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| my meadow campsite, Rico, CO 5.2025 |
Just south of Rico I turned onto Forest Road 564, a rough and slow climb that took me to a high meadow where I camped for a few nights. One evening I heard what sounded like turkeys. It turned out to be a male dusky grouse. The noises were from him chasing around a female. So, I broke up that action. Didn't mean to.
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| lots of aspen along f.r. 564, CO 5.2025 |
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| male dusky grouse, interrupted, CO 5.2025 |
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| along Hwy. 145 between Lizard Head and Telluride, CO 5.2025 |
Next, I made it over to little Crawford, CO. I had never been to this area and a local reminded me that Joe Cocker had lived here for many years and he's buried in the town cemetery. This is also an entry point to access the north rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. I had been to the south side before but not the north. In the campsite photo below I'm on BLM land and the town of Crawford is against the hills beyond.
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| view into the Black Canyon, CO 6.2025 |
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| free campsite, Crawford, CO 6.2025 |
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| Kneeling Camel, BCotGNP 6.2025 |
The Kneeling Camel rock formation is pretty cool, it even has its' own overlook.
THE NORTHEAST LOOP
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| Evergreen, CO to West Bend, IA 7.2025 |
After a few annual checkups and visiting with some friends I began a big trip back to the northeast. I left Evergreen on July 11 and this is a map showing the route from there to West Bend, Iowa, almost 1000 miles.The purplish color through the Black Hills was a summer trip in 2022.
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| Pawnee Buttes, CO 7.2025 |
There are about 20 national grasslands around the country. Two of them are in Colorado, Pawnee Buttes in the northeast and Comanche in the southeast and they allow for free dispersed camping. My site was just off camera to the left. The two buttes are in the center distant. This wasn't the best viewing angle for the buttes, but it was a good campsite.
In northcentral Nebraska near the town of Valentine is the McKelvie National Forest and that's the reason I next drove north into Nebraska, to see what a national forest in Nebraska looked like. Most of central Nebraska is dominated by the Sand Hills, rolling sand dunes covered with prairie grasses. Underneath the Sand Hills is the Ogallala Aquifer and almost always wherever the aquifer reaches the surface you'll see trees and often houses.
Most of the trees in the McKelvie National Forest have been planted (for periodic harvesting) and most of those are in the southeast corner of the forest where there is a small campground. I was the only one there for two nights. As the photo below shows most of the "forest" is, in fact, grassland.
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| Steer Creek Campground, NE 7.2025 |
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| part of the McKelvie NF, NE 7.2025 |
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| the nice welcome sign to Mallard, IA 7.2025 |
I continued east into Iowa, truly the corn capital. Man, it's everywhere and forever. Except in spots where there were soybean fields, but it's mostly corn. In tiny Mallard the corn goes right into town, as it seemed to in every town. Iowa was beautiful in mid-July.
East of Mallard is West Bend, home to one of the largest grottos in the world. It was begun by the local priest in the early 1900's and was essentially built by him, a local man and then another priest who showed up many years later. You can see much better photos online and even a virtual tour. In person it's pretty extraordinary. I ended up here primarily because the traveling app "iOverlander" listed it as a nice, peaceful campground. It is that and it only cost $20 so I stayed 3 nights.
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| grotto view from cg, West Bend, IA 7.2025 |
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| cg view from grotto, West Bend, IA 7.2025 |
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| in the grotto, West Bend, IA 7.2025 |
This is a portion of the Stations of the Cross. The entire site encompasses 9 grottos, all hand built. Again, pretty amazing.
Looking for my next destination I realized I was only a short distance from Clear Lake, Iowa. This is where the music died. I saw the ballroom in town where the concert was held, but it was closed on a Sunday. You can drive out to the crash site where they have a small dirt parking lot named after Don McLean, as well as the glasses, and a memorial out in the cornfield.
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| memorial in the cornfield, IA 7.2025 |
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| ballroom, Clear Lake, IA 7.2025 |
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| Buddy's big glasses, IA 7.2025 |
Across from the Don McLean parking area is this pair of big Buddy Holly glasses at the beginning of the trail out to the site, maybe a 1/4 mile. I liked all of what was there, and it was worth the trip over. I could do without the graffiti, but you can see a blue Sharpie sitting on one of the pillars, so others disagree with me.
