Chapter 7 – West US Road Trip


After 3545km / 2200 miles of dust, dirty roads and endless uphills, on 31 August we finally reached Santa Fe and celebrated the end of the Divide!

We spent the first day chilling out and recovering, the second day wondering around this beautiful artistic and colourful town, and the last day getting ready for the next chapter.


We would fly back on 28 August from Los Angeles, and decided to spend the remaining month on a road trip visiting the most touristy places in West US. We draw an itinerary based on the recommendations we gathered along the way.


We were worried it would have taken ages and a lot of headache to get sorted but, again, everything went smooth and in one day we were ready. First we rented a car (Dude) from Enterprise and got a free lunch due to 5 min waiting. Then we got a bike ruck from The Broken Spoke in Santa Fe (great shop and amazing people) had it mounted in 10 min and got away with a couple of beers. Finally we went to REI to get the last few things, and raided the supermarket for a week worth of food. Having a car makes life much easier in terms of logistics, we could even afford to get a huge bottle of shower cream...the luxuries of life! The downside was having all the stuff scattered in the car and not being able to find anything anymore...

All happy and settled we set off toward Colorado, by far the best State we visited. Following Lynn and Jim's recommendation, we decided to go to Durango and get the Million Dollar Highway up to Ouray, which turned out to be the best bit of the trip.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_550

The road twists itself up and down high Passes and offers great views. Most important, while reading a local brochure in a gas station in Durango, I was about to faint when I realised that we would pass through Silverton, the start or final destination of the Hardrock 100, one of the most challenging endurance running races I've ever heard of. All my heroes have been there kissing the ending rock, for me it felt like visiting a holy place!

http://hardrock100.com/

Apart from this, the village itself is a gem in a sea of mountains, full of character, endless trekking opportunities and with a Western / mountain charm that makes it unique. We spent both days trekking and both walks brought us up to heaven.

The first day it was an 8 mile hike to Iced Lake – 3840m. After a steep climb we reached a beautiful meadows with flowers as tall as myself.

On the second day we were feeling the tiredness from the previous day but slowly we walked up the 8 miles to Columbine Lake – 3882m – and again were rewarded with stunning views. 

Once back we drove the 20miles to Ouray, another cute village along the scenic highway, and understood the meaning of the t-shirts “I survived the Million Dollar Highway”...some bits were scaring to death, no guardrail and steep cliffs...glad it was not iced and glad we were not cycling it!

This was our farewell to Colorado. The day after we headed to Moab, Utah, the base camp for the Arches National Park exploration. 
 

The road has been scenic all the way, hilly and varied. We arrived in Moab at 1pm with 40 degrees, melting and overheated we waited until 5pm to go and explore the Park. This was a very good call, going later meant less people, free entrance and a more human temperature.

From the very entrance we were impressed by the colours and shapes of these huge pillars, like sculptures randomly scattered around. As a starter we walked up to Delicate Arch, the most famous. 
 

 The day after we opted for an early start to beat crowds and heat. We woke up at 5am and explored the other arches (Landscape, Double O, Partition and Navajo) down to the Dark Angel. It was a beautiful quite morning and we enjoyed being alone.

In the afternoon we drove 30m to Dead Horse Point, the best view ever was waiting for us there, and although it was raining, the rain fitted perfectly and added to the drama of this vast and inspiring place. 
 

Next stop was Bryce Canyon National Park, where we would spend the next 3 days, although it can easily be visited in 2 days. Bryce is not as big and impressive as Arches, but it was much cooler, cold at times (when we woke up the first morning it was freezing cold and we dived in the car to go and look for coffee) and we found some good trekking too.

We started with the Fairyloop trail, 8m of wonder. The colours, pillars, light, shapes, it did feel like being in a fairy tale, reminding at times of the Sagrada Familia and the Terracotta Army.

The next trek was a combination of the queen Garden, Peekaboo (there I've decided there that my next bicycle will be called Peekaboo) and the Navajo trail, the latter being by far the best bit, a zig zag trail up huge hoodoos.
 

We then had a drive along the park to checkout the other points and planning the next days to come.

The biggest surprise of the trip, as expected, was the Great Canyon, but not for its splendour and infinity, on the contrary it will be remembered for...it absence! We got there in torrential rain and everything was covered in clouds. We were planning to spend a couple of days but we hardly spent 2 hours. We got in the car park, went out 5 min and returned soaking wet. The solution was easy: Las Vegas! 
 

The idea of spending a few days in the comforts of a big city, after so much wilderness, was very appealing. Vegas was burning hot, smaller than what we expected, and with enough attractions to entertain an army.

We spent the days leisurely walking along the Strip, and in the evenings the Cirque do Soleil (Zarkana and Love) made us dream with colours, vitality, lightness and craziness. Loved both shows, especially Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtn3m7F4Vog


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfTL2I8_TGE

Big mistake, don't go to a buffet lunch...

Vegas was a good break but I'm not sure I'd have managed to survive it for more than 3 days. The mountains were calling again, this time towards California, our last state in the list. Before getting there we wanted to experience the thrill of a true desert, so we passed through Death Valley. The car thermometer kept going up until it reached 47 degrees. Walking in that heat is something I don't think I want to do again, the fresh air of the mountains is much more appealing to me.

 We finished the day camping in a beautiful spot in the upper Mammoth Lake and thinking of some trekking and cycling around the lakes. We started the day with a trek to Duck Lake, it was not steep and we only gained 530m, but reached a decent 3270m which always feels good. We then ended the day with a cycle around the lake. Taking the bikes after so much time felt weird but they were happy to go for a stroll. 
 

