Road Trip 2023: By the Numbers
2023-07-23
PA
I like to look back on my trips at once I've been home a week or three. It gives me a chance to think back on the trip, and consider it as a whole, and of course intersperse some additional pictures in the post. This trip had more challenges than any other road trip; everything from landslides taking out roads to washed out bridges, burned down visitor centers, roads closed for snow, and snow-covered trails hampered our progress. Not to mention Covid 19. Due to all these factors our trip was not exactly what I had meticulously planned well in advance, but we did the best we could and still had an amazing trip. And, as it turns out, several things that we did do are now unavailable, such as the roads in North Cascades closed due to fire.
For this trip, there are the typical numbers:
- Days spent: 24
- Nights in a tent: 5
- National Parks visited: 8 (1 new to me, 6 new to Valerie)
- Museums, State Parks, National Monuments, Factories, Landmarks, etc. visited: 10 (all new)
- Dams visited: 6
- Pictures taken: 2119 by me
- Miles hiked: 80+
- Miles driven: 7962
- States visited: 15 (3 new to Valerie)
- Sign pictures taken for others: so, so many
- Entry Fees not paid due to $80 pass: $210
- We also had to have a Northwest Forrest Pass for $30 which I think we broke even on
I separated out dams because they seemed to be a common theme in the Pacific Northwest. We had one dam on our carefully planned schedule, but the other dams were pretty much right on the route so we ended up stopping at least for pictures. Grand Coulee was the biggest one we visited; the rest were all much smaller. Although Fort Peck was large too, because it was earthen and all the spillways were underground it was hard to compare them.
We spent more time at each park than last trip. This was primarily due to the nature of the parks; simply put, they were bigger. While Great Sand Dunes, Black Canyon, and Badlands are pretty, they are one-day parks. On this trip, Rainier and Crater Lake fit that profile. However, Glacier, North Cascades and Olympic all could have used more days. We certainly got to see some of each park, but we could have spent another two or three days at each of them. And of course we slighted Grand Tetons by making it just a stop on the way home. Even Craters of the Moon was too short a visit; we really could have used a full day there. But that's how it goes on these trips.
We used water bladders almost exclusively this trip. They worked perfectly, with either the camera pack or the Osprey. They do still have the disadvantage that you can't tell how much remains, and that bit us on a couple hikes. Higher altitude means more water, and most of the hiking we did was over 5000 feet.
We didn't use the tent as much this trip. My previous trip to Washington was rain every day, so I decided to use hotels for most of the state. And while the first two weeks of the trip did see at least some rain every day, it was usually a small amount. The weather was actually pretty good for camping in Washington in July. Next time I might camp more.
