Cliffs: Me and two friends drove around the Western part of the US for 4 weeks in 2009. The trip totaled 3803 miles/6120 kilometers, and not exactly on freeways most of the time.

Ingredients: lots of nature, driving, some partying, good food, good beer, wine tastings, incredible people and a land that is varied and breathtaking.

And a warning: this will be loooong…but worth it

Google Maps links:
Part I: San Francisco - Ouray, CO

Part II: Ouray, CO - San Francisco


Cost: around $8k-9k per person, including everything (plane, car, food etc).

I started this TR in august of 2009, then got lazy and didn't finish it. I was inspired again this year by being alone at work and bored...but I still think it's a TR to beat most others.


I'll be splitting the report into separate posts since it'll be way too long for one post. Also, feel free to ask me any questions you might have, both here or in a PM.


Next up: pre-trip planning and trip advice.

If you just want to read about the trip itself, skip to the next post.

Cliffs: how we planned the trip, useful web sites, useful road trip hints.


Although I’ve always wanted to do a US road trip, I didn’t really consider until reading Big Bend’s Epic Western Motorcycle Ride. Well that, and both me and two of my friends happening to be gf-free all at the same time

So me and two friends, all Norwegians aged 34-37, decided there is no time like the present (i.e. no girls bogging us down) and went for it. Obviously, being older than most of 2+2 chances are we had different goals than a 20-year old would have. We’re all sort of nature freaks, in decently good shape and wanted to experience the road less travelled for most of the trip.


So…how do you go about planning a huge road trip? These are my helpful hints.


Pre-trip planning tips

• Ask friends, co-workers etc who’ve been to places you’re going. I'd be slightly cautious unless you know the person well, since most people are clueless. Forums might be better than most relative randoms you know.
• When asking for advice, be sure to specify what your goals of the trip are. For example, I see way too many threads on the Travel forum asking “uh hi guys, I’m going to California in 1 month. What’s cool?” This is pretty useless and will yield fewer and worse responses.
• If you’re going to places that are very popular or where space is limited, book as early as possible. For example, the north side of Grand Canyon (which imo is far superior to the south side) has very few lodging spots available.
• Use web resources extensively. I didn’t pick up a single book for planning the trip, and I don’t see the need to. One of my friends brought his copy of Lonely Planet’s California book along, which was semi-useful…but pretty superfluous. My favorite sites are:
  • 2+2 Travel forum and acquaintances
  • Tripadvisor.com (for hotels/motels). Be sure to visit and ask in the forums as well for details/hints on central locations. For example, our Yosemite trip was waaaaay better for asking there.
  • Fatwallet.com: very useful for finding Vegas hotel deals (every e-mail/offer the hotels have on their web site is posted here), as well as rental cars and lots of other stuff.
  • Google Maps. During the trip I basically didn’t do normal google searches, just google map searches. This is seriously one of the best resources ever – and will help you get better input as well. Plot your route, share it and get feedback.
  • Priceline.com (for hotel reservations in major cities/major holidays). On the road we just stopped at whatever motel took our fancy/we had found on tripadvisor. For the big cities, however, we had booked rooms in advance through Priceline. You’ll save a bundle – easily half price or less, at least for the better hotels. For us, at least, having a nice hotel room in the cities was really nice after sharing motel rooms for 10 days. Make sure to bid yourself. Check out biddingfortravel.com for tips on how to use Priceline.

Like you’ll see in the thread I started here in the Travel forum, we changed our route significantly from its first version to the final.