That night I got a campsite at the Pikes Peak State Park in the northeast corner of Iowa on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. It's a gorgeous view. And the nearby town of McGregor is a cool town right on the rivers' edge. I guess Z. Pike was in this area before he made it out to Colorado where he put his name on a pretty big mountain. This is nice, too.
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| outstanding view of the Wisconsin River flowing into the Mississippi. near McGregor, IA 7.2025 |
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| main street in McGregor, IA 7.2025 |
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| looking north up the Mississippi, IA 7.2025 |
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| the Lincoln House, Springfield, IL 7.2028 |
I made a detour down to Springfield to see the Lincoln House. Totally worth it. The Park Serice has maintained the whole neighborhood as it was in the 1850's and '60's. None of the Lincolns ever returned here to live after moving to Washington.
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| West Bend, IA to Jamestown, NY 7.2025 |
This map shows my route from the grotto in West Bend over to Pikes Peak SP on the Mississippi down to Springfield, across Indiana, up to Cuyahoga Valley National Park south of Cleveland and then over to Pennsylvania and far western New York, about two weeks and another 1500 miles.
While national forests do exist in Indiana, Illinois and Ohio (but not Iowa...or Nebraska, IMO 😉) they were located south of where I was traveling. These states, and others, also have state forests and you can sometimes camp in those. In Ohio's Harrison State Forest I found a campground that was free. For some reason I was the only one there on a Sunday night and it's a really nice, well cared for campground.
Ohio also has a National Park, Cuyahoga Valley. I had intended to ride my bike around some of the park sites but late July was horrendous for heat and humidity and I took a pass. Instead, I drove around a bit and one of the highlights was the Brandywine Falls in the picture below. A few days later in August I read an article that stated many mid-west and northeast states had suffered record, or near record, humidity for the month of July. I agree!
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| 60' Brandywine Falls, OH 7.2025 |
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| Harrison State Forest campground, OH 7.2025 |
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| a photo op in Titusville, PA 7.2025 |
Once I reached Pennsylvania I turned north towards the Allegany National forest where I spent 3 nights. The last day there, July 31, was a day of heavy rain. After that, though, the month of August opened up with cooler, drier and sunnier weather; rather pleasant, actually.
Before reaching the campground I drove through Titusville, the town where oil was first successfully drilled for on the planet. President Grant even visited the town in 1871 and, evidently, became the first president to exclaim "drill, baby, drill".
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| Dunkirk lighthouse and living quarters, NY 8.2025 |
Crossing into New York at Jamestown I made my way over to Lake Erie and the town of Dunkirk to see their lighthouse. Some of the first shots of the War of 1812 were fired in Dunkirk.
You can barely make out the horizon line of the lake. I found out later all of that haze was from Canadian wildfires. The next few days were as bad or worse.
From here I was going to go to Niagara but convinced myself I didn't want to deal with lots of traffic so I turned east to Letchworth State Park, which has its' own waterfalls courtesy of the north-flowing Genesee River. Letchworth has been recognized a few times as the best state park in the country. I don't know how they determine that but it is beautiful country, and they have the cleanest bathrooms with showers that you can run as hot and long as you want to.
My one full day there of a 2-night stay was Monday, August 4th. Due to the wildfires the air quality index was in the 140's, definitely unhealthy with both the haze factor and a faint whiff of campfire in the air. Here are the three main falls and the 500'+ deep gorge that they call the Grand Canyon of the East. You can see better and clearer photos of this online.
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| Upper Falls and railroad trestle, NY 8.2025 |
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| Middle Falls, NY 8.2025 |
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| very hazy view of gorge, NY 8.2025 |
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Lower Falls in distance
and footbridge, NY 8.2025 |
If you do a search about the Finger Lakes region you'll see a lot about lakes, waterfalls, great food and 130 or so wineries. I didn't stick around long enough to sample the wines but I did see a few of the waterfalls. Including at my next stop of Watkins Glen on the southern tip of Lake Seneca. They were having a NASCAR race that weekend at the famous Watkins Glen International racetrack and the town was hopping on a Thursday.
Watkins Glen State Park is where the Gorge Trail is located and where you'll find a number of waterfalls. The state park is also considered one of the best in the country and I lucked out and got a nice private spot for one night. The weekend was booked.
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| Rainbow Falls, Watkins Glen, NY 8.2025 |
The stream that runs through the gorge was low due to lack of rain. And the most famous of the gorge bridges, Sentry Bridge, was unfortunately closed off when I was there as they were in the process of replacing it. You'll find photos online of this gorge that are amazing.
