Cholo's 2019 Road Trip--16,750 miles in 9 weeks

[Cholo]

Time for this year's Great Adventure :) I wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything I missed last year due to fires and record heat while on the bike. In '14 I bought a Nissan NV2500 full sized cargo van for the business that would have eventually gone to my tech when his Chevy Express crapped out. I used it as a sales van and sold the business in '16, the Nissan not being part of the deal. I drove it very little over the next 3 years but didn't want to sell it. I sold the unused racks out of it a few months back and now I have all sorts of room. Time to put it to good use...

I put some new Goodyear on/off road tires on it and off I went. I knew I wanted to make a bee line to Colorado Springs, 1300 miles. I'm off! 440 miles later I'm about 40 miles south of St. Louis and needed some gas. Filled up, used the restroom, and came back to the van to load my 2 guns after going thru a very short piece of IL. Right... I really felt like sleeping in my own bed that night so I turned around and headed back home.

The next day I awoke refreshed! While I'm here, why don't I take this over sized Rubbermaid container sitting on my living room floor that has literally all of my clothes, 2 handguns, binoculars, and 2 jackets? That would be nice to have on my extended road trip, ya think? Sure, I'll take it this time... This won't be the last blunder I'll make and I'm sure many of you will wonder how I can find my way out of a motel room, but I manage, usually :)

I'm in the middle of Enema, KS getting gas at the only thing at the exit. It's a 28 gal. tank so I sit in my easy chair while the dollars tick off. Bump bump bump on the side of my van. Huh? I look out and a guy asks me where I'm from in GA. I told him. He's from the same town and works for the Sheriff's Dept. Very small world!

I don't think I'll ever get tired of my 1st view of the Rocky Mtns while traveling east to west. This time I was about 100 miles from Colorado Springs, and it was Pikes Peak. I think I'll go there tomorrow.

My adventure begins...

The road to Pikes Peak is steep and relatively narrow. Lots of sheer drop offs with no guardrail. You'd be wise to put your transmission into 1st gear for the descent. It's hard to imagine that people race up this mtn. A week or 2 before I got there a racer went over the edge 100-200' from the finish line. Talk about bad luck!




I hadn't been to Rocky Mountain NP since '73. Let's go!








I've heard Mt. Evans is pretty this time of year. Think I'll check it out :) It's a lot like Pikes Peak but with a narrower road that was horrible for the last few miles. The view was far prettier than the relatively bland PP. Quite windy!








I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's adventure. My Physical Therapist for my back recommended this out of the way place.

 

[Cholo]

I didn't know if I was going to like this 4 wheeled travel feeling that it might be too sanitized.

I stayed in Leadville with a line of beautiful snow capped mtns. right there. I was getting up at 4AM to get out the door at 1st light before the sun comes up. I'm already 2 hours behind Eastern Time so it was like me getting up at 6AM back home.





Regarding that last pic: That's snow melt and those beautiful cascading waterfall like creeks are everywhere! They keep meeting each other until you have a raging white water river. It's simply amazing! I was told that last year this general area of Colorado didn't get much snow, but this past winter they got around 120-140"s :shock: It made for incredible scenery throughout the summer!

On to Aspen and one part of this trip I was really looking forward to, what my Physical Therapist said she thought I'd like. This place is shown several times in the video I believe Pat put up last spring. It's at the 3:07 and 5:14 mark: https://vimeo.com/186483277 There's not much parking at the destination so it's recommended to take the shuttle bus for about $7. It's closed in the winter because it's in an extreme avalanche area. It was quite obvious with the non stop barren areas where avalanches take out everything. They don't, obviously, clean avalanches up. They just leave a massive pile of tree trunks piled up. Yes, they do clear it off the roads.

So here I was at one of the most spectacular places I've ever been--Maroon Bells. I'll never stop being almost shocked at such beauty. Pics can't possible do it justice as they always look so puny, and that goes for all the pics I took on this trip and every one in my lifetime. The Bells rise 4,583' above the lake. It was still pretty early so there were few people there. It's a short hike to the lake, but you can see them from the parking area. I stayed for 2 1/2 hours. No matter how many pics I took, I never got the perfect one.





One thing's for certain: You'll get scorched in that brilliant sun at higher altitudes so make sure you wear a hat or sunscreen. I talked with a young Park Ranger on the trail. He said 3 years ago Maroon Bells had 170,000 visitors. 2 years later, last year, 470,000. Word's getting out so stay away! :)

It's pitiful that rest rooms have to post signs like this:



It's well posted that no drones are allowed here! I saw those signs at many places and National Parks I visited.