General road trip hints

• Have a plan, but don’t get married to it. Having a plan lets you avoid searching for “cool stuff” at the last minute. There’s something to be said for only having a rough guideline, but plans can always be changed if need be. We certainly changed ours during the trip (but not a lot). Chances are you’ll HAVE TO have some pre-planned dates on your tour anyway, due to reservations issues as mentioned above.
• Buy plane tickets/rental cars/hotel rooms early. We booked most of our rooms in February/March (trip started mid-June). We paid just under $1k for the plane tickets from Norway and back to San Francisco, and with only one stop. Had we waited, it would have easily been double the price with more stops. Same with rental car, we paid $1250 for a full month of driving a luxury SUV (including free mileage and insurances). Places/times to book: big cities, popular national parks, national holidays.
• Rent a Real Car[tm]. The small hybrids might be nice for everyday driving, but for a Road Trip you want something Really, Really Reliable. Like the Buick Enclave we got…lots of room, and able to handle almost any type of driving conditions.
• Buy an ice chest and buy lunch/snack food at stores. We usually bought some bread, ham, cheese, fruit, ++ at a Safeway/whatever in the morning, ate that for lunch and whenever we were hungry. Saved us quite a bit, and we managed to eat relatively healthy. Most motel breakfasts in the US are really bad…I’m sorry, some muffins won’t last me very long. Also, the 2.5 Gallon water containers are very nice and waaaay cheaper than buying smaller bottles along the road. In the hotter parts of the country you’ll drink tons.
• Don’t make the trip mostly about driving. Originally, we planned to start in Florida (possibly driving out to the Keys), then driving westwards to California and up to Seattle. Looking at Google Maps though, we realized how huge the US actually is. You’re on holiday, make sure to focus on experiences, not driving all day, every day!
• I’ll refrain from mentioning the most obvious stuff like having enough water, gas, GPS, first aid kit etc etc. Common sense basically.
• If you’re going off-road, ask the locals if you’re unsure of conditions/route/etc. This saved us at least once from getting stuck due to bad weather/roads.
• If you’re a bit picky about which bars/clubs you want to go to in the cities, research that as well. We didn’t always do that, and ended up in a few fairly meh spots. This is the day of teh internets, everything’s searchable!
• Bring a laptop/netbook/pad/whatever if at all possible. Very, very nice for researching as you go – car routes, restaurants, sights etc etc. Usually beats asking around, but a combination is unbeatable.

Nice in-route web sites

• Yelp.com (for restaurants). Since we’re all semi-foodies, researching for 1 min for a new place is worth it. Usually we arrived at a place late-ish in the evening, unpacked, whipped out my notebook and checked Yelp for a place to eat.
• Picasa (for picture uploads). We’ve all been there. You’re on vacation, take a gazillion pics, load them on your computer thinking you’ll sort them when you get home. If you’re anything like me, sorting through 1000+ pics is too much of a hassle. Download the Picasa client (which is totally brilliant). Sort pics as you go, then upload to the web. Share the site with your family and friends. Other clients might be equally good, but it’s the best I’ve tried personally.
• We wrote a blog (in Norwegian, sorry) in addition, which lots of people followed for the trip. Since I used Picasa, Google’s blogspot was a natural choice since it integrates so well with Picasa. It’s also really cool for us to read again at a later date, I know I’ll go back to it again in both 1, 5, and 10 years.
• Once again, Google Maps.

Note: this was before apps and mobile stuff started really exploding, so I didn't use any iphone/smart phone apps. Shocking, I know.

So with that out of the way…onwards to the trip report itself!


Next up: part II - San Francisco and Northern California.

Day 1 - Norway --> San Francisco

Our trip started June 11th in Norway. The plane for Amsterdam left at 06:50 am, meaning we had to get up around 3:30 am. Personally I think it’s actually advantageous to fly early in the morning on long flights, so sleeping is easier. Long story short, we left Amsterdam at 11ish am local time and arrived in San Francisco 2 hours later…local time.

We had decided to stay 3 days in San Francisco, including the day we arrived. This should be sufficient to adjust for the worst jet lag (go melatonin) and experience the city.

Being fairly stupid, we rented a car from day 1. As anyone who’s ever been in San Francisco can tell you, this is a Bad Idea[tm]. Both because SF is sort of problematic to maneuver in, and because the downtown hotels will totally gouge you on parking. We paid $50 a night. Sweet.


Our first car was huge...

Our plans for SF included: walking around (as always), shopping, arts, eating good food, a concert (with a Norwegian band, lol), Alcatraz, celebrating my birthday on June 13th, going to the Great America amusement park and some boozing.

We started out by dumping our baggage in the hotel and getting a much-needed shower. We all felt pretty good, so a walk through the city was in order. We’d heard about Fisherman’s Wharf, got a map from the hotel (right by Union Square) and set out walking. I was a bit disappointed at first with how un-hilly SF was, but that quickly changed…After a while we hit the steeper streets, and suddenly we noticed there were basically no other pedestrians. But whatever, it was nice to stretch our legs and get some leg work in.


Close by our hotel



My friends in the typical SF steep hill



Fisherman’s Wharf was pretty meh, wouldn’t really recommend it. Very touristy, reminded me of overcrowded places in Mediterranean countries (like Cyprus, ughh). We got to see Alcatraz, which unfortunately turned out to be as close as we got – it was fully booked on the day we had planned to go there. Rest of the day was spent eating some and having a few beers then crashing pretty early.


