Jason, Amber, and I just got back from an epic 2-week road trip.
I took a lot of photos. Buckle up or scroll at random.
Pre-trip art
The kitchen will probably never be this clean again
Last shot of the piano before it goes away while we’re gone…
Our stuff crammed in the Scion
First super-exciting stop: GAS
Crazy head removal device
First actual stop: Ames, Iowa to visit Amber’s friend Teagan
Windmill arms are HUGE
Jason is crazy for POTATO OLES
After driving for an entire day through Nebraska, we reach Colorado and I may have gone SLIGHTLY MOON-CRAZY
We crashed near the “Catastrophe Restoration”. Fitting. We also ate apples for breakfast from their trees.
“Tank n’ Tummy” just seemed like a weird name for a gas station. Also notice the car wash with SOFT WATER.
Stickin’ the camera out the window at a huge Colorado sky
First glimpse of the GREAT SAND DUNES
“Why is there water in my peanut butter and sand in my nuts?”
Yaaaay sand
We hike our way out onto Tatooine
That’s a lot of sand
Neato sand beetle! (Click to make it huge, these photos turned out WAY COOL)
Bowl of sand in the mountains
Sand made me kind of crazy (crazier?)
Jason went rolling down the hill, and Amber followed
Sky and sand
Footprints
Distant hikers for scale
Sand stances
Jason trying to take a picture of the bottom of his foot for some reason
A storm rolls in across the miniature desert
Amber’s ear the next day
Stopping at some random scenic spot in the Rockies
Climbin’ over some rocks that were supposed to keep us out of trouble
The view out onto the lake
Something was hilarious
Staring
Leaving some temporary rock art
Colorado sunset
Then, we reached Utah the next day.
Photographer in the frame:
Dwarfed by some arches
Fun with sandstone
Things that grow in the desert
Towers
Staring at the signs
Lizard pals
ROCKS
Hiking up into the arches
Another gecko friend
A neat tree and Jason’s method of protecting his neck
Through the window
Hiking onward!
There were a lot of rocks
And quite a few other tourists…
Approaching the big arch thing whose name I can’t remember
On the way out
Jason pulls over at the side of the road in Utah to try to gather some gypsum crystals
Immediately after this picture he threw them out the door, voting them NOT COOL ENOUGH
What it is like in the back of the Scion
Cleanin’ dem bugs off
Dinosaur keeps watch
Stopping for an amazing sunset when we reach Nevada
Cameras just couldn’t capture this
Getting a better vantage point
The next morning, driving on into Nevada
I am easily fascinated by the sky
Like I said, easily fascinated
Up the pass into Yosemite
Stopping for some pictures in the starkness of Yosemite
Outside the grossest gas station restroom in California, some pretty flowers
Kind of a blank spot here where Jason and I went to Gavic’s wedding and I forgot my camera. Have a few blurry shots on my phone that I am too lazy to paste in here. It was up in the redwoods and super lovely to see everyone.
Trying to find a parking spot in Santa Cruz, Jason drives around the block and I get to capture the Scion in Action Mode:
The next day, Jason deposits Ryan’s book at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City:
And meditates under the bodhi-like tree
After we sat for a bit outside the center, a friendly fellow whose name I painfully cannot remember had us in for a tour of their space:
Passing through San Fran’s finest concrete abominations
Grafitti in the park
Hiking through the park to meet up with SF friends
AND SUDDENLY, Grateful Dead tribute band and tons of hippies. Yup, San Francisco is pretty predictable sometimes.
The hill over the city
Deep chats in the forested park
Cool Mexican place we ate at
Jason for some reason needed this picture:
The place we stayed at in Berkeley was lovely
Over the Bay Bridge into SF proper
We did not have time to stop so we rolled on through…
To the Golden Gate
And into the redwoods
MAP
TREES
Loving the trees
There are neat other plants too
Heading into the hills above the redwoods
Hot hike
Driving down the coast
Stopping for some pictures and fresh air
Hittin the beach
After driving a while, it got pretty cold by the ocean but we still wanted to try to camp on a beach.
So we set up behind a nice rock wall where there didn’t seem to be any no camping signs
Click to make this one bigger and notice warnings 3 and 6
BUT THEN we unfortunately got kicked off the beach by a park ranger. Living the hippie dream was denied us and we had to go to a lame campground.
Exhaustion after setting up the tents, tearing them down, and finally setting up in another crappy campground instead of the beach.
The stupid bird that woke me up
Tents in the grass
Amber’s tetris job is pretty impressive
For some reason a peacock lived at this campground and came up to us
Me kicking at the peacock so it doesn’t give me a peacock disease
Wooo nature
More crazy ocean shots
The goofy tree you can drive through
Jason liked the pond nearby and its frogs
And then yes, we did drive through the dang tree
That night we camped in the redwoods
And did a bit of hiking and staring up at the trees
Driving hilarity (and mess)
Still love the sky
Are you mindful?
