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Western state tour report

Started by pderocco, July 05, 2024, 03:33:06 AM

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pderocco

Just finished a 12-day road trip in the western states. I saw a lot of beautiful scenery, and clinched a lot of routes, although the latter often involved driving some boring stretches. This may not be of interest unless you're familiar with parts of the west, but here goes...

I started out in the San Diego area, went up I-15 to Barstow, then I-40 to Needles, then up the Nevada side to drive over the new Bullhead Pkwy/Laughlin Blvd bridge, then up US-95. Drove down to the river on NV-165 through Nelson. In Vegas, I clinched the last few state highways I hadn't been on before. Then, I headed north on US-93 to Ely.

The second day, I headed up US-93 to Twin Falls ID, then did a side trip to Salt Lake City. After clinching the little I-215 beltway, I drove east on I-80 into the mountains, then back west on I-84, which are both beautiful drives. Then, I started up what's left of US-91, and stayed in Pocatello.

The third day, I drove the rest of US-91 up to Idaho Falls, clinching it, then back to Twin Falls via I-15, I-86 (clinch) and back roads. Then, I continued up US-93 through some really beautiful country to Missoula MT.

The fourth day, I went up to Kalispell, which clinched US-93 for me, and then tried to go through Glacier NP, but found that you need reservations for Going-to-the-sun Road. Drat. Instead, I drove some back roads down to I-90, and headed across Idaho into Washington, clinching all the business routes along the way, and ended up in Ellensburg.

Fifth day: Clinched I-82 and I-182 which weren't very interesting, then did US-730 along the Columbia River, which is gorgeous. I then clinched WA-14 through the spectacular gorge, and drove it all the way to Vancouver, then into Portland (where I once lived), then followed US-30 to Astoria, clinched the substantial US-101 business route there (in the fog and drizzle), then drove back to Portland after dark on US-26.

Day six: Drove south, clinching 99E (already clinched 99 and 99W), did the little I-105 spur in Eugene, then drove across the Cascades on OR-58, hoping to go to Crater Lake. When I got to that area, I found that they still hadn't plowed the loop around the lake, so I skipped it and just drove OR-62 to Medford, then down US-199 to Crescent City CA.

Day seven was clinching a whole bunch of county sign routes (with the blue and yellow pentagonal signs) in the Crescent City, Klamath, and Mt Shasta area. I also included the US-101 business route in McKinleyville, so I've now done all the US-101 business routes. Going over the coast range, I drove the skinny, and somewhat nerve-wracking, road through Forks of Salmon and Sawyers Bar, and it's amazing that people actually live out there. Do they even have Internet? Before the sun set, I drove up Mt Shasta, but the road was gated off before the tree line, so I couldn't clinch it. I ended up in Yreka.

In day eight, I clinched a bunch more county sign routes, and drove down into the northern Central Valley. There was a really windy road between Redding and Platina, then a really interesting ranch along CR-A17 Ash Creek Rd NE of Cottonwood, which had built miles and miles of these beautiful big stone walls, using all the stones from their fields. I don't know how they did this, because it must have been millions of stones, and they didn't come from a quarry on big trucks. It's called the Armstrong Ranch (https://archive.redding.com/lifestyle/travelin-in-time-solid-as-a-rock-ep-378175009-356262751.html/). I ended up in Oroville.

CA-162 has been on my bucket list for a while, and on day nine, I drove it, including Mendocino Pass Road, 34 miles of which is dirt. But it's nice wide, smooth, well-graded dirt, easy to drive in a regular 2WD car (including the GSV car), as long as you go slow when you're next to a cliff. And unlike most of the places I'd been, this was full of wildflowers, because it was up at 5000 feet above the heat. I returned to the Central Valley via Clear Lake, California's largest natural fresh water lake, did some more county sign routes into the Sierra Nevada, and ended up in Auburn, just off I-80.

The tenth day, I systematically clinched all the signed pieces of Historic US-40, down to Vallejo. I noticed that in Vacaville, Fairfield, Rockville, Cordelia, and Vallejo, there were Historic US-40 signs on almost every utility pole, and then I noticed that each had a small plaque below it saying "In memory of" or "Sponsored by", so whatever Historical Society put these up had obviously raised money for it by including the donor's names. I wish more places would do that, although a sign on every lamppost seemed a bit excessive at times. Late in the day, I found myself in the Sacramento River Delta, trying to drive CA-220, which is bisected by a ferry which turned out to be closed, so I had to drive along the various rivers to get to the other side, which took a while, but it's an area unlike anything I've ever driven. I ended up on CA-99 in Galt.

The eleventh day, I went mad clinching most of the remaining state highways in the Central Valley that I had missed in the past. Some of this was pleasant riding in the Sierra foothills, including grabbing the CA-108 business route through Twain Harte, which is a cute place, and the county route through Tuolomne, which is run down and depressing. Over in Livermore, I tried to drive CR-J2 Tesla Rd, but found it closed, so drove Patterson Pass Rd instead, which has one spectacular view across the wind farms and into the valley. I ended up in Santa Nella on I-5. The few roads that remain unclinched are in my sig block.

The last day was through familiar territory, as I've been all over the southern half of California many times over. There were several grass fires that I passed, but none turned out to be serious. There were also many square miles of blackened grassland from recent fires, none of which look like they did much damage. I checked out the construction around the Cholame Wye, on CA-41/CA-46, and they still have all the traffic routed over what will eventually be the westbound side of the new highway. It doesn't look like they're going to bother paving and opening the eastbound side until the new trumpet interchange is ready, which I expect will take a year at least. There was also a significant grass fire among the windmills in Tehachapi. To avoid getting caught in rush-hour traffic, I drove all the way to Barstow, went down CA-247 to Yucca Valley, then came back west on I-10 and CA-79 to I-215 and I-15 and home.

The significant clinches were:

  • 5 interstates (82, 86, 105 OR, 182, 215 UT)
  • 4 US routes (91, 93, 93A MT, 730)
  • 15 CA state routes (12, 16, 20, 26, 59, 88, 104, 108, 120, 124, 132, 140, 162, 219, 220)
  • 23 CA county sign routes
  • 5 OR routes (47, 58, 62, 99E, 104)
  • 2 WA routes (14, 821)
  • 9 NV routes (165, 320, 321, 574, 578, 579, 592, 595, 596)
  • 3 MT routes (40, 135, 317)
  • All remaining BRs and Historic Routes in CA
  • Various other BRs outside CA

Total mileage, about 7240.



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