. Onc eyou have paid to get in you can come and go with your receipt for the next week. If you are staying near a park you can really take your time and visit as much as you want over that week.

If you plan on hitting multiple parks in one year you should check into their Interagency Annual Pass for $80. This lets you into most federal recreation sites across the country for a period of 12 months. If you are senior citizen of age 62 or older you can buy he $10 lifetime pass that gets you and your vehicle and passengers into the parks for the rest of your life. Also includes some discounts on camping and other things.

A link to info on the Interagency Annual Pass: http://store.usgs.gov/pass/index.html

A link to information on the Lifetime Pass, these must be purchased in person: http://store.usgs.gov/pass/senior.html

Moving along now. We stopped at many of the spots along the way and walked some of the shorter trails to see the petrified forest up close.

In some pieces you can see the growth rings.

My first time out here it was later in the day getting on towards night time and a big storm rolled in so we missed out on seeing a major part of the park and thought that this was the Painted Desert.

As you will see later, not even close.

traveling to another portion of the park.

Sadly when the area was first discovered and ongoing even today, people take the pieces of petrified wood home reducing what is left for us to see. This is not as common now as they have put security cameras in place at the walking areas to monitor for that. And if you see someone taking something you are encouraged to inform a Ranger. Unlike the Fort's Ranger these guys are very knowledgable and helpful.

Almost all of the lumps you see are pieces of trees that fell probably due to flooding millenia ago and the water covering them slowly leached out the material of the wood replacing it with crystals until perfectly preserved pieces of fosiilized wood.

Probably getting close so I will continue in next post.

Yes.....definitely a giant foot. Oddly, it looks like the foot from the statue of liberty in ome of the ghostbuster sequels.

I think it is things like that "foot" that made it easy for the native americans and earlier people of the world to look at things like mountains and describe them as sleeping giants. And i agree all it needs is a sandle and some green paint and it would be good to go.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing. :jumpforjoy

Your quite welcome. Glad to have you along.

Jason, what a great TR so far ! I did not know that Roswell had that many people... I always pictured it as a small town with one street and maybe two alleys.. The photos at Bottomless Lake are incredible... So when you were on Route 66, did ya think of the movie "Cars".... come on..... you were looking for the exit to Radiator Springs..... Can't wait for the next update !

Silvia was getting quite the kick out of seeing a lot of the names from the song in that movie. When we get to Monument Valley you will see how much was easily inspired from there in Cars.

Ok, I am caught up now. Amazing pictures, I really need to get out west some time.

It is definitely something I feel everyone should do at least once.

This is soooo awesome Jason!!! Those big sky pictures speak to me!!!!

It is amazing how bigthe world seems out there with nothin to break the horizon up.

Great updates. Sometimes unplanned detours really are the best.

Absolutely!

The Roswell Museum looks interesting but the Bottomless Lake area is just breathtaking! Great update, Jason!

Of all the places on this trip, it remains one of my favorites.

Great report, Jason! I've travelled out west several times, and I think its just beautiful! I need to get my daughters out there soon.

On a side note, my in-laws live outside Harrisburg. Mere minutes from Hershey. If anyone ever needs a chocolate shake from Hershey, send me a few bucks.. I'll gladly stop and get one for you, and tell you all about it...

Thanks Todd. I am sure Silvia would appreciate that. :rofl3:

I am so enjoying this report! This is something I would never be able to do. I have a difficult time driving an hour and find it hard to be the rider for 2 hours. Can barely make it to the fort and back without going stir crazy. I can read along and pretend I'm there with you!

Enjoy the scenery!

Great scenic shots! You're Roswell photos are out of this world! Sorry, couldn't resist!

Love it!

I love pistachios, and have never seen a pistachio farm.

I am not a big fan of pistachios but she was in heaven.

No, that does not look like a foot! (you told me to say that!) ;D

Thank you for listening and paying attention. :laugh:

Loving your report. We have made that West Texas trip to Roswell and can relate to the lack of gas stations, or anything else for that matter. My DD used to live in Artisa NM, about half way between Roswell and Calsbab Caverns.It was an interesting place to live.

There really is nothing out there until you hit a city or town. Then you have a couple of miles of life before you are alone again. This does make the nightime views amazing.

Wow!! -- a TR of what is a dream trip for me. The rest of my family has talked about going to Roswell sometime (I'm not so big on aliens). My older DS would love the giant pistachio, esp. if he could eat it. He's adicted but pistachios are expensive.