In a nod to its' racing history Watkins Glen paints the crosswalks with a checkered flag design as you can see in my picture of the Ben and Jerry's below. The coffee ice cream with fudge chips in a waffle cone hit the spot. A walk to the north end of town takes you to the lake and marina. The very nice Harbor Hotel and restaurant are right there, as well.
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| ice cream and crosswalk, WG, NY 8.2025 |
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| marina, still hazy, WG, NY 8.2025 |
I took a 2-day break from traveling to camp in New York's only national forest, the Finger Lakes NF, conveniently located between Seneca Lake (Watkins Glen) and Cayuga Lake (Ithaca). After that I went to one last waterfall, Taughannock, part of another state park of the same name. This waterfall was also running quite low.
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| nice site in Backbone CG, FLNF, NY 8.2025 |
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| Taughannock Falls, NY 8.2025 |
I was enjoying much better weather and driving as many backroads as possible. Often, I would have to pull over and try to figure out if I was going in the right direction or not. Signage was often lacking as was a reliable signal so I would end up on a road that just didn't seem right, relying on my truck compass to tell me I had been going southeast when I should be going northwest. I could zoom in on a map to see roads and towns well enough to eventually locate myself but pulling over was something I had to do frequently. I usually averaged 30-35mph on these rural days.
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| roadside plaque in Truxton, NY 8.2025 |
One day I pulled over in this tiny town in New York as I headed towards the Adirondacks and there was this road sign. Might as well check it out. I thought it was a pretty neat, though obscure, piece of baseball history.
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| Jamestown, NY to Killens Pond, DE 8.2025 |
This map shows the route from western New York into New England and down to New Jersey and finally into Delaware and Killens Pond State Park, the red dot next to the word "Baltimore". This was the entire month of August and the first week of September and about 2200 miles.
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| Adirondack map 8.2025 |
The Adirondacks are not part of the Appalachians but are their own region. The all-encompassing Adirondack Park was created in 1892 and at roughly 6,000,000 acres is the largest park in the lower 48. It's a great area, and you would need at least a month to do it justice.
Near the small town (or hamlet) of Inlet is the Moose River Plains Wild Forest. There are over 100 individual FREE campsites strung out along forest roads with most sites having a picnic table, fireplace and a privy (outhouse). At first I thought it looked weird that a campsite has an outhouse and how rude that you have to share. Instead, they almost all have their own! I've never seen that before. Very few people were back here mid-week so I had a quiet couple of days in site #131. My privy was a bit shaky but clean and I used it...yup.
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| the privy, just fine, Inlet, NY 8.2025 |
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| site #131, Inlet, NY 8.2025 |
I had not expected to drift so far north but as long as I was here I stopped in Lake Placid, another beautiful town and certainly the most touristy. Mirror Lake is the small lake right in town and it was crowded with canoers, paddleboarders and kayaks. There is a Ben and Jerry's around the corner (!) and with another coffee ice cream cone I was happy to kill time watching it all go by.
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| view north from the ski jump, Lake Placid, NY 8.2025 |
The Olympic ski jumps are on one side of town and for a fee ($15, that's a lot) you ride the gondola and take the elevator to the top, which I did. Nice views. Whiteface Mountain, where the skiing events are held, is the peak on the left.
Checking out the area online I saw that I could take a ferry across Lake Champlain over to Vermont and that seemed a good idea. It was a perfect day and the lake was calm and very blue and the ride cost me $20.10.
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| leaving quaint Essex, NY 8.2025 |
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| approaching quaint Charlotte, VT 8.2025 |
Vermont is one of my favorites. The Green Mountains are the real deal and most of the state seems pretty rural and many of the two-lane roads are a joy to drive, meandering up and down over and around, everything green.
One place I had to visit, speaking of Ben and Jerry's, was their ice cream factory in Waterbury. This is the original and it's smaller than the newer factories they have elsewhere but this is where you can do a tour. For $6 they walk you through the process and you look down on the assembly line area...no pictures allowed. At the end is a free sample of the day, in our case it was Half-Baked. I took a second helping, thank you very much, but even that didn't make the $6 worth it. I don't recommend the tour, but the on-site Flavor Graveyard is pretty cool. I counted over 40 flavors that have bit the dust over the years.