Long road
Witty political commentary on Ayn Rand at the rest stop
Did I mention we did a LOT of driving?
Anyone want to buy a gas station?
Juxtaposition
Jason bought a Powerball ticket
Down a scary night trail in Glacier
The next day, hiking up and over the ugly mountain north of Lake MacDonald in Glacier
Proud of grapes
Not even 10 minutes on the trail and we spot a black bear.
Jason was leading, and his nonplussed “There’s a bear on the trail guys” cracked us up pretty good. Also we didn’t get eaten. Yay!
Couldn’t get a very good photo though, time to play Where’s Waldo:
Continuing onwards
Farting with focus
Can I eat it???
Branchy tangles
Hike on, and on, and on
Lots of trees
Self portrait of a tired hiker
Onwards
Somehow my pack is not soaked through with sweat yet
Jason saying “FML”
But he hikes on nonetheless, the promise of pretty lakes ahead!
NATURE
Jason is dead
Recovering at the side of the trail
We finally reach Trout Lake
Reflections
Postcards
Onward, yet more!
Okay seriously this place is big
Neat
Hiking hiking hiking hiking hiking hiking hiking hiking
OK sheesh break time
The sun is starting to set
Down to the mountain stream’s shore to get some water
Through the valley of green
Reaching Arrow Lake, our destination, just at dusk
The totally amazing knot that holds our food up in the air where only flying bears can get it, and the very proud knotters
Weird tree by our site
Waking up in the morning
Shadows on the lake
Pretty decent place to wake up
Coffee and breakfast (beef jerky is an important food group)
Jason is a tree
More postcards of the lake before we leave
Along the shore
Self portrait and sky
Self portrait and peace
Morning meditation by the lake (disturbed by chipmunk)
Flowers n’ bugs
The last shot of Arrow Lake
Hiking back out through the Valley of Green
I took a picture of some rocks?? I don’t know
Jason pointing towards the better water
Trail
Tired feet
Stopping at Trout Lake for a swim
Trees
By the lake (we saw a black ferret here but I failed to get a picture of it)
Goodbye Trout Lake!
Hike on!
Awww garsh
Does this mountain ever end?
SERIOUS FACE
LESS SERIOUS FACE
Jason dropped his energy bar and made a poop joke
And then we kept hiking WHAT A SURPRISE!!!
Okay, now, this next one you may need to click on to see. There’s a bear face down there! A grizzly bear face!
The grizzly moving off
Still not off the mountain
Burnt desolation and flowers
WE MADE IT BACK. Time to write something!
Fancy hiker hair
This one I was trying to take a self portrait of exhaustion and captured Amber in a moment of SERIOUS
Okay, no really, we’re happy…
Heading up the Going-to-the-Sun Highway
Blurs
Ridiculous mountains
Ridiculous roads (and amateur white balance problems, these photos are actually chronological but they look like they are from different times of day because I have no idea what I’m doing)
We had to catch some amazing mountain air
Can’t capture the wonder of this
No campgrounds in Glacier are open, so it is time for the trusty towel
How not to sleep in a car
The Scion just keeps tickin
More hikes, this time up to Iceberg Lake
Warning: skinny white nerd chest
Scenic
Wildflowers
Walking into beauty
Crossing some snow
Then some shots standing in front of the mountain stream and pasture
Seriously, we were standing RIGHT HERE. WHAT
Flying up the mountain
Rounding the corner to ICEBERG LAKE. They are not joking with the name:
Cameras cannot capture it
I waded in to grab some ice
We ate lunch on a trail near the shore and got bothered by this little cutester who wanted our food
Cool.
Sunlight in streams
Writing by the ice
Jason is really pleased with this rock
What it looks like if you don’t look at the lake
I decided to dunk my head in
IT WAS COLD
Weird KOA “Tent Village” setup
The “scenic view” past the trees at the Great Falls KOA
Welcome to Roundup!
Butterbean is happy
Dogs at the dog ranch
Surveying the fire damage at Sandy and Warren’s ranch
Sleeping bumblebee in the hollyhocks
Field of sunflowers in North Dakota
JET BUS SAYS: “Jets are hot! Drugs are not!” ????
Passing five thousand miles
ICE CREAM TIME
Abstract car sunset
3AM: We’re finally back in Madison with 5,470 miles under our belt. Plus about 50 more because we started the thing late.
WHAT A TRIP. My head is still spinning.
Here are some unsorted uncommented photos from Jason also:
