The Game is Afoot

You'd think it would be easy wouldn't you?
We thought we would, "do the States", again this year but the only item we knew was Lynne's desire to see Yellowstone National Park. (The truth of the matter is that this was not driven by interest in geo-thermal systems and geography but exposure to Yogi Bear as a child.) So Jellystone it was to be.

We have done a couple of roadtrips before and have an idea of what we like and distances and times at the wheel we're willing to put up with. The overall distance tends to be very high and we only get a taster of anywhere we visit but we see lots. We aimed at around 20 days which has worked before and began to experiment on maps, looking for features that we may be interested in and concluded that the base plan would be a flight to Denver and then a roadtrip in a mid-range SUV through the NW quadrant ending in and flying back from Seattle.

This was all back in early May and we booked flights flying from NW England to London then from London to Denver and returning 20 days later with American Airlines from Seattle via Chicago. Having the luxury of flexibility we were able to try different days and times and found good prices. It always amazes me that 1 day difference can add a thousand to the cost.
So, flights booked by mid-May, what did we do next? Answer, Nothing! .. for 2 months! We kept saying we must sort it, but always putting it off.

July arrived and with only a few weeks to go we started to hammer out the detail. Early plans went North and East from Denver and visited Mt. Rushmore and Devils Tower (ET) then crossed via old Western towns to Yellowstone then West and South to Hood River Scenic Drive near Portland and the Pacific coast. By the time I checked the mileage it was clear that this was far too much.
Early casualties were Mt Rushmore & Devil's Tower which were out of the way and left a long uneventful drive west and the Pacific coast. At the same time things were being added in. I had a fancy for Glacier NP so that took us North toward Canada from Yellowstone and we spotted the Snowy Range Road across the Rocky Mountain NP North of Denver and then a route via thermal spring towns. A 60 mile diversion entered so Lynne could see Independence Rock as she enjoys an interest in that period of history.
We got out hotels for Denver and Seattle booked as we at least knew the dates for those.

A week later, we were aware that we had left it all so late that decent accommodation was already gone around Yellowstone and we plumped for dates there and began the map in the first 8 days of the roadtrip. This proved challenging but Lynne is the master of research and found places which sound good. We're even giving airbnb a go to fill in the Gnd Teton NP (my idea - I'm claiming that one because Lynne does all the hard work on this bit and I want some glory ;) ). With Yellowstone area bookings fixed we worked backwards to Denver with lots of route and distance changes before we found a fit. At this point we left it again, both getting frustrated. It's supposed to be jolly fun organising a holiday but this can get quite confrontational, especially when you carry on too late into the night. That said, we make an excellent team and with Lynne's optimism driving us on, it will be great.

Around this point the car hire got booked. Drop off at a different location incurs an additional $500 charge but when we looked back to our last trip it was still about the same as a normal hire for the same period out of LAX. The perils of airport and big city car rental lots.

Another break then onto route part 2. Mt Rainier and possibly Mt St Helens had found their way into the route now but we had a massive drive south to Portland and the Hood River which just wasn't working. Next thought to surface was maybe to stay North after Glacier NP and pass through Cascades NP toward the coast then hit the Interstate South straight through Seattle to near Mt Rainier. This meant dropping the Hood River but seemed to make sense. Enough to say, the stay over and routing for this bit altered over and again, Mt St Helens dropped out and a simple switchback through Mt Rainier then into Seattle was decided upon. Next bookings were for that area and then back to the Northern section from Glacier through Cascades to the coast.

Finally, last night we had a route planned and accommodation booked, just over a week before departure!

Baseline in the region of 3,300 miles to travel over 18 days.


I'm hoping to blog the journey so, if you're interested, stick in your favourites or subscribe.

Our previous roadtrips:
Trans American Adventure - Ged and Lynne 2008
Western USA Adventure - Ged and Lynne 2013  (last few days incomplete)
Route des Grandes Alpes 2014