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| some of the graveyard, VT 8.2025 |
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| outside the factory, VT 8.2025 |
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| rain moving in, Stowe, VT 8.2025 |
North of Waterbury is the ski town of Stowe. This is where the von Trapp family settled after singing their way across Europe and they have a resort here. I had hoped to take the gondola up to the top but, as you can see from the pic, weather had moved in and it began to rain soon after. Stowe is right next to Mt. Mansfield, the highest peak in Vermont and I had seen great photos from up there. Another trip.
As I moved south from Stowe I began seeing, and seeking out, covered bridges. Here's a couple of those. I read that Ohio has the most covered bridges. Ohio is pretty enough, but it's not Vermont so I saved my bridge pictures for Vermont.
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| bridge south of Wolcott, VT 8.2025 |
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| lots of peace signs in Wolcott, VT 8.2025 |
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| Coburn Bridge near E. Montpelier, VT 8.2025 |
Further south along Highway 14 on the way to East Montpelier is this bridge off a side road. They have pictures on the wall showing water up into the bridge just two years earlier in July of 2023 during some serious flooding. It's lucky to have survived. A man named Coburn built the bridge in the 1840's and his ancestors still live in the area, so says the information on the bridge wall.
It's pretty common to pass farms with sugar houses and gift shops. You'll see some of that in upstate New York, too, and the grocery stores there even sell NY syrup. I'm sure it's every bit as good as Vermont syrup, but...it's not Vermont. Like with the bridges, you know.
I passed Bragg Farm and decided this is where I would buy some syrup. They let you taste all four of the different grades of syrup and I chose the #2 since it's the one most associated with pancakes, though they were all good. You'll also see signs advertising maple creemees. I thought they might be a type of candy but they are, in fact, soft serve maple ice cream cones. I got one for free since I had spent X amount of money. Delicious!
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| the gift shop, sugar house, VT 8.2025 |
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| some of the syrup I bought, VT 8.2025 |
Dropping down out of Vermont into western Massachusetts I made my way east out to Cape Cod National Seashore. The traffic on the only road into Cape Cod is BUSY. I had to make some reservations ahead of time at two state parks, Shawmee and Nickerson. Nickerson has over 400 campsites and they charge out-of-staters $80/night. It was worth it since it's in a prime location and I think it's the best option without getting a room somewhere. Shawmee, which was for my night prior to visiting Cape Cod was "only" $59 since it's further inland.
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| Cape Cod Light, Truro, MA 8.2025 |
This is called the Cape Cod (Highland) Light in its' latest location. I'm standing where it used to be before the beach erosion got too close in 1996. Washington himself commissioned the original in 1797 and this version goes back to 1857 and it's still being used. Thoreau visited this lighthouse and thought it "a neat building". It sits inside the Highlands Links Golf Course, itself going back to the 1890's, and where you can play a round for about $68, carts are extra.
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| camp at Nickerson SP, Brewster, MA 8.2025 |
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| Race Beach, Provincetown, MA 8.2025 |
I left the Cape on a Monday (I'm pretty sure the traffic was even worse) via I-495 and then south on I-195 into Rhode Island driving Hwy. 24 into Newport. Not the fancy part of Newport, just the regular part with all the regular business and shopping stuff. Then two bridges over to Hwy. 1 that finally took me south to Fisherman's Memorial State Park in Port Judith south of Narragansett. At one point I took a wrong turn in Narragansett and for a short while drove through some of the wealthy neighborhoods. Just a little bit of old money going on there, I believe.
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| Port Judith Light, RI 8.2025 |
A short bike ride from the campground is the coastline and this lighthouse. On the other side of the lighthouse were late afternoon surfers. To the right of me is a large jetty that was busy with fishermen casting. Another beautiful spot.
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| site of Woodstock, Bethel, NY 8.2025 |
After several nights in a campground in a state forest in NW Connecticut and then another in the Catskills of New York called Mongaup (very difficult to find) it was finally time to head down into New Jersey. On the way there I drove through Bethel, NY where Woodstock took place. The flat area where some people are standing is where the stage was. You can see a faint outline of a peace sign on the hill. There was a large crowd behind me where a blues concert was taking place that same day at another facility in what is now known as the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts.
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| Yo, Jersey! 8.31.2025 |
Later, after crossing a bridge over the Delaware from Milford, PA I was in New Jersey for the first time since October, 2000, I think it was. Pretty good feeling, actually.