In Hershey did you go on the free ride in the visitor center? Very Disney like with the singing cows. Plus you get a free chocolate bar at the end. We have been known to detour 40 miles or so from our route to go through Hershey and ride it twice.

Believe me Seals, the state park is almost enough for a trip to Roswell. My bumper sticker from there takes it the rest of the way. I will post a pic later.

Jason-

Awesome job!

I especially enjoyed the sunrise over Roswell photo!

Good job on the writing, too. I liked the roadrunner/coyote reference!

I am glad someone caught that.

I love how you crossed the country with just your car and a tent. What a great trip it has been so far.

As part of getting ready for this trip we watched a lot of documentaries on Netflix and other places including the Ken Burn's National Parks one. Silvia was fascinated with the idea of driving and camping our way around the country and since that was what we could afford to do anyway it worked really well.

I will say we originally were thinking about renting an RV for this trip but we quickly decided we could not afford that. Way to many miles.

How many hours a day did you drive?

After the first few days we were typically not driving much more than 8 hours a day. I usually spend about that driving to the different stores to fix them so for me it was not a problem. I also have a rule when driving that we must stop every 2 hours and get up and walk around, use the bathroom if needed, whatever. It helps to keep the highway hypnosis from setting in.

How did you plan for your stops? I saw that you missed one of your planned stops because of that detour. Did you try to make reservations each morning, or did you just wing it?

We had planned out the trip for the most part before we left. I had done this once before back in 2002 and I was calling each morning to make reservations around where I thought we would be stopping that night. Since we were following almost the same path for a lot of this trip I booked the campgrounds that I liked from before and replaced the ones I didn't with others in the area. It also helped that since they were only 1 night stops for the most part The deposit meant a lot of our campsites were paid for months in advance. This particular one was one of the only ones I could not book in advance as they don't have that option so we didn't loose any money on it.

TCD

What an amazing adventure! Thank you for taking us along. Your pictures are awesome.

Like your wife, I've only ever flown to the West coast. Haven't really been anywhere in between! I hope to do something about that someday.

FP4

If you ever get the chance I absolutely encourage you to take it. You will not be disappointed.

All I can say is WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! You have some wonderful pictures on a side note to self do not plan a trip with you as I do not think I could keep up, you would have to leave a trail for me to follow. Can't wait for more!! :bravo:

Thanks dblr. I will say that when planning this trip it was with the knowledge that it was just Silvia and myself. When we travel with others we do adjust accordingly. Most of the time.

Is that a palm tree??

I just looked at the original on my computer and enlarged that area. Not a palm tree. Looks like some other kind of tree but with he wind we had blowing pretty steady it was lifting all of the foliage to look like one. Could catch though I hadn't even noticed the tree before.

Safe driving with the weather and always Lou.

Sorry folks. In checking a map we got off of Interstate 10 while still in New Mexico. We headed up US 70 because we were headed to the Painted Dessert. Our original plan was to get to that this day but the best laid plans often go astray. Due to the wildfires in Arizona we had to detour. We ended up back in New Mexico on some back roads with no cell reception what so ever. Having been out in the west before I expected no cell reception so I had an atlas with us. As the detour was not marked in anyway this was a good thing. After routing around the fire and back into Arizona we realized we had just finished a 4 hour detour and we were not making it to our planned stop for the night.

We stopped at a state park called Lyman Lake State Park. As it was the 4th of July I wasn't sure how we were going to do with getting a site but since the 4th was a monday everybody had to work the next day. We pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Heading north into Arizona

The detour took us through some amazing scenery.

Tell me that doesn't look like a foot.

We never would have seen those sights if not for the detour.

Pictures of the campground.

Sunset over Lyman Lake

The ground around the lake was all red clay/dirt. I think we still have some on the tent.

It was a beautiful evening.

The next morning we continued heading north. We had a date with our first National Park of the trip.

I will pick it up from here tomorrow.

They sure are capitalizing on the alien stuff out there. I guess when you are as remote as Roswell is, you build your economy around anything you can. That alien crash is the best thing that ever happened to that town.

I think it was Dave. They do have some other things going on but in terms of tourism the UFO stuff is what everyone wants.

We traveled down US 390 to US 70 which took us down towards White Sands. We ran into the Billy The Kid National Scenic Byway Visitors Center.

There is a great tile mural that wraps around the building. We took a couple of select pictures.

