Just completed 2-week western US trip

[pderocco]

My main goal on this was to clinch US-191 up to Canada, having already done the southern half. I had thought about coming back down on I-25, clinching it, but that would have been more like two and a half weeks, so I'll do that maybe next summer. Here's the itinerary, starting in the San Diego area:

7/4: Begin with a not very interesting drive to Gallup NM. I did, however, pass through Jerome, Sedona, and Flagstaff AZ, which are always nice. Coming into Gallup just after dark, there were fireworks all across the horizon.

7/5 Drove the entire length of US-491, with some side trips. Then drove all of CO-141, which was wonderful, especially the middle part from Naturita to Gateway, which follows the Dolores River through a narrow canyon, often with high vertical walls. Then, drove all of CO-65 over Grand Mesa, which gets close to 11000 feet, and finished up with a ride through Rimrock Rd in the Colorado NM. Did a bunch of Colorado river crossings, and stayed in Fruita.

7/6 Followed the old alignment of US-6/US-50 next to I-70 from Fruita CO to Green River UT, some of which is so unmaintained that it's essentially a graded dirt road. Took a great ride on US-191 up over the mountains to Duchesne, where it joins US-40, and then followed US-40 all the way to Craig CO, to join up with another significant piece of US-40 that I had driven in the past. That included a side trip into Dinosaur NP. Came back on CO-64, and stayed in Vernal UT.

7/7 Drove US-40 west to its beginning at I-80, along with all the other state highways in that area. Nice mellow farming areas mostly. Someday I'll come back and do the Wasatch Mountain ski resort roads between US-40 and I-15. Came back to Vernal and went up US-191 over the mountains, with a side trip to the south end of the Flaming Gorge Reservoir. Ended up in Rock Springs WY.

7/8 Drove US-191 all the way to Hoback WY where it joins US-89, which I've been on before, then went back down and took US-189 to I-80, clinching it. Went east to Little America and then west on US-30 to Kemmerer where I stayed.

7/9 Drove US-30, with a side trip to Fossil Butte NM, all the way to Pocatello, I-15 to Idaho Falls, then US-20 up to West Yellowstone, where I rejoined US-191. Had my first decent dinner in Bozeman, a college town, and stayed in Livingston.

7/10 Drove down US-89 into Yellowstone to drive the remaining major roads in it. Crossed the loop on Norris Canyon Rd, then exited on the East Entrance Road and US-14/US-16/US-20 all the way to Cody, a Buffalo Bill themed town. Took WY-120 and WY-296, AKA the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, which is like a lower altitude and shorter Beartooth Highway. Took US-212 and the Northeast Entrance Road, then doubled back and drove the rest of the Beartooth Highway over its most famous part which reaches nearly 11000 feet. There was still patches of dirty snow on the ground, but since it's mostly just grassland with no trees, the views were spectacular. Followed US-212 to Billings, where I found a second good dinner in a row, probably because there's a college somwhere around there. Drove to Big Timber to stay.

7/11 Mellow but not very interesting day driving the rest of US-191 up to Canada, then back down, across US-2 to Havre, US-87 to Great Falls, and I-15 to Helena. Found an elegant, fairly expensive, Italian restaurant whose lasagna wouldn't have impressed anyone from California, let alone Italy.

7/12 Followed US-12 across the mountains into Idaho, all the way to the Washington border. That included a side trip on ID-11 that climbs from the bottom of the Clearwater River canyon with a bunch of switchbacks and pops out on the top of the plateau into gently rolling farm country, ultimately up to a little community called Headquarters. I took the opportunity in Lewiston to drive up and down the Old Spiral Hwy, which was once US-95. I also followed the Snake River downstream as far as the road went, drove the newly opened realignment of US-95 south of Moscow, and then drove all of US-195 up to Spokane. After driving the piece of Future US-395 that had been opened since my last visit, I had a reliably good meal at P.F.Chang's, and stayed in Spokane Valley.

7/13 Followed all the old alignments of US-10 across central Washington. Some, like WA-904, were not signed as Historic US-10 as far as I could see, but they were from Tokio all the way to the Columbia River. Since there was a long wait to get over the Vantage Bridge, I went north instead, doing two river crossings in Wenatchee, driving a couple of state highways in the Chelan area, going as far up the west side of Lake Chelan as the road goes, then coming down US-97A, and taking US-2 all the way over the mountains to Everett. Another P.F.Chang's dinner in Lynnwood, and I took WA-99 down to the Seattle waterfront, where I took a bunch of twilight pictures of the city and the sound. I stayed in SeaTac.

