2024 San Diego to British Columbia road trip

[pderocco]

I just did a nine-day trip from my home near San Diego up into the Canadian Rockies, with lots of stuff in between. Brief synopsis:

1) Took boring old I-15 up into Utah, grabbing the occasional bit of old US 91, or a business route, as far as US-50. Drove out to Delta and back, then over to Gunnison, which clinched US-50 in UT for me. Since I had already clinched US-89 south of that, I headed north, staying in Spanish Fork.

2) Driving US-89 through the populated part of UT makes it really obvious how linearly they are arranged: Spanish Fork, Provo, Lehi, Salt Lake City, Ogden, Brigham City, Logan. Fortunately, I drove it on a Sunday, so traffic wasn't a problem, but it did take a few hours. Once past Logan, it was beautiful, along Bear Lake and off into UT (familiar ground to me) and into Yellowstone. This trip, I took the east side of the Grand Loop, while in the past I had done the west side. The dramatic elevation changes in that part are quite spectacular, compared to the western part of the park which is much less mountainous. Going out the north side, I got to drive the replacement US-89, since the original had been wiped out a few years ago by a flood. They did a really good job taking an old dirt road (Old Gardiner Rd), widening it and paving it nicely, and apparently doing it quite quickly. I ended up in Livingston MT.

3) I continued up US-89, now on unfamiliar ground, and the topography was really nice. In Great Falls, I checked out the dam, and continued on my way, all the way to the Canadian border, where I turned around and went into Glacier NP. I had gone here twice before, once last October when the road was closed, and once a couple of months ago from the other side, when it turned out you needed reservations. Bug going westbound, you don't need reservations. It's quite a beautiful park. I would have taken more pictures, except that it was hard to find parking spaces on the turnouts, even on a Monday. I went up into BC on BC-93, did the short BC-95A just past Cranbrook, and stayed in Cranbrook.

4) Went up BC-95 (initially cosigned with BC-93), through Canal Flats, which is the headwaters of the Columbia River. It was quite drizzly, so not that pleasant. At Golden, I had clinched BC-95, and I started across the province to the west, stopping to see the dam at Revelstoke. I could tell it was a pretty area, between swipes of the windshield wipers, and finally, after starting down BC-99, the rain stopped. The major rural roads are quite well-maintained in BC, although there isn't that much traffic to wear them out. I loved coming down along Howe Sound, and went down Horseshoe Bay Dr, a road that shows up in car ads quite frequently. After dark, I went into Vancouver, and took some night shots of the city from the eastern end of Stanley Park, drove the BC-99 route through the city, clinching it, and taking advantage of the light late evening traffic to enjoy the urban architecture. I also took Waterfront Rd, and when I got to where it becomes an underground street, I ignored the Authorized Personnel Only signs, and drove through and up the ramp onto Cordova St, which also often appears on car commercials. I stayed in West Vancouver.

5) In the morning, I went into Vancouver again, parked near the Canada Center, and walked around with my cameras for a couple hours, and then proceeded to leave the city. I worked out a complicated route that took me the entire afternoon, going over every bridge over water in the Vancouver area, all the way up to BC-11 from Mission down to the Sumas WA border crossing. That was 22 bridges, I think, and four or five were modern cable stayed bridges with nice views. I also swung through Surrey, and checked out their library building, which is rather stunning. My whole stay in Canada, however, had been marred by the fact that I was unable to get internet access on my phone while driving, except for the most basic of Google map functions. So I was glad to cross back into the US. I clinched WA-9, which is a long pleasant drive through mostly farming areas. Once in the Seattle area, I clinced the part of I-405 I hadn't driven, had dinner, then drove up to the top of WA-99. It was dark by now, but 99 is lined with businesses for mile after mile, so I was able to drive it quickly in the light evening traffic, and see everything. I only had to drive as far as Green Lake in order to clinch it. I also drove over the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, which was a completely different bridge last time I drove it. I was disappointed that they didn't add illumination to it, as that would have looked beautiful from the shore. I stopped on the new waterfront, which is still undergoing some construction, but I was able to do some nice night photography there, before heading down to Tukwila to stay.

6) I left early, and clinched WA-509, which partly goes along the sound into Tacoma, whose port area is more impressive than Seattle's. I did a quick clinch of the I-705 spur, and got on I-5 and eventually I-10 to cross the mountains. (There were other minor clinches along the way.) Out in the middle of the state, I clinched WA-248 along the river, and WA-240, which took me into the Tri-Cities area, and then down to I-84. Once I got past Pendleton, I was on new ground, and I began driving both I-84 and US-30 which it's usually cosigned with as far as I could before it got too dark to see. Wherever US-30 separated from I-84, or wherever there was a business loop, I went past it on the freeway, doubled back through the smaller road, then drove it again on the freeway. I ended up in Ontario OR.

7) I drove up US-95 to Weiser, in order to grab the US-95 spur that I had missed last time I was in that area, then continued my I-84/US-30 drive southeast. In Boise ID, I also clinched the little I-184. When I reached Twin Falls, my clinch of the western I-84 was complete, and I also had clinched US-30 from Astoria OR and as far east as Pocatello due to a previous trip. Then, I headed down US-93 into NV, the road I came up on my last trip. At I-80, I turned east, and at Wendover I went down US-93A, which was a clinch. By the time I got back on I-93, the sun had set, so I stayed in Ely NV.

8) Today, I got up at the crack of dawn and drove "the loneliest road in America". Well, the eastern part of US-50 really did have extremely low traffic counts, and it was quite a beautiful drive. Eventually, I got into western NV, which is less beautiful, partly because of the grungy salt flats that are scattered about. I took a circuitous route that captured the remainder of US-50 (so I now have it clinched in CA, NV, and UT), along with US-95A and US-50A. I also clinched McCarran Ave around Reno, and then heading into California. I was able to clinch two of the three remaining state highways I hadn't been on 45 and 113, and the sun set during the latter. After dinner, I had only one remaining chore, which was to clinch 82, El Camino Real between San Francisco and San Jose. I had driven a couple bits of it before, and knew it would have taken hours to do it during the day, so I instead did it late at night. It was an easy drive, but still took a little over an hour, due to a half dozen lights that liked staying red for a long time for no reason. When I passed the end of CA-82, I heaved a sigh of relief, since I could now travel California again, without thinking about what I needed to complete in travelmapping.net. I stayed in San Jose. I drove almost 1000 miles in this day.

9) This was just a drive home, over roads I had been on many times. Down US-101 to Paso Robles, across Creston Rd to CA-58, then followed that through its many iterations to Mojave, across the Antelope Valley to CA-138, then to I-15, then home.

So the major clinches were the rest of California (I still have 0.03% to go, due to four miles of Scotty's Castle Rd in Death Valley which as been closed for years and isn't likely to open soon), US-89, the Grand Loop in Yellowstone, Going-to-the-Sun Rd in Glacier NP, the western I-84, all remaining Interstates in the seven westernmost states (CA/OR/WA/ID/NV/UT/AZ), all remaining US routes including alternates in NV, the rest of US-50 from Sacramento CA to Grand Junction CO, all remaining state routes 99 that used to be US-99, BC-95 and BC-99, the rest of US-30 from Astoria OR to Pocatello ID, and 22 bridges in the Vancouver area.

P.S. It's kind of fun seeing your name above Oscar's on some statistics page in travelmapping.net. He's been all over California too, but didn't obsessively drive every historic route and business route.

[ClassicHasClass]

Congrats on the almost statewide clinch. Jelly.