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| Dave and Terry, Flemington, NJ 9.2025 |
I was staying with my old friends Dave (Leif) and Terry in the town of Flemington. I've known Dave since high school (Class of '75) and even though we all hadn't seen each other in many years it was easy to slip back into conversation like it was a week ago.Our 50th class reunion was taking place at the end of September, but I was well south by then.
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| our old home in Bernardsville, NJ 9.2025 |
Jim (Stadt), another high school friend of ours, came by one day and had the great suggestion of checking out our old stomping grounds, so he, Leif and I drove over to the town of Bernardsville.
Going by my old home on Crestview Drive Stadt saw the owner outside, stopped and mentioned that I used to live there. The owner and his wife welcomed me inside and showed me the changes since we left in 1978. Updated but the same, really. It was painted a dark red when we lived there.
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| Sandy Hook Light and headquarters, NJ 9.2025 |
After leaving Flemington I drove east towards the Jersey Shore where my friend Joan lives in Tinton Falls. We visited some of the local spots like Sandy Hook, part of the Gateway National Recreation Area. It has some great beaches.
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| view towards NYC across bay, NJ 9.2025 |
The scenic overlook at the north end of Gateway is facing north across the bay towards NYC, specifically Brooklyn, specifically Coney Island. Pretty sure...
Another day we went over to Asbury Park and the boardwalk there. I had to buy some salt water taffy and pose at the Stone Pony, famous for hosting Springsteen, Southside Johnny and others back in the day.
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| A Jersey classic, still good 9.2025 |
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maybe I was here in the early '80's?
or was it the late '70's? or never? |
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| Killens Pond, DE to Natural Bridge, AL 9.2025 |
After 8 days in my home state - and it was great to be back - I continued south over the Delaware Bridge into Delaware and Killens Pond State Park for a night. This map shows my route (in red) from Killens Pond, down to Assateague over to Shenandoah, then Cape Hatteras and Waxhaw, NC and out to Natural Bridge in western Alabama. In all, about 2300 miles and 32 days. The black was a winter trip from 2021-22.
Back in Jersey Terry had mentioned her family was going down to Ocean City, MD for a week and that it was near Assateague where the wild horses are. I hadn't even thought about that but that is where I decided to go next. The ocean and wild horses, nice combo.
Assateague Island National Seashore has a Maryland side and a Virginia side, separated by a fence. They each have their own herds of horses and the Virginia herd is the one famously known as the Chincoteague ponies. I stayed in a campground on the Maryland side called Bayside. The horses, of course, can go wherever they want to and they do wander into the campgrounds.
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| Bayside Campground visitors, MD 9.2025 |
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| Assateague beach, MD 9.2025 |
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| northern VA map 9.2025 |
The east coast is crowded with both Revolutionary and Civil War sites and Virginia, my next destination, has more than any other. After crossing the very big Chesapeake Bay Bridge into Annapolis (I recently read they're going to replace this bridge with one twice as big) and taking Hwy. 301 to avoid the whole DC cluster I took another bridge to finally arrive in Virginia.
I drove east along the Potomac River to the Westmoreland State Park. On the drive down I passed through the town of Colonial Beach and saw that James Monroe's birthplace was nearby. A stone's throw closer to the state park was G. Washington's birthplace. This stuff is everywhere.
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| 1/10 scale of monument, VA 9.2025 |
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| the shores of the Potomac River, VA 9.2025 |
Moving inland and passing through Fredericksburg (a big, modern town now) you're basically in the middle of one of the bloodiest Civil War battles, or several battles, actually. The visitor center at nearby Chancellorsville has an extensive display area and one room is covered by the names of some 15,000 men who died there, including many photos of those men. These battles then led to Gettysburg not too far north and even more dead.
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| Chancellor homesite, VA 9.2025 |
Chancellorsville was not a town but a crossroads where the Chancellor family had their home; the Union army used it as a headquarters. These cannons are in the field next to where the home once sat, only a foundation remains.
The various battle sites are scattered over miles and include the Wilderness and Spotsylvania battles. Personally, I'm not that into it, but you could spend many days exploring all of this.
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| Shenandoah info. 9.2025 |
Moving on to happier things further west is the town of Front Royal, the north gateway to Shenandoah National Park. The name alone, Shenandoah, has always made me want to come here. The Park is in the Blue Ridge Mountains with the main road, Skyline Drive, designed to optimize views running along the spine.