I'm convinced that there's not many places on earth where someone won't go on a bicycle. Maroon Bells was an obvious one with many cyclists, most of them courteous. The not so courteous ones I want to ram a broom stick thru their front spokes :mrgreen: While taking the shuttle back down the steep mountain this bicycle came out of nowhere and passed us doing 60-70 mph. I've never seen a bicycle go that fast, and I'm not so sure it was intentional! It reminded me of this video :)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rLkfC2CuZ4

 

[Tensaw]

WOW! What beautiful photos! Sounds like a great trip. Thanks for sharing. It has been years since I visited Colorado. May be I'll add it to my bucket list.

 

[WAYNO]

Incredible trip and incredible footage. I could not survive such high altitudes without cabin pressurization. :shock:

 

[tom black]

Stunning pics. Maroon Bells are on my bucket list. Also, that's a great shot of Billy Gibbons.
Tom Black

 

[Bear Paw Jack]

Between 12,095 and 14,130 ft. I hope you had a batch of oxygen with you. I would have needed it. You traveled some nice country.

They are right about those goats. They can be mean, and those horns (daggers) can be dangerous.

 

[CGDustDevil]

That's some gorgeous country, Ken!! Man oh man I miss my traveling days of the 70s...

 

[Pat-inCO]

The only thing you missed so far is the valley behind the Bells. REALLY nice.
I lived/worked there for three years, while I was young enough to really explore it. 8)


P.S. You could not get your van in to the back of the Bells. The clowns from Denver
have turned the road into a 4x4 rock trail. SIGH!


P.P.S. Now you know what I miss about CO. :wink:

 

[WendyZXZ]

Those are great pictures, looks and sounds like a lot of fun!

 

[BDM1]

Great pics, thanks for taking us along!!

 

[Cholo]

The air was def. thin up there. I chased a few goats and younger women to no avail. I was fine unless I exerted myself. Then it was a no go :(

Getting out of Aspen was a chore with traffic backed up all over the place. There must have been a fairly good sized airport because I saw all sorts of fancy jets flying in. How do those rich and famous get around once they land? Helicopters? Hover-boards? Beam me up, Scotty? What a nightmare!

Cholo Sez: If you want to see anything popular, get there no later than 7AM. By 10:30 you're screwed with the crowds who can't get their bright screen zombie spawn out of the motel door earlier. This goes for any popular State Park or National Park, from here on referred to as SP and NP.

I didn't mind jumping on interstates to get from here to there as opposed to last year on my motorcycle. I crossed into UT and pulled over at the same rest area I did last year. A guy was traveling back to San Diego from Chicago on his bike. I gave him water and all the ice out of my cooler he wanted. I've been there in the heat, though it was nothing like last year. Super nice guy! I well remember the good samaritan who pulled over and offered me cold water, as opposed to the hot water I had, when I was played out from heat exhaustion east of Fresno.



Last year I missed going thru the town of Cisco, UT by 2 miles. That's where Barry Newman crashed his '70 Dodge Challenger into the bulldozers in the movie Vanishing Point. I didn't know it then, but I did now. Well, there's not much left other than dilapidated buildings and this gem. If you don't get it, you didn't see the movie:

I'll leave out the pics I took that had my fingers over the lens. Sometimes it's just so bright that you can't see that you're doing it, and it doesn't take much with pics taken on a smart phone horizontally.






I've got a few NP's to visit in SW UT. Time to move on...

 

[Bear Paw Jack]

"Getting out of Aspen was a chore with traffic backed up all over the place. There must have been a fairly good sized airport because I saw all sorts of fancy jets flying in. How do those rich and famous get around once they land? Helicopters? Hover-boards? Beam me up, Scotty? What a nightmare!"

I used to love going to Aspen. That was a lot of years ago. Coming back down the mountain, before you get very far you can frequently look across the valley and watch elk meandering around. I liked watching them.

 

[Fox Mike]

Beautiful photos! Great big country. Brought back memories. Somewhere I have a photo of me sitting in front of the Pikes Peak sign. For a guy with COPD that altitude was an EXPERIENCE to say the least. I figured I could go into the gift shop and get a shot of O2. Guess what wasn't operating that day? Any chance you bought a doughnut at the peak? I did and only ate half up there. By the time we got back to Colorado Springs the other half was as hard as a hammer.