After leaving there and switching to US70 we came around a corner to see a strange site in the distance. As we got closer we realized it was a giant pistachio.

This was McGinn's Pistachio farm. Silvia said they were great pistachios. We may be ordering some more from them soon.

Right after McGinn's we saw this on the side of the road.

If anyone sees a giant metal coyote let me know.

Then we made it to White Sands. We did not go into white sands as it is more of an off road excursion and we were definitely not in an off road vehicle. we did get some pics from the border though.

Some of the missile test range mountains.

Even out here you run into something from NASA.

We continued on to Interstate 10 and on into Arizona.

Shortly after getting into Arizona we left the highway to head north. Not sure where I am in picture so that will be in next post.

Continuing on to the lake we will be camping next too.

The water is so clear you can see the bottom in this one f you look closely.

The water is a constant 68 degrees if I remember the temp correctly. It fell so nice and since it is continuosly fed from underground it stays nice and clean. We didnt get to go in that night as we needed to make dinner and get setup, but the next morning we got up around 5 and went swimming before packing up to head out. I think this place is a bigger reason for going to Roswell for me than the museum. Silvia loved it as well.

The view from out campsite.

Last time I stayed here with my buddy we were swimming in the morning before leaving and I was just looking at the lake saying something like I wonder if I can swim across this. Being a couple of guys in our 20's my buddy dared me to do it. I proceeded to swim and he grabbed the camera to document it. Keep in mind there is still a sinkhole in this lake. The first 10-15 feet it slopes down very gradually, then the ground disappears and if I remember correctly it drops 89 feet. I made it across fine but on my way back in the middle of the lake I got a leg cramp. Luckily I am a world class floater so I just flipped on my back and paddled my way across till my leg felt better but if I had panicked who knows what could have happened.

The moral of the story is if you visit here please keep an eye on your kids.

Continuing on.

Some more picture from the next day up on the cliffs overlooking the lake.

In honor of TCD I call this Sunrise over Roswell.

The campground from the cliffs.

great views of the surrounding area from up here.

It was a very ominous sky that morning.

We proceeded to head back into Roswell to gas up and continue our trip west.

Did you know that Roswell is the Dairy capital of the west?

You do now.

After leaving Roswell we headed down the road again. This time on US 390.

Look tumbleweeds

These mountains are about 2 hours away.

time to stretch

I will pick up from here in the next section.

Heading east from Roswell just a few miles out of town is the Bottomless Lake State Park. I camped here on my last visit and knew it was one of the places I had to take Silvia too.

The state park is a collection of "bottomless" lakes formed by sinkholes that tapped an underground spring. The biggest lake was supposed found to be bottomless when a bunch of cowboys tied their saddles together and could not reach the bottom.

One of the lakes there is setup as a daytime park and swimming area and on the other side a campground. If you are staying at the campground you have full access to swimming int he lake any time you want. But as the camp host told us if you start drowning don't expect me to make it out there to save you. My cane only moves so fast. hahaha.

Ok here are some pictures heading out to the park.

I promise there is water out here.

There is the first sign that we are getting close.

And another

The first of the lakes.

There are a total of 7. I don't think we made it to all 7.

The one by the visitors center.

must be close to photo limit. to be continued.

Okay continuing on. We last left off with driving towards Roswell. Thankfully we made it to a gas station and continued on to Roswell.

Do you think we are there yet?

Inside the "Museum"

Oooooh Photo Op!

Even the streetlights and the surrounding area gets in on the UFO business.

Here's the outside of the museum.

This was my second trip to Roswell and the museum. It is a fun stop. They have a lot of redacted documents and scraps of "unknown materials" that are purported to come from the 47 Roswell Crash or other UFO phenomena from around the world. Don't expect to see a room with real little green men in it but it is fun.

After the museum we had dinner at Golden Corral and headed out to Bottomless Lakes State Park where we were camping for the night. We will pick up there in the next post.

Road Trip, Rt 66 and UFO's. Good deal!

PS: When you are in west Texas and on into New Mexico, stop every time you see a gas station. You never know where the next will be. Same goes for the Dakotas. Packing stuff for lunch is also a good idea. You might find a Dairy Queen but that's about it.

Food wasn't an issue as we had a cooler with lunch meats and other stuff. Gas on the other hand came real close. The estimated miles left on the car was at I think 11 miles left when we found a gas station that was still open.