Day 2 - Great America and a concert

The first part of day after was spent in Great America. We completely forgot to take pics until the very end, here’s one of the rides:



We were probably the oldest people there without kids Didn’t bother us, and we had a blast. Nice park, recommended.

Went to a concert with the Norwegian band Datarock in the evening at The Independent. We also discovered that booking at popular restaurants is a must – we spent way too long walking around and nearly starved to death. Found a sushi joint with surprisingly good food based on appearances.

The concert was a blast. The Independent was a pretty cool locale, just a stage and an open floor and a bar in the back. Datarock has a decent following in SF, and with the band’s extremely energetic music and performance the crowd went wild. Not surprisingly the locale and band appealed to the more liberal part of SF, gays of both sexes abounded. Alright, one of our stereotypes were upheld!


Day 3 - SF MOMA and sushi from heaven
My 34th birthday, woho.

Day started again with the excellent breakfast buffet at the hotel. One of my friends probably gained a pound for each day in SF – the pancakes were psychotically good, as was the syrup…

Our next goal was the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. I’m not really an arts guy, but both my friends are…and compromises need to be made on this sort of trip. I’m glad I joined though – I found most of it very interesting. I was particularly taken by the photography exhibit Robert Frank, The Americans. I’ve never been much into photography really, but this exhibit blew my mind. If you ever have the chance to see it, I really recommend it. My friends surprised me by buying the hardcover edition of the pictures from the exhibit for my birthday, a very nice gift.


Evil black poodles ritually sacrificing a baby



On the way home, we found a street sign that was just irresistible:





We also witnessed some sort of hippie "Save the Earth from Giant Evil Corporations" (or something) protest (NSFW/sanity):




In the evening, we were lucky enough to get reservations for Kiss Seafood, a sushi restaurant. It’s rated #1 on yelp.com among the finer sushi places, so we were really excited – a first time for all of us. Unfortunately we didn’t bring the camera, but if you are at all interested in sushi and find yourself in SF – go there. The food was out of this world, the place itself very charming (3 tables and a counter, and very charming hosts in their own way). It was also the first time we had cold premium sake, which is so much better than the warm, more pedestrian stuff that it’s not funny.

The meal came to around $150 each including tips, lots of sake and beer. Worth every penny. Watching the sushi chef prepare the food up-close was a treat, that ish is art. We stumbled out in a blissful state. We had originally intended to go to a club, but after that meal it just felt wrong…being in a state of quiet euphoria, we ended up in a more quiet bar instead.. We couldn’t really go overboard with the alcohol anyway, since we were going into wine country next.

Overall, I liked San Francisco a lot. Decent weather (remember, we’re from Norway), nice people, nice vibe to the city, good cultural offerings, very good food. Definitely a place I could live in.


Next up: Sonoma - wine country.

Day 4 and 5 – wining, dining and climbing in Sonoma

We drove out of San Francisco, did the Golden Gate thing



then drove onwards to Sonoma. My research had led me to believe that we would prefer Sonoma over Napa, since it’s a bit less touristy. No matter the truth behind that, we really liked Sonoma, the wines and the people there. I could easily see myself living in that region.

Warning, wine stuff ahead:





Landscapes of Sonoma


On the first day after 3 or so wineries, our driver started getting a bit too tipsy so we parked the car and started walking at random into the Sonoma hills. As it turned out, we were aiming for the highest point in the valley (Gunsight Rock via the Goodspeed track). My two friends were in awesome shape, while I was merely ok. The trip was sort of hard but definitely worth it:



At the top we met some locals and had the standard, clichéd California experience. What were they doing? Smoking pot of course, like any good Californian would.


View from the top of Gunsight Rock


We spent the first night in Healdsburg, a nice little place which is apparently considered pretty hip. Good burgers and amber ale. Our night there was pretty typical of the nights we spent in the smaller towns. Find a good motel (preferably in advance), get a room for 3, get our stuff into the room then explore the place by foot. We’re pretty big walkers.