 

[contender]

Beautiful country for sure. I'm headed to Craig Co in November to chase elk.

 

[Bear Paw Jack]

Beautiful country for sure. I'm headed to Craig Co in November to chase elk.

Good luck. Lot's of them there.

 

[bogus bill]

"I've got a few NP's to visit in SW UT. Time to move on..."
That's where we live. Honk when you pass through.

 

[gramps]

Nice trip Cholo! Thanks for sharing your pictures.
gramps

 

[T.A. WORKMAN]

Beautiful country & pictures,,I'm worn out just reading about your adventure. :)
Hope you have many more trips planned.
Terry

 

[Cholo]

The building at the top of Pikes Peak was under construction so there was limited access. Frank, if I'd have bought a donut I doubt 1/2 of it would have survived to test it like you did :)

Colorado really is gorgeous!

Now I was in UT. What in the crystal meth dope smoking world is this swill? 85 octane is considered regular? You're kidding, right? I'm not using it. I believe Idaho had the same thing.



Here's a NP most have probably never heard about.



The main road thru the Park was nice but not spectacular. The petroglyphs were really cool, but very hard to see and photograph. These were way up there! This was made between 600 and 1300 AD.



The real beauty of the Park is taking Scenic Drive to the end of the paved road and then taking the dirt road to the end, Capital Gorge. Now, that's nice! The narrow road winds thru the gorge with cliffs right at the road. I was fortunate to see 3 Desert Bighorn Sheep with the largest climbing out on a ledge that didn't look to be 2" wide. No pics of it on the ledge, only video that I don't know how to upload.

The Gorge









I took the slower but more scenic route, Hwy. 12, to get to Bryce Canyon NP. I really enjoyed that ride along with its 14% grades. Very scenic!

Well, I got to Bryce Canyon NP after the dreaded 10:30AM I talked about. It was a nightmare full of people. The 1st 2 scenic pull offs were completely jammed with a line of cars waiting to find a parking spaces. Great! I got in the 3rd one and it really was pretty! I got in the rest of them but never could get near the 1st one. Oh well.







I finally got in the 2nd pull off after traveling all the way to the end of the Park. There weren't many spots at the railing to view the formations. I just had to get stuck next to a basement dwelling full fledged communist loudly trying to convince 2 elderly women of their need to pay much higher taxes, and he was LOUD!

"Paying the government higher taxes is a good thing! Let's have a discussion about that. The government needs more of your money!"

"But we can barely make ends meet as it is."

"Everybody can be more thrifty, even you two. Let's discuss ways you can be more thrifty. Remember, the government needs more of your money."

I had to walk away. It wasn't my battle, and if I said what was on my mind, it wouldn't have ended well, not at all. I have no patience for fools like that. What possesses people to talk their politics to strangers in a NP? NP's are calming and not a place for unsolicited political drivel from either side. I was taking a vacation away from politics. Om... :)

The next day I hit Zion NP bright and early. You have to take a shuttle bus into the main area of the Park.







I walked the trail to the end, something I couldn't have done 4 months earlier. The physical therapy is really working! There's a place where water seeps thru the rock cliff. The shuttle driver said that it takes the water 1,100 years to get from the top of the cliff to the bottom. He mentioned that the water had been tested to give it that 1,100 year time frame. I wonder how they do that? :?



Stayed in Pahrumph, NV--the home of Front Sight Firearms Training Institute. It was a pretty good sized town. 1st thing in the AM I'll be hitting Death Valley NP, CA. I've been wanting to go there for years. Last year I would have on the bike, but it would have added 2-3 more days in the record heat. Not a problem this year.

 

[Highhawk1948]

Excellent adventure

 

[AJGUNNER]

This is starting to look like a contender for "The Post of The Year."

Judging by what we have seen so far, it has my vote already!! :D

 

[Del J]

Great pictures. Thanks for posting.

 

[Cholo]

This really is a place I've wanted to visit most all of my life. So foreboding. I was so close last year, but the heat :( So, how hot was Death Valley in July last year when I almost came here on the bike?

www.livescience.com/63234-death-valley-heat-record.html

I probably wouldn't have explored it like I did this year. I came into the Park via Death Valley Junction. Well, let's see what's down this road :)



The hottest temp. on earth was recorded in DV at 134*F in 1913. I got here really early and by the time I left in was only in the 90's. It did warm up quickly, though. You can see my van in the pic of the Badwater. Damn, this NP was packed with people :mrgreen:











Look at the rock formations in the mtns. Giant upside down V's showing exactly how the layers were pushed up from the earth so many years ago when they were formed. Gorgeous!

