roadtrip across the usa Archives - ETB Travel Photography

Seaside and The Truman Show

On the recommendation of a friend, during my yearlong roadtrip across the USA 11 years ago, I visited Watercolor and Seaside in the Florida panhandle. On my shortened journey this year (due to some challenges with VANgo and changing my travel priorities to horses), I made Seaside my last stop in Florida upon my return home from Texas.

Last time I visited the area, I hiked with the dogs in Grayton Beach State Park, strolled the beach, and enjoyed lunch at the Shrimp Shack. This time, since I learned that a histamine intolerance is causing my migraines and eating seafood is out of the question, I made my tour about The Truman Show, a movie which came out in 1998.

TAKE THE TOUR!

Happy Hiking: Gothic Mountain

I’ve always wanted to visit Crested Butte during the Wildflower Festival. I finally did just that and for my first hike to Gothic Mountain via Trail 403 from Washington Gulch Road, they did not disappoint!

Happy Hiking!

Day 254 – Idaho Heartland (Part 2)

Day 254 of Year Long Roadtrip Following Scenic Byways in the USA

Ant and the Yellow Jacket

From Dworshak State Park, we followed the Clearwater River through the Nez Perce Indian Reservation and made a roadside stop at the Ant and the Yellow Jacket. According to an Indian Legend, the stone arch was once two insects. Ant and Yellow Jacket fought over who had the right to eat dried salmon in the area. The Coyote, the all-powerful animal spirit, ordered them to stop. They failed to heed his warning, thus he turned them into stone while their backs were arched and their jaws locked together during combat.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

Day 250 – Charlie Russell Country (Part 2)

Day 250 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Choteau

Well, I don’t know where the time went today. By the time I reached Glacier National Park, about 150 miles away from my starting point, it was nearly 4 pm, and I can’t say I have much to show for it.

My first stop was at Choteau, the home of novelist A.B. Guthrie, Jr. who is the author of The Big Sky. Choteau is known for its abundant wheat and barley harvests evidenced by the rolling fields of yellow and black (grain and fallow soil). The town’s courthouse, on the south end of town, required a $40,000 bond issue which
was very controversial, though it passed by about 50 votes. All I can think is…inflation!

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

Day 249 – Charlie Russell Country

Day 249 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Livingston, Montana

We returned to Livingston this morning to visit an old train depot, to see world famous Dan Bailey’s Fly Shop, and to find a geocache in Montana. The old depot displayed a variety of old train paraphernalia and some fantastic western paintings and black and white frontier photographs. I just window shopped at Dan Bailey’s. It
was full of flies and rods and a variety of other fly fishing gear. The visitor’s center was a nice place for a geocache. I have now found a cache in 46 of the lower 48 states. Two more to go…then I’ll have to make a trip to Hawaii and Alaska.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

Day 245 – Beartooth Country

Day 245 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Beartooth Highway

We spent most of today traveling across Beartooth Highway, a 68-mile stretch of road that opened in 1936 which zig-zags through Rock Creek Canyon and climbs over almost an 11,000 foot pass, making it one of the world’s highest. As one would expect, the views were spectacular, as evidenced by our first stop at Rock Creek Vista Point, 9,190 feet in elevation.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

Day 244 – Cody Country (Part 2)

Day 244 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Crook County Museum and Art Gallery

So I camped with the truckers last night at the Conoco…another first! By the time I got up and going, most of them had left and only the two other camper folks
remained. Before I left the tiny town for Cody Country, I stopped off at the Crook County Museum and Art Gallery to see the exhibit on the Sundance Kid.

First, this town was so small, I would have never thought it would have a museum, let alone worthy of a visit (my Reader’s Digest Scenic Drives of America helped with that). Second, I found it humorous that it took me three tries to find the place! I saw a giant sign on an old high school building mentioning the museum, but then I realized it said, “Future Home of the museum which is currently housed in the Court House”. So I proceed to drive around the three blocks looking for the Court House thinking it would be an old, ornate building from 1915 like the bank.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

Day 243 – Crazy Horse and the Black Hills (Part 3)

Day 243 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

I started the morning at Crazy Horse Memorial. The parking fee gets visitors into the grounds and the museum, but getting closer to the incomplete monument requires a bus ride for an additional free. I’m not much of a tour bus rider, so I skipped that part. If the monument were all I wished to see, I probably could have just snapped a photo from the highway and carried on. But I also checked out the museum and learned all sorts of interesting the facts.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

Day 242 – Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills

Day 242 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Another great day in South Dakota! I have been pleasantly surprised. I expected mostly flatland and prairie like Nebraska and North Dakota, but the Black Hills resemble the foot hills in Colorado. We climbed through the pines to a towering granite outcropping carved with four presidential faces…Mount Rushmore!

Mount Rushmore

The national memorial pays tribute to Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt. Each face is sixty feet tall from brow to chin and the each eye is eleven feet wide. It took 400 workers 14 years to carve the monument with dynamite and jackhammers, and it cost just under one million dollars to complete.

The sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, envisioned carving the presidents to their waist. But with his death in 1941 and our nations involvement in World War II, his son who had accompanied him on the project declared it finished.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

Day 241 – Badlands National Park and Black Hills

Day 241 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

The Badlands National Park

I don’t think I can describe the badlands any differently than I did yesterday. Rock formations of clay and ash protrude from the prairie land and encompass rich fossil beds from the time that has become to be known as the golden age of mammals. I spent the morning walking a handful of trails under intense sun. The boardwalk
on The Door Trail and The Window Trail led directly into the rising sun. I suspect the light would have been better had I walked them at sunset last night…oh well, the bands of colors were still noticeable.

In addition to taking the boardwalk trails, I also took The Notch Trail which passed over the rough terrain. The loose rock crunched under my feet as I followed the path to a log ladder that rose to a ledge which weaved its way around the spires. The hike provided close up views of fossilized remains and ended overlooking the White River Valley.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!