Our last night in Sonoma we ate at a local restaurant recommended by one of the winemakers. Very nice place with a free bring your own wine policy. We spent a bit too long finding a place to sleep, eventually going over some “mountains” guided by our GPS and ending up in Rohnert Park. Got a huge room for 3 for $90 or something. We also had to exchange our car, since the Nissan Armada we started out with had something majorly wrong going on with the wheels/suspension. We got a Buick Enclave instead, which was a bit smaller but way better to drive. I’d easily recommend a similar car for a trip like this, very smooth ride.




lol, your car is so tiny bro


Next up: northern Highway 1 and redwoods

Day 6 – northern Highway 1 and the redwoods
Our target this day was a bit unclear – we were heading north towards the Oregon border. I wanted to drive towards Petrolia and the so called “Lost Coast” region, but we were a bit short on time. We drove west towards the coast so we could hit Highway 1 as soon as we could. For non-Americans, this is not the most famous/visited part of Highway 1 – that’s farther south, between San Fran and L.A. We went both places, and personally I found both absurdly beautiful, each in their own way. The north part is a bit more wild, colder and wind-driven.

I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves here.



Me in the middle







Sort of windy place really


















At the very northernmost part of Highway 1 before it heads into the country





We ate lunch in Mendocino, a hippie/artist refuge without intarwebs and cell phone coverage (at the time), McD etc. While I like Cartman sort of loathe hippies, the place was very charming and lunch was awesome.







We stopped at several beaches along the way. It was way too cold to actually swim, plus it was windy with lots of waves. I’m going to link to some vids throughout the TR, contained at my private site (no youtube, sorry). This is from Navarro Beach, my friends getting a bit taken by surprise by the waves with me laughing maniacally in the background:
http://folk.ntnu.no/larsme/privat/usa2009/bilder_videoer/Videoer/navarro%20haaken%20&%20arild%20gets%20soaked.mov.M OV (100+ MB)


Our trip this day took us through Humboldt Redwoods State Park. We of course knew how big the redwoods were. Seeing them, however, was just something else. We basically spent a couple of hours wandering around with our jaws on the ground.






SUV lookin’ tiny




The “world famous” (a lot of that in the US…) drive-through tree!


If I’m ever going back, I’ll definitely make sure to spend a couple of days in that park. We ended up ditching the Lost Coast area, we simply didn’t have time. We spent the night in Eureka, which seemed like a dump. Apparently there was an old, historical part of town as well which we missed in the dark. Oh well.


Next up: into the wilds of California and Lake Tahoe.


(I've actually finished 7 more days, but don't have time to put them up right now)

great trip report so far, used to go to norcal in the summers, such a beautiful area

Nice, looking forward to Utah!

if i were u i would just post tons of pictures..

Day 7 - eastwards and upwards in California

This day was mostly a transport day. We drove straight east, aiming for Lake Tahoe. This day proved how dramatic the temperature changes can be in California. At 9 am in Eureka, the temperature was roughly 14-15 C/60 F. In the middle of the day around Redding (hi JonFon!), 34 C/93 F. Then we started climbing, and the temperatures dropped again.

We didn’t really know what to expect this day. I had researched all of the national parks etc, but these parts were totally unknown to me. I hadn’t really considered how high we would be for much of our trip – we spent almost half the time above 1500 meters.





Our first big surprise was Lassen Volcanic National Park, which we drove through cause I thought it was probably sort of cool.


Enroute to Lassen – sort of like Norway, only with less turns


We were slightly surprised by how much snow Lassen still had. Unfortunately one of my friends was pretty sick with fever that day (foreshadowing…), otherwise it would have been a prime spot for a snow ball fight. In the middle of June.



I’m not really a hobbit, even though it looks like it in this pic



Hey guise, I need to go to the toilet…hm, never mind



View from the top of Lassen (3200 m or so)


We ended up driving to Quincy instead of Lake Tahoe (an hour or two away) since my friend was so sick. It had been a very long day for him indeed.

Day 8 - Lake Tahoe
Luckily we had a little slack, so we spent the day in Lake Tahoe. We elected to go for the more quiet northern part, since we weren’t gambling and since our friend was still sick and needed to rest. We found a nice motel, then wandered around King’s Beach, spent some time on the beach relaxing and generally just taking things cool.






Chilling by the beach...at 2k+ meters.








Tahoe is beautiful, nuff said

Day 9 – into Yosemite



We drove southwards on the east side of Lake Tahoe, which was blessedly quiet and free of people (I seem to recall some millionaire donated the land to the State, so no private ownership here). Driving through the interior of California was a bit of a surreal experience. Looking around, I would have guessed we were in a low-land climate not unlike parts of Norway.

