Out West, Part I
Dear Friends and Family,
Dad and I arrived back safe and sound in Madison on Sunday evening. Our west coast road trip covered 5,700 miles of mountain, plains, and desert. (First below, first stop -- Dubuque, Iowa)
Our first night's stop was Lexington, Nebraska, where we camped at a state park on a reservoir.
The first major item on the itinerary was Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. It was the first of nine national parks we would visit during the trip. The main highway through the park takes you up to 12,000 feet and the level of the alpine tundra. It's cold up there!
Dad and I camped among the elk on the west side of the park that second night.
The most visually stunning destination on the trip was Arches National Park on days three and four. The landscape was a riot of pastel colors.
Arches contains over 2,000 natural arches three feet or wider. The wind and water erosion sculpted the arches out a stratum of petrified sand dunes overlaying sandstone buttes. The most amazing feature of the park, though, may have been the Balancing Rock.
Another wonder was the gigantic, 300-foot-long Landscape Arch. The Parks Service stopped letting people walk under this arch after a huge bolder fell off of it in 1991.
We visited Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada on the fifth day. This park is one of the least visited in the park system. This park offers access to Wheeler Peak, the second highest in the state, as well as Lehman Cave, the largest in the state, and several groves of ancient bristlecone pines.
We proceeded to drive that day across the very desolate south center of Nevada. We encountered a few isolated down pours. It was monsoon season in the Southwest.
On the other side of that day's long journey were the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Yosemite National Park in California.
The Bragg family (minus the then unborn Bill) visited Yosemite on the epic month-long family trip the June of 1983. I don't think that we visited the mountain meadows above the lower valley as Dad and I did this trip. It was a very quiet and scenic drive.
The lower Yosemite valley was most beautiful from above. Down below at ground level it was a traffic and parking nightmare. John Muir must be turning in his grave.
Later that day Dad and I raced down California Highway 140 from the park to Uncle Noel and Aunt Barbara's pleasant ranch home in the town of Gustine at the west side of the Central Valley. Noel and Barbara were very hospitable and generous hosts. Dad and I appreciated the conversation, pleasant respite, and home-cooked meals they offered.
Noel and Barbara also entertained us with memories of the Bragg family and mementos such as these hand-carved and painted birds from Grandma and Grandpa Bragg. The rivet is an original from the Golden Gate Bridge and the stone hide scraper came from Grandma Bragg's garden on the Flambeau.
Dad and I arrived back safe and sound in Madison on Sunday evening. Our west coast road trip covered 5,700 miles of mountain, plains, and desert. (First below, first stop -- Dubuque, Iowa)
Our first night's stop was Lexington, Nebraska, where we camped at a state park on a reservoir.
The first major item on the itinerary was Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. It was the first of nine national parks we would visit during the trip. The main highway through the park takes you up to 12,000 feet and the level of the alpine tundra. It's cold up there!
Dad and I camped among the elk on the west side of the park that second night.The most visually stunning destination on the trip was Arches National Park on days three and four. The landscape was a riot of pastel colors.
Arches contains over 2,000 natural arches three feet or wider. The wind and water erosion sculpted the arches out a stratum of petrified sand dunes overlaying sandstone buttes. The most amazing feature of the park, though, may have been the Balancing Rock.
Another wonder was the gigantic, 300-foot-long Landscape Arch. The Parks Service stopped letting people walk under this arch after a huge bolder fell off of it in 1991.
We visited Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada on the fifth day. This park is one of the least visited in the park system. This park offers access to Wheeler Peak, the second highest in the state, as well as Lehman Cave, the largest in the state, and several groves of ancient bristlecone pines.
We proceeded to drive that day across the very desolate south center of Nevada. We encountered a few isolated down pours. It was monsoon season in the Southwest.
On the other side of that day's long journey were the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Yosemite National Park in California.
The Bragg family (minus the then unborn Bill) visited Yosemite on the epic month-long family trip the June of 1983. I don't think that we visited the mountain meadows above the lower valley as Dad and I did this trip. It was a very quiet and scenic drive.
The lower Yosemite valley was most beautiful from above. Down below at ground level it was a traffic and parking nightmare. John Muir must be turning in his grave.
Later that day Dad and I raced down California Highway 140 from the park to Uncle Noel and Aunt Barbara's pleasant ranch home in the town of Gustine at the west side of the Central Valley. Noel and Barbara were very hospitable and generous hosts. Dad and I appreciated the conversation, pleasant respite, and home-cooked meals they offered.
Noel and Barbara also entertained us with memories of the Bragg family and mementos such as these hand-carved and painted birds from Grandma and Grandpa Bragg. The rivet is an original from the Golden Gate Bridge and the stone hide scraper came from Grandma Bragg's garden on the Flambeau.
More of the trip a bit later.
jkb
posted by jkbinturkey at 3:16 PM
2 Comments:
arches n p looks cool! bill
Great pictures. Looks like you had some incredible experiences. Loved seeing Grandpa's carved wooden birds.
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