I spent four nights in the park staying at 3 of the 4 campgrounds beginning at Big Meadows which is where the main visitor center is located. I arrived on Sunday, September 14 and left on the 18th so the crowds were quite reasonable. A ranger told me that the weekends of peak fall colors are packed. Best to be there during the week.
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| Dark Hollow Falls, SNP 9.2025 |
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| Stony Man Lookout, SNP 9.2025 |
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| west to Shenandoah Valley, SNP 9.2025 |
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| a rain day in Loft Mtn. CG, SNP 9.2025 |
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| screenshot, Grey Beard 12.2025 |
Returning to my truck after one of my hikes I was approached by a guy wanting to ask about my camper. He then told me that he and another man were there in the lot waiting for Dale Sanders who was walking the Appalachian Trail to set the record as the oldest to do it at 90. The Trail follows Skyline Drive through the Park and Dale was camping with these men whenever he happened to reach the next campground. I didn't get to meet Dale but if he doesn't inspire you to get off the couch nothing will.
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| the Slacks Overlook on the Blue Ridge, VA 9.2025 |
Leaving Shenandoah and continuing south the Skyline Drive changes its' name to the Blue Ridge Parkway. This overlook was one of many. I hope to make it back to this area someday to drive the complete 469-mile (with 27 tunnels and no stop signs) Blue Ridge Parkway down to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. One of America's great roads, no question.
This time I got off near the town of Buena Vista, which was only at about mile marker 45, to head back out to the coast.
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| McLean House, Appomattox, VA 9.2025 |
Along the way I stopped at Appomattox Court House (two words because it's a place name). The original courthouse (one word) burned down in 1892 and was rebuilt and today hosts the visitor center. No surrender events occurred in the courthouse. The surrender took place in the McLean House.
The house was dismantled in 1893 as it was intended to be relocated. That never happened and so all the parts and pieces sat on the ground until years later they had either been taken or destroyed by the elements. Luckily, they had made detailed plans before dismantling it so the house was rebuilt by the Park Service in the 1940's and that's what this photo is. Whew.
Kill Devil Hills is just south of Kitty Hawk and where the Wright Brothers changed history on December 17, 1903 and "broke our human bond with Earth".
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| the launching rail and flight markers, NC 9.2025 |
The granite boulder marks where the flights left the ground and the white stone markers further down mark how far each flight went. The first one went 120 feet and 12 seconds. The fourth flight that day went 852 feet and 59 seconds. And that was that.
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| looking back from the 4th flight marker, NC 9.2025 |
The monument honoring the Wright Brothers sits atop Kill Devil Hill in the distance where they first did 100's of glider flights to try and master the technique and modify wing design, etc. Awesome spot to visit.
Further down the coast on the Outer Banks is the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. My first stop was the campground called Oregon Inlet. Pretty busy campground but since it was late September (the 21st) I was able to book a spot online. Much further down I also stayed at the Frisco and the Cape Point Campgrounds. Cape Point has about 200 spots and it was mostly deserted when I was there. There is one other campground south on the island of Ocracoke but that requires a ferry ride. I didn't get that far.
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| across the dunes at Oregon Inlet, NC 9.2025 |
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| Oregon Inlet CG, Nags Head, NC 9.2025 |
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the beach of Cape Hatteras, NC 9.2025
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Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in the photo is surrounded by scaffolding which is why it looks fuzzy. Unfortunately, it was closed off for major renovations and only the visitor center was open, which was good enough for snagging my National Parks passport book stamp. It's pretty nerdy but I like collecting the stamps.
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| Bodie Island Light, Nags Head, NC 9.2025 |
Driving back north towards the bridge for the mainland I stopped at this picture-perfect lighthouse. This is my last lighthouse picture. For this trip, anyway.
From Cape Hatteras west to Waxhaw, NC (south of Charlotte) was over 400 miles. I stopped twice along the way to camp. It was good to see my brother Bruce and Ann and take a breather for the next 6 days. I forgot to take pictures.
