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On August 20th 2018 we flew out of Sydney to Honolulu where we stayed in Waikiki before flying to Los Angeles, in the process narrowly avoiding landfall of category 5 "Hurricane Lane".
From Los Angeles we flew directly on to Seattle for 3 nights then we flew to Spokane where our driving holiday would begin, our first time driving on the other side of the road. Cautiously we set off to drive to Whitefish overnight and from there across to Glacier National Park.
Our plans of driving over the entire 'Going to the Sun Road' were dashed when serious bushfires broke out along that road. Consequently we were forced to drive around the bottom of the National Park and up to Babb for our first night in Glacier National Park. After a visit to Two Medicine, St Mary and Many Glacier Lakes we took a trip up to Waterton Lakes National Park then headed south east to Great Falls, Bozeman and Nye in Montana.
The next leg via the Beartooth Highway, Chief Joseph Byway took us to to Cody then to Gardiner in Yellowstone National Park. After 5 days in Yellowstone we turned south to the Teton Mountain National Park then on to Salt Lake City before flying to Denver.
In Denver we immediately jumped into our second hire car and drove the long drive to Sundance, just west of the Black Hills of South Dakota. After visiting The Devils Tower, Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse and lots more we then headed east to the Badlands National Park, west of Rapid City and then via Scotts Bluff to Estes Park at the top of the Rocky Mountains National Park. From Estes Park we drove across Trail Ridge Road, the highest sealed highway in the USA to Grand Lake. From Grand Lake we drove through Independence Pass to Vail and on to Aspen. After a visit to the Grand Canyon of the Gunnison we took the Million Dollar Highway to Ouray, Silverton and Durango. The fall colour on the Million Dollar Highway section was perhaps the most colourful and scenic part of the whole trip.
Mesa Verde National Park was our next port of call then south into New Mexico to Shiprock and Four Corners , the junction of Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado before heading back up north to Mexican Hat, the Goosenecks State Park and on to Canyonlands and Arches National Parks.
From Moab, in Arches National Park, we headed to Green River and the Goblins State Park and on to Capitol Reef National Park before heading across to Richfield then down to Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks and across via Escalante National Park to Page, Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon. The last days of our trip saw us visit the Navajo Bridge, Marble Canyon, the Vermillion Cliffs and across to St George and Snow Canyon.
We'd previously done a couple of other big trips to the west coast including to Sedona the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Olympic National Park and the West Coast beaches of California.
From St George we headed to Las Vegas and caught a flight to San Francisco for a few days, visiting Muirs Woods National Park and Alcatraz before flying home to Sydney.
All up the trip driving distance was well over 10,000 km in two 'All Wheel Drive' hire cars. The trip saw us pass through 13 states including Hawaii, Washington,Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California.
We really enjoyed driving in the USA despite the initial unfamiliarity of driving on the right side of the road.
We found American drivers, patient and courteous and saw none of the road rage we so sometimes see at home in Australia.
We found Americans very friendly, courteous and helpful in every situation where we needed assistance.
All our mid priced accommodation was for the most part excellent although the motel breakfasts were often served with higher sugar content that we were used to in Australia.
We travelled through mostly 'red states' so we expected we would find plenty of support for Donald Trump, as we in fact did, but in many places a vocal dislike of him and his policies was also evident.
Our time in the USA fortunately was just prior to Trump's 'Government Shutdown' as we may have experienced some inconvenience in National Parks had we visited a few months later. It was an interesting time to be in America and we would return in a heartbeat, next time to visit New York, Washington, Boston and the fall colour in Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts.
The full trip route, blogs, and photos can be viewed at -
Black Diamond Images Polarsteps
According to Polarsteps we travelled 43,714 kilometres in our 47 days away. Of course that includes a couple of very long flights.
All USA Trip 2018 Images
HERE