7/14 Worked my way over to I-90, then went over the mountains, but taking several unsigned old alignments of US-10. The last of these was the Vantage Highway, from Ellensburg to Vantage, a road that really deserves to be signed as Historic US-10 more than most of the frontage roads along I-90 in the central part of the state. I worked my way down back roads to the east end of WA-14, and took that west, getting off and doing the Old Highway 8 from Roosevelt to US-97. There's one other piece that I drove in my previous trip. I drove US-97 down across Oregon, reclinching it by driving the recently opened realignment in Bend, and having an edible meal there. I ended up in Klamath Falls, a town which was infested with trillions of midge flies. Pro tip: don't stay in Klamath Falls in spring or early summer.

7/15 Went up to Crater Lake, the first time I had been when there wasn't twelve feet of snow on the ground, but there was a major closure on the east side of the loop, so I didn't clinch it all. Came back down through Medford, and drove the last little bit of the former US-99 in Oregon, just before entering California. In Mt Shasta, I drove up CR-A10 for the second time, but this time it was opened all the way to the end above the treeline. Unfortunately, various forest fires in that part of the world had created enough haze to make the view less than spectacular. Since I've clinched all the state highways in California, I just wandered around, ending up in Chico.

7/16 Drove over the mountains, through Reno, and got on US-395 south. Had some crappy barbecue in Mammoth Lakes, and stayed in Lone Pine.

7/17 Continued on US-395 south, CA-58 east, CA-247 south, through Joshua Tree NP, along Box Canyon Rd (former US-60/US-70), and over the mountains back home.

The best parts were the high parts of US-191, the Dolores River canyon in Colorado, Rimrock Canyon, parts of Yellowstone, the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, and the high part of Beartooth Road. But pretty much all of the trip was quite scenic, and most of it had very little traffic, which makes it much more relaxing to drive. The total mileage was a little under 8300 miles, adding 4100 miles to my Travelmapping records. List of clinches here: https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=1224.msg2992738#msg2992738

[JayhawkCO]

Sounds like a great trip! CO141 is indeed a great drive (and I like CO64 for its remoteness).

I arguably thought the Chief Joseph was prettier than the Beartooth when I was up there a while back.

[kphoger]

So now you can appreciate this:

I had neglected to put the radiator overflow cap back on after checking levels before out trip.  It didn't catch our attention in the flatland but, by the top of Monarch Pass, it was spitting all over under the hood.  I stuffed part of a tee shirt down the neck and duct taped it, and we headed to Gunnison for a replacement cap.  I unwittingly bought the wrong kind of cap, such that the system still wasn't pressurized (I've never before owned a car that pressurized through the overflow instead of the rad itself), but we didn't know it at the time.  Every time I checked, there was still coolant in the overflow, so I wasn't panicking.  Still, I decided not to go over Ophir Pass, which is a good thing, because the temp gauge pinned at H just north of Naturita, CO.  With the help of a couple of truckers, we figured out that the radiator was dry even though the overflow still had coolant in it.  We put three gallons in there on the side of the road.  Moving on west towards Utah, the overflow was spitting again at the top of John Brown Canyon.  Not wanting to end up stranded on a dirt road in the La Sal Mountains, I put another gallon of water in the rad, and we headed for Grand Junction to find a mechanic.  I drove from Gateway to Grand Junction at 45 mph with the heat on full blast in 105° weather.  It was the mechanic in GJ who figured out all that had happened was that I'd bought the wrong type of radiator cap.  But, without all that water in the car, we may well have been seriously stranded in an area with near-zero cell phone reception, many miles from a mechanic, in triple-digit weather.

Because of my inattention and a $10 part, we missed visiting Ophir Pass, the La Sal Mountains, a dinosaur track site, Arches National Park, Dead Horse Point State Park, and the ghost town of Cisco.  Before our trip, I had our oldest son learning about geology and erosion specifically because we were going to be hiking in that area, and we never made it there; we turned around 1½ miles from the Utah state line, in fact.  It's actually probably a good thing we missed Utah, because it was in the middle of a heat wave, reaching 100° by noon every day, and we would have been totally zapped hiking in those conditions.

For what it's worth, I eventually found the original coolant expansion reservoir cap a year or so later.  It had fallen down into the engine compartment and wedged itself to where I couldn't easily fish it out.  So it just sat there the whole rest of the time we owned the car.

You can read my full trip report here:
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=18347.msg2371190#msg2371190