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| Whitewater Falls, NC 10.205 |
After this, I could feel the trip mojo start to wind down as I pointed my way west from here on out. Still some things to see, however. This is called Upper Whitewater Falls and at 411' is the highest waterfall east of the Rockies. Wandering the backroads of this corner of North Carolina is some fairly rugged and densely wooded terrain. Turns out it's an area full of tucked away gated communities and golf courses for folks with money. The town of Cashiers, which I thought looked very low key, is actually home to a few billionaires. Cross that town off my list of possible retirement spots. 😀
The map below is the final leg of this big road trip. Across northern Mississippi into the Ozarks onward to Amarillo and finally down to Las Cruces, NM. This was about 2000 miles and 26 days. I chose Las Cruces to be the endpoint because it's a straight-ish line down from Denver and Evergreen, where this began.
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| from Alabama to Las Cruces, NM 10.2025 |
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| Elvis' childhood home, Tupelo, MS 10.2025 |
I couldn't pass up the chance at seeing Elvis' birthplace. Just like Washington's birthplace in Virginia there's a museum, gift shop and a short movie. This is the original home in its original location. Apparently, I started a mini-musical theme for this trip by first stopping at Clear Lake, Iowa, then Woodstock, then the Stone Pony and now here.
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| the square in Oxford, MS 10.2025 |
Oxford, MS is, as I've heard it described, an oasis. The square is perfect for a walk and you can check out one of The Square bookstores (I think they have four). The City Grocery restaurant is here, too, where Anthony Bourdain filmed one of his episodes. The campus of Ole Miss is just a few blocks away. And a statue of native son William Faulkner sits on a bench watching over it all. I liked it here.
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| Pat's Bluff CG, Oxford, MS 10.2025 |
Just northwest of Oxford is Sardis Lake, a reservoir created by the Corps of Engineers. There are lots of these lakes and they all have some recreation land set aside. Almost always they include campgrounds. Because they are COE the campgrounds are 50% off with my lifetime senior America the Beautiful pass.
This campsite, which included electricity (needed because of all the wonderful shade) and drinking water, cost me $12/day. I had this corner of the campground next to the lake with perfect weather all to myself for two days and is one of the best paid sites I've ever had.
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| Clarksdale, MS 10.2025 |
Driving west the land gets flatter with lots of cotton fields as this is all part of the Mississippi Delta. Clarksdale, "Birthplace of the Blues" was another of my music stops. They say Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil to learn how to play the blues. This corner at Highway 61 and 49 is purported to be where that happened. Other towns in the area claim their corners, too, but this is the corner with the cool tribute.
Out of this picture to the right is Abe's Bar-B-Q (since 1924). The ribs and sweet tea made for a fine lunch.
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| Crabtree, AR 10.2025 |
This scene was along Highway 16 in the Ozarks north of Little Rock. I'm not sure if Crabtree is even a proper town but if you google it the street view takes you right by this place.
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| Rotary Ann Overlook, Highway 7, AR 10.2025 |
This overlook is named for two women named Ann who were part of the Rotary Club in the early 1900's. Anyway, I'm really digging the Ozarks and intend to come back in the next few years to really check it out. Go up to Eureka Springs, Mountain Home, the big lakes, etc.Highway 7 is also known as the Scenic Seven.
I would have gone up and seen those areas on this trip but the forecast was promising several days of rain and so I turned south and went to Hot Springs, instead. The National Park is here and while there are forest and natural sites to see the big draw is the line of old bathhouses on the main street. Driving down that busy street I realized the best way to experience this park would be to get a room right there. Specifically at the Hotel Hale, the oldest of the bathhouses. There weren't any rooms available (at roughly $300/nite) so this would require some future planning. The campground associated with the NP looks tiny and crowded and I don't mind spending money once in a while.
Next, I continued west into the southeast corner of Oklahoma and the beautiful Beaver Bend State Park on the south shore of Broken Bow Lake. Curiously, this area is known for having a very high percentage of Airbnb rentals. I think it draws people up from Dallas-FW?
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| Beaver Bend SP visitor ctr., OK 10.2025 |
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| Broken Bow Lake, OK 10.2025 |
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| Texas Panhandle 10.2025 |
I've never been a fan of the Texas Panhandle, but that's where I found myself. There are a couple of worthy spots for camping and hiking near to Amarillo; here's a map showing where I was.
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| paid site in Palo Duro Canyon, TX 10.2025 |
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| free site above Lake Meridith, TX 10.2025 |
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| Lighthouse Rock, Palo Duro Canyon, TX 10.2025 |
Does this count as a lighthouse pic? I rode my bike over to this rock on the 5+ mile dirt trail (roundtrip) and almost wiped out a couple of times. It wasn't an easy ride but worth it. Palo Duro is an excellent park.