Check out the massive salt strip while leaving DV to the west. You can see the road carving its way thru.



You leave DV to the west, but you have to go thru steep mtn. passes and tight turns. I simply can't imaging the joy it must be to be dragging a 700', more or less, motor home thru this. No way!

I knew the Sierra Nevada Mtns. would be on the other side with their snow capped peaks. It seemed like I'd never get out of the desert mtns. to see it, but there they were! Soon enough I was in the valley between the mtns. of Death Valley to the east and the Sierra Nevada Mtns. to the west. What an amazing abrupt transition! It was mind boggling. Those are snow covered mtms. in the background, not clouds.



I hit Hwy 395 N in Lone Pine, CA. What I didn't know, and there weren't any signs to tell me, was that Mt. Whitney, the highest mtn. in the lower 48, was right there west of me. I saw it but didn't know what I was looking at :( Obviously I didn't get a good look at it from the hwy. or I'd have taken pics. Damn...

395 was beautiful! Snow capped mtns. to the west, barren mtns. to the east. I found out, thru a search with Forum member wolfsong a day later, that both of these mtn. ranges are the Sierra Nevada Mtns. Get back! Yup! :) 395 is between extreme eastern CA and western NV. Hwy. 395 is a hidden gem of a drive! Pics of the west side of the hwy:









I want you to look at the sky in all my pics. It's simply amazing! It stays this way for almost the entire 9 week trip. When it got ugly? The sky was still incredible. I wish I had this fabulous weather last year without the forest fires, but I'm thankful to have it this year :)

 

[Mega Twin]

Once again,great pictures,and great narration!

 

[Cholo]

I left early for Yosemite NP. I was near there last year but they closed it due to the fires. I entered via the east entrance. I didn't get there until 7:45, bad move.




I got to the Falls at 9:30 and it was packed! I drove around looking for a parking space and just gave up. There had to be thousands of people there. It didn't help that I was there on a Sunday :( Got this pic of one of the falls from the side of the road.



I didn't give this NP a fair shake. I'd have been fine if I'd have entered via the east entrance, but I wasn't coming from the east. Oh well.

When I finally got cell service I gave Forum member, wolfsong, a call. He answered to my surprise! It was good to see him again. We ate smoked fish and toured the farmland around his place. I mentioned that I wanted to cross the Golden Gate Bridge. I also mentioned that I'd been thru some mtn. passes with a 14% grade. He said that's nothing and that Sonora pass is 26% grade :shock: I know where I'm going next! I left after dark and the mosquitoes will eat you alive! It literally looked like a blizzard in my headlights. Not kidding!





wolfsong recommended visiting an old mining town named Bodie. Most of the town burned at one point or another, but what remains is incredible intact. At one point the main street had 65 saloons :shock: The town was divided, more or less, with the partiers on one end and ther Woman's Temperance League and their downtrodden husbands on the other :mrgreen: Some of the buildings you could walk around in. Curators in period correct clothes were everywhere to answer your questions. The $18 admission price will keep you entertained for hours. I really enjoyed it!















This is the view heading west out of Bodie to get back on the gorgeous Hwy. 395 with the Sierra Nevada in the background.

 

[Cholo]

395 north to Carson City, NV. I can't tell you how pretty that hwy. is. If you have a choice of traveling up central CA or eastern CA, take eastern! I thought about the Ponderosa in Carson City. I've seen very little of NV other that here and the area around Las Vegas. That will change later in the trip. Back into CA...



What a beautiful little hidden gem! More outrageously beautiful weather and skies. I havn't been rained on since I left, and nary a forest fire!

Bubbling sulfur pots. I would advise against jumping in for a bath :)



The following pics are some of the most amazing pics of nature I've ever taken! This area was simply breathtaking! The colors are not enhanced. This is what it actually looked like. Wow! This is just past Emerald Lake. Maybe it was the same lake; hard to tell with all the twisties.











On to Redding, CA, home of the $4.30 a gallon gas, the highest of the entire trip. I stopped and paid $165 for a room at the Best Western, the highest of the trip. I took one look at the outside entrance room and canceled the charge. It was a Super 8 motel at best, and I stayed at a lot of Super 8 motels. Stayed up the road at a decent place for about $90.

