California
Of all the states I've visited, I like California best (1,
2,
3).
That's one of the reasons why I choose to live here. I love the ocean,
although I don't spend enough time there. At least this trip allowed
me to spend a few days driving along the coast with lots of time to be
near the ocean. After getting fried on the southern leg of my trip
and nearly frozen on the northern end, I also appreciate the climate we
have in the Bay Area more.
California is big, especially when driving north to south. There
are many, many wonderful roads for driving a sports car. The state
probably has more variety than any other state, with ocean, desert, mountains,
big cities, and small towns. If I had to pick one state to spend
all of my time in, just based on this trip, it would still be California.
I feel fortunate to be able to live here.
Nevada
I manage to drive across Nevada on I-80
several times a year heading to Utah and Idaho. The good part about
that is that the speed limit is 75 most of the way. The bad part
is that there's basically nothing to see for the entire 400+ miles of that
trip. For this trip, I got to see a part of the state I had
never seen before. I wanted to stay away from Las Vegas and stay
off of I-15 as much as possible. This led me to the scenic route
along Lake Mead, which was truly a wonderful road.
With only 30 miles of freeway in the 200+ miles I drove in Nevada, I
mostly enjoyed driving through the state. Highway 95 on the southern
end was a smooth high-speed two-lane road with only a few small towns to
slow down travel. In Nevada, if you're not on the freeway, you get
to drop down to 25 mph whenever you come to a town. That's okay,
because it doesn't take long to get through them, even at that slow speed.
Utah
I
entered and left Utah three different times (1,
2,
3).
I don't like Utah drivers and I vote them the worst in the west.
That's the only place where someone honked at me for breaking the speed
limit as I went by, and I was less than 5 mph over the limit at
the time. I don't know what it is that makes them more rude than
drivers in other states, but many other people feel the same way.
However, the scenery in Utah makes it a state worth visiting anyway.
Southern Utah is just loaded with spectacular rock formations. I've
seen many pictures of Utah scenery, but nothing can compare with being
there live and in person. The Wasatch Mountains are beautiful any
time of the year. The roads through the mountains throughout the
state are great to drive on, as long as you don't encounter too many "Utah
drivers". I drove a lot of miles in Utah and enjoyed nearly all of
them.
Arizona
Technically, I entered and left Arizona
four times, but walking across Hoover Dam
hardly counts, the little piece of I-15 between Mesquite, Nevada and St.
George, Utah can't count for much, and the little piece of 160 and 64 in
the Four Corners area just barely
touches the state. So, I only seriously entered Arizona once from
Fredonia down to the Grand Canyon, then back to Utah at Monument Valley.
Most of the roads I drove on in Arizona were high speed two-lane roads.
Highway 89 has a lot more traffic than the other roads, but most of them
were interesting to drive on. Even though all I saw was desert in
Arizona, I liked being there.
New Mexico
I
drove for less than 50 miles in New Mexico,
which isn't enough to properly judge the place. Basically, I drove
to Shiprock, decided I had seen enough, and headed straight for Colorado.
The only thing I can say for sure, is that drivers in New Mexico seem to
ignore the speed limits more than anywhere else I've been in the country,
and that includes 21 states so far in the year 2001. I got passed
by everybody; 20 year old pickup trucks, old beater cars, and even
a semi carrying earth moving equipment. I don't mind, as long as
they don't slow down later and hold me up, and I never caught back up with
any of them. Maybe being on an indian reservation had something to
do with it. They also had some of the worst pavement I saw on the
trip between Shiprock and the Colorado border. I'm not judging New
Mexico until I can go back and see more of it first.
Colorado
I've been to Colorado several times,
mostly along I-25 near Denver and on the Western edge. I've heard
many people talk about the magnificent mountains there. Well, maybe
I just haven't seen the right parts of the state yet, but so far I haven't
been all that impressed. I find the mountains in Utah and
Wyoming much more beautiful. I took an extra detour along Highway
145 past Telluride just to get up in the Colorado mountains, and it's one
of the few roads I drove on that I would not take if I were to take this
trip again.
Also, what's up with the Colorado welcome signs? They say "Welcome to Colorful Colorado", but they're the most drab signs I've seen, by far, of the 21 state signs I've photographed for my state sign collection.
I'm willing to give Colorado another chance before passing final judgement,
though.
Idaho
I
went through just two little pieces of Idaho (1,
2),
since I've seen much of the state, having relatives there as well as kids
who have attended college in the state. I enjoy being in the mountain
farm country and going through all of the small farming communities in
Eastern Idaho. It was a little bit annoying to have all speed limits
instantly drop by 10 mph when crossing from Montana to Idaho in the north.
Wyoming
About half of the driving in Wyoming was
within National Park boundaries. Every single mile was designated
as scenic route. Western Wyoming is all beautiful mountains and forests.
In fact, I consider the Teton range to be some of the most beautiful mountains
I've seen anywhere. I greatly enjoyed driving in Wyoming.
Montana
Montana
is a BIG STATE. Most of what I drove through was as flat as the Midwest,
but with mountains off in the distance. Most of the trip was on Highway
89, the same road that goes all the way to Arizona. This is a two-lane
road for most of its length and one of the roads I enjoyed most of all,
except for the road construction. I had really wanted to stay off
of dirt roads, to keep my car cleaner and to keep from getting rock chips.
However, I drove on between 20 and 30 miles of dirt with the road construction.
Still, it's kind of fun cruising along through the rolling hills at about
85 mph with the top down. However, if it weren't for Glacier National
Park, I would choose to drive through less of Montana.
People also smoke too much in Montana. One restaurant in a small
town didn't even have a non-smokine section. I guess California non-smokers
are spoiled, since you can't even smoke in a bar there.
Washington
I purposely skipped Seattle and entered Washington
at Port Angeles. It was almost entirely forest and logging country.
The Washington coast is beautiful and a highly recommended place to visit.
However, if your sympathies lie towards the Sierra Club or GreenPeace,
you'll probably not like the place. The economy is based on logging
and they go out of their way let you know what a "good thing" logging is.
I just wish they could have left about 100 feet of trees along the roads
instead of logging right up to the roads. The logged out areas are
not nice to look at for about 10 years, until the new trees grow up and
cover the leftover stumps and branches.
Oregon
Oregon
is a lot like Washington, but a bit more open and with more towns along
the coast. Also, more of Highway 101 is right along the coast in
Oregon than in Washington, so you get to see more ocean. There is
also more traffic in Oregon than in Washington, which makes it much harder
to pass slower cars, because there are fewer chances with so much oncoming
traffic. Oregon is also the only place I know of where you're not
allowed to put gas in your own car, someone at the gas station has to do
it for you.
British Columbia
The license plates say "Beautiful British Columbia"
and, other than a few parts of Vancouver City, I didn't find anything to
contradict that. There is just a different feeling in British Columbia
than anywhere in the Western United States. The small towns are organized
differently, in narrow valleys with houses up the hillsides. The
roads could be marked a little better, since this is the only place I thought
I was lost. It turns out I was going the right direction, but I wasn't
sure for almost half an hour. As long as you can deal with kilometers,
liters, and Canadian dollars, it's a great place to visit. I'm glad
I decided to drive north of the border as much as possible.
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Copyright (c), 2001 by Scott R. Nelson
Page last updated July 16, 2001
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