This is at 2000 meters or so…



Now, we’re from Norway. I don’t know what you’ve heard, but we’ve got mountains. Lots of ‘em. And still, Yosemite simply blew us away. One of us coined the term “designed by Disney”, which accurately described how we felt about much of what we saw. The nature is just so stunning, HUGE and magnificent, Disney had to be behind this.

Driving into Yosemite, we were struck mostly by the scale of everything. SO. BIG! Pictures obviously don’t do the place justice.


Driving into Yosemite







We drove in from the north-eastern side. Like always, we aimed to avoid the masses of people. We’d be staying one whole day, where we would aim for Cloud's Rest. We had originally planned to go for Half Dome, but on the advice of people in the tripadvisor forum, we changed this to Cloud’s Rest.

We were lucky enough to get reservations at Toulumne Meadows Lodge. Not a hotel, just big, permanent tents of sorts. There are quite a few hotels on the south-western end, but trust me – if you’re even slightly the outdoorsy type, head north-east. We loved the place, and the food was more than adequate.




50 meters from our cabin

Unfortunately, it was my turn to get sick this day. I spent most of the day sleeping in the back seat, feeling like absolutely crap with a pretty high fever. I couldn’t believe I’d lose the chance to walk in Yosemite


In case it wasn't obvious, pics and movies can't do Yosemite justice at all. Coupled with the fact that none of us are any good at photography like e.g. suzzer is, and the gap between experiencing this and looking at pics gets even bigger. Hopefully I'm able to convey a little part of an experience like this.


Day 10 - Cloud's Rest
I felt a bit better when we woke up, although still a bit feverish. I decided I’d start out walking with the guys and just turn around once I started feeling tired.

Bears are plentiful in Yosemite, so packing your food in bear-proof containers is mandatory. I guess we were a little sloppy leaving a case of (unopened) Sierra Nevada Amber Ales in the car:



Beer bad for bear



We started bright and early at around 7 am after a hearty breakfast. Once again, we got proof that Disney was behind all of this on our way to the trailhead:



We were lucky enough to bump into a ranger when we started out. She worked in Yosemite and was finishing her master’s degree in biology. This was pretty awesome, as she told us a bunch of very interesting stuff on the way about the plant life, animal life and so on.




Near the trailhead



Squirrels were everywhere, and unfortunately not very shy since people couldn’t keep from feeding them.


The trip took around 10-11 hours all in all. I felt better, so didn’t turn around at all. It was hard as hell, but I got through it. The blisters on my feet was the biggest problem on the way down actually…



Northern view from Cloud’s Rest




Yosemite Valley, Half Dome on the left




At the top of Cloud’s Rest



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgqQIi99Udc
Short movie from the top



The most amazing climb of my life. So far. If you’re anywhere near Yosemite, you really owe it to yourself to go and see this spectacle of nature.

Day 11 – Death Valley
The day before we drove south to Mammoth Lakes to spend the night and shorten today’s trip a bit. This stretch of California is very remote and desolate – which is just the way we like it. It obviously got hotter and hotter, and eventually I unfortunately succumbed to thirst.







The non-tumbling weeds of California


There are two (or three?) places to stay in all of Death Valley, and they sell out fast. Thanks to my OCD, we had reservations at Stovepipe Wells. The motel was actually pretty nice, if a little worn. On the way down (2.7k meters down in an hour or so), I had serious trouble clearing my sinuses and ended up with a monster head ache. We had to take several breaks so I could tolerate the pain.





Our plastic stuff took a beating as well




Heading down into Death Valley




We arrived around 3 pm, and quickly set out the explore the Valley. We would only spend this day here. I’ll just say right here and now how pleasantly surprised I was by the experience. In advance, all of us mostly thought Death Valley would entail one thing: “hot”. Not so – in its own way, it’s just as beautiful as Yosemite. The colors of the sands and rocks in particular are varied and breath-taking.



Mesquite Flats sand dunes near Stovepipe Wells



Driving through the Valley




We headed for Badwater, the lowest point in America at -86 meters. It’s possible to walk into the basin a bit on the hard-packed clay. Just standing there close to sunset and beyond, around 40 C/104 F, was an experience for life really. That’s the thing about this TR – I feel like a judge on American Idol, speaking only in superlatives.



I’m actually pretty tall


Sunset in Badwater


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZHIVO72x0c
Badwater Salt Flats




Me on the right (I’ve since put on slabs of muscle)







A coyote (really) appears!
The heat wasn’t especially oppressive, funnily enough. You have to drink tons of water, but it’s not really bothersome.