Looks like a fun trip, those mobile chapels are at a lot of truck stops some never move, a guy I worked with years ago would preach at the one near my house but I never went down to hear him. Looking forward to more of your adventure!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome aboard! We laugh everytime the picture of that mobile chapel comes up on teh computer screen.

This is awesome!!!!!!! Can't wait to read more!!!! Don't feel bashful about posting pictures. If you got 3000 post em!!!!

We will see how many I post. I have close to 900 already online. Most of the ones I didn't load are doubles of stuff or so similar that its hard to tel them apart.

This is going to be a fun read!!! We just got home on Thursday from an almost three week traveling vacation.....put on aroung 2,800 miles. It was our third western adventure. We are from the east coast too....NH. However, we fly out west, rent a van and stay in different hotels every night as we travel around. You guys are awesome to do all that traveling and set up a tent every night!!!! My hat goes off to you!!!!!

We LOVE Hershey too!!! We used to sneak in a trip every year. Its only 8 hours from our house to Hershey. We havent been for three years now....darn kids growing up and getting too busy!!!

I hear you about getting gas when you can.....sometimes little towns are few and far between.

Can't wait for your next update!!

We bought a new tent for this trip that was only a 2 pole setup so it would take up less room in the car and be easier to set up. That being said about half of the trip was spent in hotel rooms. Or at a couple of friends houses. Camping was a big money saver for us allowing us to do other things during the day.

Jason, I am so glad you are doing this! Love it so far and looking forward to more!

Glad you could join us Rita.

I love long road trips even when it's someone else doing the driving....you really cover a lot of ground ..fast

Yeah we like to move. The first 3 days we really were cruising but that was because we really wanted to make Roswell for the UFO festival. After this the pace becomes a little more normal. Well for us that is. I am drive all day as part of my job and my wife works and hour away from home so we are both used to being in the car for long periods of time.

:thumbsup3: good job!

Thanks Bob!

Enjoying your pics and story tremendously! You guys covered a LOT of ground.

Especially on the first day of our trip we do a long drive. I think it has to do with me wanting to get out of range of being called back if there is an emergency.

This is looks like a fun trip. Great pics!

Thanks! It was a great time and Silvia is always asking when we can go again.

I'm in! Couldn't miss a TR from my tenting buddies. :jumpforjoy

I've had those milkshakes. I'd drive down miles of long flat roads to get to them. Not sure why you're driving away from them but enjoying the sights along the way...

oh and :wave1: Silvia!

Hi camping buddy!!! Silvia could have spent much more time at Hershey but we had so much to cover on this trip that we had to get moving.

I'm along for the ride!! This is great so far. :heartsmiley:

Welcome aboard! I am glad you are enjoying it.

Well I'll be. I thought that might be one of the words that gets filtered.

Enjoying the report!!

Doh! I wish I could claim i was typing on my phone and auto correct got me. But I was on my regular computer. Glad you are aboard and clearly paying attention.

Whoa there cowboy, I don't quite understand/believe this sentence.

Just kidding.

Great TR. cool idea to show all the you are now entering.......state signs

It also helped when we were trying to keep track of where the pictures were taken. Sometimes stretches of road are hard to tell apart.

Looks like quite an adventure!

Looking forward to hearing more :popcorn:

More coming up after my replies.

Hope you waved as you passed me on 81 in the Wilkes Barre area. My kids always laugh when they see at truck chapel.

Sorry Bill. I didn't know the fiends last year. I will definitely wave next time though.

Thanks for doing this TR Jason. It's good to see Silvia included, too. Now she just needs an account so she can tell us what she thought of everything.

Silvia's thoughts are really easy to channel. "OOOOHHHH SO pretty!" Silvia isn't a big boards person and right now she is starting Grad school so I don't know how often I will be seeing her to begin with. Maybe in 2 years I can convince her to join up.

I know exactly where that truck stop is in PA. I live about 1/2 hour from there and used to stop there on the way to work when I was with the VA hospital in Lebanon, PA. There are much nicer truck stops nearby now, Jason, with cleaner rest rooms. I won't hold it against you that you didn't stop by and say howdy.

I believe that one was a Pilot and I have had good luck with those in the past but this one was not quite the same level. It was a necessity stop though so we did use the restrooms and grab some munchies though.

Welcome aboard photogal. We have a lot more pictures to go. When we made the trip we ended up with 3500 pictures. We cut that down to just over 800 to print for albums and I am cutting just a little bit more so far for this report. If you or anyone else sees something they want to see more pics of speak up and I will see what I have.