While in Moab take a right (coming from Arches) at McDonalds and follow that down to the Colorado and up Kane Creek Canyon. Ranger sent me up that way last year for one of the last campsites in Utah.

Canyonlands NP is pretty cool too. I only saw the northern part, Islands in the Sky.

South from Moab check out the area around Blanding and Mexican Hat. Maybe a float down the San Juan river. Valley of the Gods is pretty incredible https://utah.com/monument-valley/valley-of-the-gods . I wish I had known a bit more about the area and kind of just stumbled on to it on my way to South Rim of the Grand Canyon(make reservations). (ps driving across the reservation sucks.)

Wow, whereabouts were those pronghorn?

lolburro looking for a handout:



pronghorn starting to realize I may not be a bison after all:



That pronghorn was maybe 12-15 feet away, but had been as close as 8-10.


pig4bill - Both of these photos were from Custer State Park in SD, on the SE edge of the wildlife loop. The pronghorn was slightly off the main road on one of the NPS unpaved roads.


GutZ - thank you, I appreciate the detailed info.

I really don't like this word but that burro is damn cute

Nice. Pronghorn are very scarce in AZ. It used to be they only issued a handful of tags per year.

Been in Denver for a week now, going to take off to Vegas in a couple more days after visiting some friends I haven't seen yet.

Here's the google map for the route area:



and here's a map of national parks:



When I did the FL->AK drive a few years back I went through a lot of cool stuff west of Denver before turning north, so my list of potential route inclusions looks somewhat like this:

Haven't been, looks good:
Grand Staircase - Escalante NM
Page, UT (bottom of GS-E)
Grand Canyon NP
That place GutZ mentioned

Already been, maybe again:
Arapaho National Forest
White River National Forest
Rio Grande National Forest
Pike & San Isabel National Forests
Moab, UT
Arches NP
Pagosa Springs, CO

Already been, pass:
Ute Mountain Reservation


Last time, I headed SW from Denver thru all the green down to Pagosa Springs, then went west up and around Ute Mountain Reservation, Durango, and Silverton. From there it was up to Moab for Arches, then mostly NW.

Thinking the optimal route this time is to stay in northern CO and mostly just head NW out of Denver, gentle SW curve thru Rocky Mountain NP, Arapaho NF, then kind of WSW staying in the green under and along I-70 until Moab. Check out Arches again, then due SW from Moab as much as I can thru that sliver of green into GS-E NM on to Page. Ride the sliver again SW from there into the eastern edge of Grand Canyon NP, and stay in the green heading mostly due W until I hit Vegas. If I leave on the 26th, that gives me 5 days to make it to Vegas on my arbitrary deadline of the 1st.

The only thing I miss with that route is a revisit of Pagosa Springs, which is a bummer, but not worth the detour. Silverton would have been nice again but this trip is in a Corolla, not a CR-V so the lower ground clearance has me more cautious anyway.


thread savers from the last couple of years:


dinner shows up while sailing across the Med, just outside of Greek waters:




octopus pizza in Malta:




chocolate gelato in a sweet bun, Sicily:




dinner options in Singapore:




Fiji to New Caledonia with some Australians:




Diving/snorkeling platform on the Great Barrier Reef:

You may want to check on the status of the roads at Rocky Mountain National Park, I know Trail Ridge Road usually doesn't open until mid to late-May, not sure on any other routes.

RMNP is great if you're able to get up there, haven't explored much of Southwest CO so can't give any recommendations there.

Hot as **** in the summer, and at high altitude so the sun just rips the skin from you. I got the worst sunburn of my life one weekend there.

Lake Powell at Page is pretty impressive. I took this tour to Rainbow Bridge while I was there briefly:Boat Tour Not sure how enjoyable it would be if you didn't take the time to get out on the lake for a bit. One of these days I want to go back and rent one of the houseboats for a month or so.

Would love to see some pics of Pagosa. Lived there during summers growing up, so many cool things to do between the river, hot springs, treasure falls, etc.

Wolf creek in the winter is fun. Lots of snow but short runs but still good terrain.

Bump for updates!

I remember driving down the pass in a blizzard after a day of skiing there when I was young. My dad was driving but you could only see about 10 feet in front of the car. He said he was just going to follow the tracks in front of him and hope they didn't go over the edge.

Not much to report lately. Skipped Pagosa in favor of a more northerly route to Vegas. No photos since then that are interesting enough to post. Bryce Canyon was decidedly meh.

Leaving Vegas tomorrow. Driving back to DC via a southern route. Decided to head out to LA & San Diego first, in order to make this an official coast-to-coast drive and visit some friends in Cali. Google thinks the route is about 3,600 miles / 54 hours. I plan to average about 4 hours per day, so the trip should be around two weeks total. Probably a little longer.

The current route looks something like:



It is primarily based on visiting friends, checking out parks, and eating good food.

Will spend a couple of weeks in DC visiting family and friends, then most likely on to Johannesburg. Planning to rent a car for a month or so and drive to Cape Town along the southern coast after passing through Swaziland and Lesotho. From there, I'll probably take an overland thru Namibia and Botswana to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, and from there, no clue other than vaguely northward.