One of my top 5 moments of the trip was that night. It got absolutely pitch black, there were no lights at all on the compound. It took about 5 mins to adjust to the darkness. We brought some nuts and a bottle of port wine outside and just lay on the benches outside, staring out into the night and at all the stars. The heat came mostly from the ground by now, and it was still 33 C/91 F outside. I’m not a spiritual man, but this was one of the most peaceful and serene experiences of my life by far.

Day 12-14 – Las Vegas!

I imagine just about every 2+2’er has either been to Vegas or knows what it’s all about, so I won’t go into much detail here. Some cliffs:

• We stayed at the Venetian, which is a very nice hotel – if only they could stop it with that awful scented air-conditioning. Really guys?
• I gambled some (being the only poker player), racking up a massive $35 in winnings on the 1-2 NL tables.
• We partied hard one night and got separated (ldo). I drank Miller Lite for the first time in my life and couldn’t stomach it even while pretty drunk, God that is some awful piss.
• We shopped some at the Fashion Mall, foregoing the outlet shopping for San Diego
• We saw Transformers 2 for some reason. Top 3 worst movie of my life.
• We forgot to go to the Double Down Saloon, doh
• Ate some pretty crappy sushi

Editing pics was much more fun with some champagne on hand



So gangsta (more than $17)


Vegas was not a city for my two friends really...heh. We couldn't wait to hit the road again. Sorry gamblers, nature > Vegas.


Next up: Utah, starting with Zion.

Day 15 – Zion
Our goal today was Zion, and more specifically Angel’s Landing. Looking back I’d probably want a bit more time here (but that goes for many of the places we visited) to do some canyon/water hikes like e.g. Zion Narrows. Not to say that Angel’s Landing wasn’t amazing – it absolutely was.

A short drive from Las Vegas took us to Springdale and our motel. Utah nature is pretty unique. In advance the only thing I knew about Utah was that there were a lot of Mormons there. I never would have imagined how beautiful the state is.


Driving towards Zion





Driving towards Zion II




Heading into Springdale



We parked our car and took the bus into the park. Zion is very appropriately named I must say. The fertile nature coupled with the stunning geology makes for a very special landscape.





This trip was hard-ish, but not too long (5 hours or so total? I forget). Again I’ll let the pics speak for themselves.


Trail got pretty winding in some parts







http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqc0EBSKwsI
Halfway up



Last part of the trail is very steep…




View from near the top




View from near the top II


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVudSVDZJqE
Video from near the top




Rock formations




On the way down from the summit


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T_aejLM-HM
Cute squirrel trying to get to my nuts (and fruit)


I have minor issues with heights and chose to stay behind for the final climb. If I were to back, I’d probably do it – it always looks much steeper from afar than it actually is.

We spent the evening at the local bar eating burgers and drinking ale in perfect summer weather. Utah had definitely made a strong impression on us so far.


Next up: Bryce Canyon, weirdest landscape in the US.

Thanks for the kinds words guys. I'll finish this in parts and prob be done sometime next week.

Awesome trip report so far.

Sweet pics/trip report. I'm from the West Coast and getting super fired up.

Gramps aren't you the guy who would rather fly back to Vancouver to grind for two days than go see Zion?

Soulman nice. There are a couple fairly hair-raising moments on the way up that last part to Angel's Landing that might have spooked you. Where you basically have the trail, a small chain to hold on to, and a 1000' drop on each side - including the non-chain side.

What did you think of Lassen? Looks like it was still partially snowed in when you got there. I'm thinking about taking a couple days there on my way back from Oregon in Sept.

Thanks a lot for this awesome TR.

This is how a TR should be done

and you expect us to believe you're Norwegian?

amazing TR

I am planning a West Coast trip next spring/summer. A lot of places on my list are on yours. Great TR. Keep it coming.

I can't believe you guys got into Kiss Seafood that easily. Usually you need to make reservations weeks in advance. I haven't been there since I moved away from SF 2 years ago, but my experience there was similar to yours, and to this day it remains, by far, the best meal I've ever had.

Awesome trip report. You guys did a pretty terrific job of picking out the best places to visit considering you're from Norway and had little or no experience with the region.

I'm pretty sure a few well placed big bills gets you into you just about any place other than the hottest NY restaurants or LA clubs.