Traveling And Need Your Help

[Trevor Ash]

I'm going to be driving from Northern California to Chicago Illinois starting Monday of next week. I plan on taking Interstate 80 the entire way. What I'd like some opinion on is one or two places you think I should visit along the way. The only thing I need to do is make sure it doesn't delay my trip too much. If I can spend an hour at a couple locations that I wouldn't visit otherwise I'd love it!

Thanks for the help. Photo opportunities are good but it doesn't have to be photogenic. I'm doing the drive with my Dad who I never really bonded with. This will be the most time we've ever spent together.

Thanks again.

[brianc]

This would be my stops (plan would change slightly if I had my bike):

1. Lake Tahoe
2. Park City and the Wasatch mountains
3. If you have time: Teton and Yellowstone
4. Rocky Mountain National Park
5. then drive like hell and try not to smell the stock yards.

Sounds like a great trip, have fun.

[walterick]

There is one place 5 minutes off I80 in Utah you must go to if you've haven't been: the Salt Flats. They're just about an hour west of Salt Lake City if I recall and only a minute or two off the highway. Well worth it if you're sight seeing or photographing. You can spend minutes or hours.

I went there once in December and the flats were flooded out, so I don't know if you're going to be able to drive on them at this time of year or not. But they're beautiful even when flooded. Definitely my first recommendation. Rocky Mt Park in Colorado would be my second (though you'd rather spend a day there than an hour - look up the old Colorado Gathering thread to see pictures of RMNP)

There's also Mt Evans and the highest paved road in north America off I80 in colorado but I think that may be a little more time consuming than you'd want it to be.

What I would do is buy a Road Atlas of the 50 states they have all the Parks, Monuments, and Points of Interest marked so as you drive through you can decide what you want to see and what you have time for. That's how I travel.

Have fun! Sounds like a good time to Dad-bond

Rick

[Chunk]

I'm going to be driving from Northern California to Chicago Illinois starting Monday of next week. I plan on taking Interstate 80 the entire way. What I'd like some opinion on is one or two places you think I should visit along the way. The only thing I need to do is make sure it doesn't delay my trip too much. If I can spend an hour at a couple locations that I wouldn't visit otherwise I'd love it!

Thanks for the help. Photo opportunities are good but it doesn't have to be photogenic. I'm doing the drive with my Dad who I never really bonded with. This will be the most time we've ever spent together.

Thanks again.

If you want to know something of the natural history/geology of the regions you are travelling through, get ahold of John McPhee's "Basin and Range" and "Rising from the Plains" which explain how these areas came to be. He uses I-80 to cover a cross section of the country. He makes the subject pretty interesting for the non geologist reader. It's not the tour guide you might need but you'd be able to talk about some of your surroundings.

[mtbbrian]

Make sure you stop in Salt Lake!
I live here!
Would love to meet you Trevor, if you have the time of course.
We have snow in the Wasatch right now.
Good Luck!
Brian

[brianc]

.
We have snow in the Wasatch right now.

POST SOME PICTURES! POST SOME PICTURES! POST SOME PICTURES! POST SOME PICTURES! POST SOME PICTURES! POST SOME PICTURES! POST SOME PICTURES! POST SOME PICTURES! POST SOME PICTURES! POST SOME PICTURES! POST SOME PICTURES! POST SOME PICTURES! POST SOME PICTURES!

[mtbbrian]

LOL!
I could do that..
It might take me a bit, considering I shoot film and all.
I'll see what I can do..
Brian

[brianc]

As much as society drives us to it...we do not need instant gratification.



glad you got the joke.