California is on fire. Nobody seems to remember when was the last time it rained. Someone said since last winter (8 months ago??) someone even said 4 years. Flowers and plants are burnt, the dry and hot air burning. Water restrictions are in place almost everywhere and the clouds of smoke from the fires are visible from miles. The original plan was to go to Yosemite but the road was closed due to fires. We decided to go up to Lake Tahoe and spent a few days there before reaching the Pacific Coast.

After a log drive we reached South Lake Tahoe and had some bad time to find our way around (as usual, no road sign whatsoever). We finally found a spot in the Fallen Leak Campsite (voted the best one, nice indeed!) and had many squirrels and Stellar Jays to visit our site.

After a chill out day, we spent the other day first cycling up the Fallen Leaf lake, then walking to the Gilmore Lake. We were planning a longer hike but then decided to take it easy as the day after it would have been a long drive to the coast, quite exiting.

That was unexpected. You think of California as beaches and sun, then, after 7h drive from sunny Lake Tahoe we arrived in Scotland, with fog and cold landscapes all around. This was Point Reyes. We first drove the endless road to the Lighthouse, walked the 300 steps hoping to spot whales and seals but we could only hear them.
 

will never complain about the Scottish wind again

On the way back we saw our first coyote walking down the road with a careless look, then after 2 turns there was a strong marjuana smell (a field maybe?), we thought the coyote got stunned as he was way too chilled out, on the way back we kept our nostrils open to find the field but it was gone.

The campsite was on the beach and to be reached on foot or bike only. We put on all our clothes, some stuff in the panniers and rode the 3 miles to it. It felt like cycling in Scotland! The beer on the beach was cold and quick and we soon looked for shelter and warmth in our tent. 

The next morning we woke up early and cycled back in no time. At 7.30 we were already in the car driving South on the Hw 1 towards Muir Woods redwood forest, the most contorted road ever! We got there before the opening and had a fantastic morning walk in the wood. By the time we got back, the path and car park were mobbed. The line of cars parked by the side of the road was ridiculous, glad we made it there before the crowds. 
 

We then rejoined the Hw1 towards San Francisco entering from the Golden Gate bridge. Again, we had a lot of expectation for San Francisco but it was quite a disappointing experience: fog, cars and so many homeless people. We didn't have a map of the city and had to find our hotel based on the map I draw the day before from Google map, amazingly we reached it without any problem. The amount of traffic was driving me crazy. 
 

The day after we went to explore the city hoping our first impression of it was wrong and biased by tiredness. Heading to Pier 39 we stopped to have our air cuts at a Chinese woman who hardly understood English...at least it's still the same colour!

We then reached the pier and were delighted to see the colony of sea lions who apparently moved after an earthquake in 1989 and stayed there since. They were so joyful and never stopped messing around (some of them at least, half of them were on siesta mode). This is by far the best memory of San Francisco.

We then kept going to Lombard St, then for a view of the Golden Gate, Chinatown and wondered around a bit more. With the sun the city looked better, still, I'd never live there.

We had high expectations for California but they were punctually frustrated. The draught may have something to do with it, but I have the feeling that they just did a good job at creating a dream out of dust. The landscapes are not that spectacular, cars are everywhere and most sadly, in order to go anywhere (and sometimes just to cross a road) you need a car. All the system is based on cars and cheap patrol. No public transport, all the cities designed on cars, the day they run out of patrol all the system will collapse, which I guess explain a lot of their foreign policy.

Next stop was Big Sur, we heard so much about its dramatic beauty that couldn't wait to get there, but, again, it was somehow disappointing. The ocean smashing against the rocks is indeed a good view, but nothing that unique or spectacular, we both thought that the Mediterranean has much better views to offer. As for the sea life that's a different story!

We spent a night camping at the Kirk Creek Campground, highly praised for its location on the Ocean. In the afternoon we went up for a walk in the back hills, hoping to get a good view on the coast line. The trek was not that great, but amazingly while going down we heard this loud “pfffff” and there was a whale. We hoped to see more but they kept hiding from us. Then in the evening we went down the shore. When I lifted my head from my book I saw 2 heads swimming and asked Paul “are those scuba divers?” It turned out they where 2 seals, and a sea otter was not far away from them feeding. That was the most joyful scene that California gave us.

Sea otter spotted

This is how you clean a glass when you have no water apart from the one in the glass (that you also want to drink) and your hands are dirty. Don't ask about the pans.

The cutest poppy ever

On our way to LA we stopped at Piedras Blancas for more sea life, here is what we found!

Arrived in LA after driving through Santa Monica, Santa Barbara and Malibu (again, we can't really understand what's all the fuss about those places) we started to get organised for the fly back. We were worried it would have taken us ages to get appropriate boxes for the bikes and to drag them around to the airport, but had a lot of luck and sorted out everything soon and with no stress. We first went to REI where we got 2 HUGE boxes (we swapped them for our bear sprays and bear bag, cutely presented in a six pack Blue Moon cardboard), folded them in the car, packed everything in 1h, sealed, and used the free shuttle to the airport.

The return has been long but somehow it passed quickly. We spent a night in Copenhagen (night? day? What's time anyway?) and arrived in Edinburgh on a sunny Sunday afternoon. We decided the easiest way to get all the stuff home would be to cycle back from there. In 1/2h the bikes were assembled again and all the panniers on, the fresh autumn air and the fading sun gave us the best welcome back.