USA Road Trip (VA - CA - VA) 56k Beware

[tonyeck]

Hi guys. Just thought I'd share one of my favourite journeys that I did last year...

I had finished my job in the states after 17 months of constant work. I was 6 weeks away from returning to the UK with my girlfriend to finish my studies. This is the perfect excuse for a ROAD TRIP! We lived in Virginia and we wanted to make it all the way to Yosemite CA...

We spent a month living in the back of a 95 Dodge Dakota truck and camping at as many national parks as we could! It was a fantastic experience and one I think everyone should try and do. We saw so many incredible things and cannot wait to do it again.

Mapping the trip:

A couple of days on the road - heading towards South Dekota

Star gazing

Our First destination was Badlands National Park

Where we were treated to a nice evening storm

Naturally we had to stop at Mount Rushmore

Another days driving brought us to Yellowstone where we were greated by Buffalo. Later that night we almost got into an accident with one in the middle of the road :doh

Artists view point at Yellowstone

Beautiful landscape at Yellowstone

Just South of Yellowstone is Grand Tetons...

 

[tonyeck]

Watching the sun go down

Our next destination was Lake Tahoe travelling through Salt Lake City. During the sunset we stopped to take this over the salt plains heading into Nevada

Glitzy lights of Nevada

Finally made it to Lake Tahoe to finally have a wash!

So we made it to California! Now to Yosemite

Famous

Next stop - Vegas... Made a nice relaxing night. Actually stayed in a Hotel instead of the back of the truck

Enjoying a doughnut down the strip

 

[tonyeck]

Grand Canyon was next on our list...

Lots of interesting summer weather of course

You gotta get up for sunrise

On the way to the north rim

North Rim at night

The same, yet very different to the south rim

Nice fire to relax to

Bryce canyon was next

Then onto Zion for some excellent hiking

and swimming

 

[jamesi]

awesome man!

i drove across the country with my mom b/c she was moving to virginia. we started in california and well, it was pretty long as im sure u already know. colorado was my favorite state, so beautiful

 

[tonyeck]

Shadows taking over at Zion

Driving along the Colorado river towards Arches

A hike to the arches

Then onto Canyon Lands

And the final stop before rushing back to Virginia to catch a flight to the UK - The Colorado rockies

There you go 8600 miles later, it was the best and most fun trip ever. Hope you enjoyed my pics!

Map of the journey
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonysphotographs/sets/72157594377779542/map/

And more pics here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonysphotographs/sets/72157594377779542/


Thanks for looking

 

[wmmk]

neat! beautiful photos. my dad did that between college, an internship, and grad school, but he started in New Jersey. "watching the sun go down," "north rim at night," and "Grand Canyon was next on our list..." are my favorites.

 

[thr33face]

looks like fun. nice pics also

 

[BoyBach]

Can I be rude and ask how much the trip cost?

(Some lovely pictures by the way!)

 

[devilot]

I had finished my job in the states after 17 months of constant work. I was 6 weeks away from returning to the UK with my girlfriend to finish my studies...

We spent a month living in the back of a 95 Dodge Dakota truck and camping at as many national parks as we could! It was a fantastic experience and one I think everyone should try and do. We saw so many incredible things and cannot wait to do it again.

Some really nice photos and really nicely laid out and thought out vacation. It's so interesting to see some of these places that I've been to over the course of my life in a quick succinct row of photos. And I can't believe the two of you did it within a month and living out of a truck at that. I think I might be too high maintenance.

How long have the two of you been together? It really does seem like an amazing trip to take together. Is your gf from the UK as well?

 

[tonyeck]

Can I be rude and ask how much the trip cost?

(Some lovely pictures by the way!)

Thankyou Over all the trip probably cost around $1500 each which was mainly gas. Food was cheap as we barely ate out and camping was really cheap. We paid $50 for a hotel room in vegas which was probably the most expensive night we had

Some really nice photos and really nicely laid out and thought out vacation. It's so interesting to see some of these places that I've been to over the course of my life in a quick succinct row of photos. And I can't believe the two of you did it within a month and living out of a truck at that. I think I might be too high maintenance.

How long have the two of you been together? It really does seem like an amazing trip to take together. Is your gf from the UK as well?

Thanks again We spent a long time planning the route and it worked out great. I took over 8000 photos documenting the trip so obviously these are just a select few, but it is cool to see it in this way. The truck was fine. We stuck a matress in the bed of the truck and was suprisingly confortable. Temperatures at night were perfect too.

Me and my girlfriend have been together for around 2 years now. She is from the US and is studying with me in the UK (I am a UK citizen). We are both going back to live in VA in July....

 

[devilot]

We spent a long time planning the route and it worked out great... The truck was fine. We stuck a matress in the bed of the truck and was suprisingly confortable. Temperatures at night were perfect too.

It's pretty apparent that the trip was well organized.

And that was the question I wanted to ask but forgot to-- the whole being cold at night thing. Hehe, but you've already addressed that.

Me and my girlfriend have been together for around 2 years now. She is from the US and is studying with me in the UK (I am a UK citizen). We are both going back to live in VA in July....

*sniff* Aww. I think that that is incredible. I hope the two of you can continue to make it work.

 

[iSaint]

Congrats on making the most of a great opportunity! Nice pics, too.

 

[jayb2000]

What a blast!
My wife and I did something similar, but not as long.
We did a more northern route, Crater Lake, Yellowstone, Badlands, etc.

You two had an experience that a large number of Americans don't even attempt. Congrats!

 

[thegord]

i drove across from ny to tahoe and what an experience it was. in a soft top jeep wrangler carrying a 5x9 trailor. 15mph in wyoming. but it was all about the experince of seeing the country. your right everyone should do this. so many different places to see. glad it was a good time road trips usually are.

 

[yellow]

What kind of camera did you use?

 

[tonyeck]

Thanks again everybody

Yellow, the camera was a trusty old Canon Digital Rebel XT with various lenses

 

[yellow]

Yellow, the camera was a trusty old Canon Digital Rebel XT with various lenses

Sweet. You have some wonderful shots there!