Definitely going to spend time in Malawai and Kenya. Will eventually make my way up to Cairo and likely fly back to the USA from there although not sure it's possible to get that close to Lebanon and not go eat a bunch of Lebanese food first.

Looks like Project Fi should have coverage in almost all of the places I'd be going. Visas may be a little tricky as I plan to stick to land entries when possible. Burundi, Sudan, and South Sudan are the only places I'd likely go which are listed on the Visa Requirements for US Citizens wiki page as needing visas in advance:



but there will be more than that as the rules for entry by land are usually different than entry by air. Ethiopia for example, requires a visa in advance for land entry, but you can attain a visa on arrival at the airport if you fly into Addis Ababa. May end doing some short hop flights just to avoid visa hassle.

popcorn.gif for Africa

don't know how many nights you plan to stay in dallas but would def be happy to buy you a beer or lunch.

JFC this.

I'm not prone to jealousy normally, but yeah.

Wow, how far does google maps say the drive to Joburg is? That city used to be incredibly crime-ridden. Still the case?

Be sure to watch the old Top Gear episodes where they look for the source of the Nile, and then another few where they drive across a big expanse of desert.

chopstick,

Kartchner Caverns is a pretty nice state park not too far off (I think) your route east of Tucson.

Best of luck with the Africa trip. I think some of those countries might offer a multiple entry deal with their visa, too. If you're staying in the town of Victoria Falls, for example, Chobe in Botswana is a nice day trip. Might save a few bucks if you're going to be in and out. Maybe something like $50 for multiple entry, one time for about $30 or some such.

Hope you're able to see all the lions, hippos, elephants, etc that you want. Safely, of course.

Ha, never been there even though it's not far from where I live. There's another tourist cave just east of Tucson called Colossal Cave, if you're into caves. Tombstone is also not far away, but it's pretty boring unless Helldorado Days (Oct) are going on.

You're driving from Dallas to Houston, you're not in a particular rush or on a hard schedule, and you're skipping Austin??

It would probably be worth your time to take a short detour down to check out the Chiricahua National Monument. Pretty cool area. We took my grandparents when we went so we never really wandered far from the car. We stayed at a place near Portal, Az that was really cool. Lots of crowded hummingbird feeders that turn into fruit bat feeders after dark. We saw lots of different wildlife/birds while we were there. Skunk, bobcat, javelinas, deer, snakes. I definitely want to go back sometime.

https://www.nps.gov/chir/index.htm

Pretty sure this is where we stayed. The website definitely doesn't do the place justice if this is the right place. If you think you might actually go down there I can verify that this is where we stayed with my uncle who handled all the booking.

https://www.fourbarcottages.com/

I forgot to mention that if you are a birdwatcher, and I can't imagine you would be although nothing would surprise me about Chop, that Sierra Vista, about 30 miles south of I-10 on highway 90 is a big area for birdwatching. I friggin' hate the things myself. They wake me up in the early morning and the damn woodpeckers punch holes in my house.

There's a birdwatching festival next week. Some random links:
http://www.sierravistaaz.gov/event/s...al/2017-08-03/
http://www.swwings.org/main-festival
http://visit.sierravistaaz.gov/see-d...life-watching/
http://www.discoverseaz.com/Outdoor/BirdSV.html

golddog / pig4bill - Not much of a cave person but appreciate the suggestions. My idea of a park is something above ground, preferably with lots of vegetation and animals.

PoC - If I hadn't been to Austin before, I'd definitely go. But I have. Enjoyed myself but not going to detour to go back.

marknfew - thanks for that suggestion, it is definitely going on the list.



Left Vegas yesterday, went south thru Mojave National Preserve, then on local roads down to and thru Joshua Tree NP. Had a storm in MNP and some of the roads were washed out, needed to turn around a few times. Saw a bunch of wildlife including lots of birds, lizards, what was probably a fox, a rabbit with super long ears, and some sheep who insisted on mooning me nonstop. Sunset in JTNP was nice.

Stopped for the night in Indio, where I'm writing this from the next morning. Thinking when I check out of the hotel I'll go south down the east side of the Salton Sea, then loop around and head west on route 78 thru Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and up 76 thru Cleveland National forest. Meeting up with a friend in Carlsbad for the evening tonight.

Tomorrow I'll head south down to San Diego along the coast, meet up with a friend for lunch, then maybe dip into Tijuana to check it out briefly (assuming the border crossing doesn't take infinite, need to research that) before heading east. Maybe I should stick around in Mexico for the night and then head east on route 20 in the northern part before crossing back into USA#1 at Mexicali or near Yuma? Or maybe just head over to Mexicali and cross the border by foot, never done that before and seems like it would be a lot less crowded than Tijuana.

Would also be fun to go a little further east and do a foot crossing at Los Algodones since I'm due for a dental cleaning and they are a border town that specializes in that. They have 350+ dentists in a 5 block radius. Leaning toward doing this, will knock out a chore and should make for a fun memory. As fun as a dental visit can be, I guess. Will also be able to officially claim to have participated in medical tourism!

Addo Elephant Park