Heading west on the outskirts of Amarillo is Cadillac Ranch. This installation of Cadillacs buried at an angle goes back to 1974 and the cars are showing their age. Spray painting is encouraged and everything, including the ground and the road next to it, has gotten tagged. Periodically, they repaint the cars different colors or to offer a clean surface and it starts all over again. You can bring your own paint or buy it from an on-site trailer but it wasn't there that day.
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| everything gets painted, TX 10.2025 |
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| the Cadillacs, TX 10.2025 |
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| 2nd Amendment Cowboy, Amarillo, TX 10.2025 |
Nearby is the Cadillac Ranch RV Park with a gift shop for the Cadillac installation and this cowboy.
That's it for Amarillo. There's a famous steakhouse in town, too, but I didn't go there.
Driving I-40 west into New Mexico I got off the highway at Tucumcari, I think mostly because the Little Feat song "Willin" kept playing in my head. Route 66 goes through here and there's some old businesses from the glory days as you run through town. The motel in the picture is a going concern and I found out looking at their website later that the office is also a gift shop. I coulda bought something unnecessary! The sculpture is on the way out of town. The road is represented by the two-lane squiggling across the bottom. I think the circles are hubcaps, idk, and I've no idea about the arrows.
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| Route 66 sculpture Tucumcari, NM 10.2025 |
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| Route 66 motel, Tucumcari, NM 10.2025 |
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| McGinn's Gift Shop, Alamogordo, NM 11.2025 |
After spending a few free nights in the forest above the mountain town of Ruidoso (laundry and a haircut) I was driving through Alamogordo further southwest and passed the big pistachio. I've passed it before but this time I pulled in. It's a great gift shop with every flavor of roasted pistachios you can think of.
They also sell their own homemade pistachio ice cream and it was delicious. I believe I had more ice cream on this trip than I've had in the last 5 years. No regrets!
I stopped for the night in a campground in the Organ Mountains just east of Las Cruces. This is Aguirre Campground, tucked into some really interesting and pretty rock formations. It's a campground better suited for smaller rigs as even my 24' rig had trouble getting situated. The view looks east toward the nearby White Sands Missile Range.
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| my site in the morning, NM 11.2025 |
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| view looking east at sunset, NM 11.2025 |
Las Cruces, NM is where I decided to call the end to this Northeast road trip as the odometer hit the 9000-mile mark. It took just under 4 months as I drove through 26 states, including Colorado and New Mexico. And I spent at least one night in every state, except Wisconsin where I only cut across a corner.
My one big and not so original conclusion? It's all beautiful.
I'm already thinking about the next trip east. It would almost certainly include going north of the Great Lakes, up the St. Lawrence into the Canadian Maritimes and down into Maine and New Hampshire. Possibly 12-13000 miles and 5-6 months, who knows?
After driving and camping across southeast Arizona I went up to Goodyear to see my friend Scott, where he recently bought himself a home to retire in. We started working for the same company in Denver on the same day in 1985. No surprise that those 40 years cruised right on by.
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| east from Verado Victory Steps, AZ 11.2025 |
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| dinner with Scott, Goodyear, AZ 11.2025 |
When in southcentral Arizona I usually spend some time in the Sonoran National Monument between Casa Grande and Gila Bend. If you go about 4-5 miles south of I-8 along the dirt Vekol Road there is some really nice desert camping. A favorite area of mine.
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| an almost full moon down along Vekol Road, AZ 11.2025 |
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| red dot marks the spot, CA 12.2025 |
As the weather turns colder I drift southwest, towards Yuma which seems to be the warmest, or least cold, area in this corner of the country. My usual location is about 30 miles northwest of Yuma in the California desert.
It's mostly BLM land as you drive up Ogilby Road and it's free and I can always find some camping without any neighbors. Perfect. The photos below are from a site off Road #766, a little-used trail but good enough.
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| desert tortoise visitor, CA 12.2025 |
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| under a big sky, CA 12.2025 |
That was 2025, from way down south in Oaxaca, Mexico all the way north to Stowe, Vermont and all the way back out west to Yuma, AZ. Lots of driving, about 16,000 miles. Time for a break, maybe.
Three books I liked this year: The Last Policeman, by Ben Winters, Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson, The Greatest Beer Run Ever by John Donohue.
THE END