I like nice motels the same as everyone else. I certainly don't have a deep pool of $ so if I want to take these trips, I need to keep it at $150-175 per day. I'm not blowing it on one motel.

It seems that the hwy. from Redding to the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) is closed ahead. South on I-5 to Red Bluff where I stayed last year. I was really not wanting to retrace any steps I've taken in the near past. Well, hwy. 36 was closed far ahead starting at 12 noon, probably where I ran into the road out last year on the bike. I could have probably made it before 12, but the odds were that they'd decide to close it early because nobody was coming thru and why not? I wasn't chancing it. More south on I-5 to Williams where I could finally head to the CA coast.

I'm finally going to spend some quality time in the giant Redwoods of California. Really looking forward to it... :)

 

[Sturgis270]

Great trip, really enjoying your pictures.

 

[Rick Courtright]

HI,

Re: Lone Pine, CA

When you were in Lone Pine, Ken, did you take a short run west of town on Whitney Portal Rd? That road heads up to Whitney Portal, the jumping off spot for hikers and backpackers going up Mt. Whitney or going up to meet the John Muir Trail. You'll run into a big campground just before you get to the main parking lot. This is if you go to the right when you can.

If you go to the left, you'll be headed toward the Alabama Hills area. This winter when you just want to stay inside and watch a movie, a great number of Westerns filmed between the late '30s era (John Wayne was still with Republic Pictures) going forward perhaps to the early '60s or so were shot in the Alabama Hills. Watch enough of them, and you start to recognize certain rocks and twists in the road. Also, now that you know what Mt. Whitney looks like, watch the background carefully. Many, many of those old films include a cameo shot of the mountain, sometimes bare, other times with plenty of snow on it! Just depends on when they did the filming.

And if you go back to Lone Pine, there used to be two restaurants in town that had been there since the "early days" and they had all kinds of old pictures of just about every Western hero and damsel in distress you can think of. They may or may not still be under the same ownership and may or may not retain their old ambiance. One of them specialized in what some might think "exotic" burgers last time I was there: bison, ostrich, maybe gator and a few others. They were really close to the intersection of 395 and Whitney Portal Rd. in the center of town. It's been 10+ years since I've been there, and a lot of things along 395 were changing...

Glad you had a great trip, and I hope next summer holds another one for you!

Rick C

 

[Cholo]

Rick, I hit 395 from 136 never even realizing Mt. Whitney was due west of me. I should have known my geography a little better :oops: I ended up staying in Bishop where I realized I had been so close. I don't recall there even being a sign for it unless I just missed it.

 

[Rick Courtright]

Rick, I hit 395 from 136 never even realizing Mt. Whitney was due west of me. I should have known my geography a little better :oops: I ended up staying in Bishop where I realized I had been so close. I don't recall there even being a sign for it unless I just missed it.

Hi,

In your defense, Ken, I don't recall much signage indicating where you were or what you were looking at! I guess the locals figured they didn't need a sign, and the tourists would probably look at any ol' mountain and be happy!

On the "any ol' mountain" front, a little ways to the south of Whitney are three or four peaks coming in close to 14k ft. Whitney itself has several survey monuments from different surveys over the last 100 and some years. When my brother and I climbed it, in '71, they ranged from 14490 to 14496 if memory serves, and the patches in the souvenir shops said 14,494. He and his wife went back a few years later, and there was at least one new marker. Today the latest figure I've heard claims 14,505. Yep, even the Sierra Nevada is still in motion!

Anyway, we had a local lady named Hulda Crooks who first climbed Whitney when she was 65, and repeated the climb almost two dozen times until she was 91. A couple of years later, whoever's in charge of naming mountains got Congress to change the name of one of those to the south to honor Ms. Crooks. A search for "Crooks Peak" should bring up plenty of stories. Here's one from the Wiki guys which tells about many of her other climbing feats as well:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulda_Crooks

If I recall from newspaper stories, she needed help getting there, but was at the location for the renaming ceremony somewhere up the hill a ways. She was about 94 then, and passed at 101! So next time you make it to Lone Pine, look due west from Whitney Portal Rd and you'll see Whitney to the right, and Ms. Crooks' mountain in one of the clusters just to the left (south.) And you can sound like an expert telling the first "really lost looking" tourist your tale!

Rick C