Our first roadtrip adventure took us up the Pacific Coast on The Pacific Coast Highway and US 101, a glorious ribbon of coastal pavement that weaves up nearly two thousand miles of rocky shoreline. No highway will ever be as precious to us as that was, so we’ve decided that our next roadtrip should simply avoid them.
How hard could it be?
For this adventure, we’ll set out from Sacramento, headed for Salt Lake City by way of Las Vegas. We will pass by Lake Tahoe, Yosemite National Park, Death Valley, Lake Mead, Valley of Fire State Park, the north rim of the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, and Capitol Reef.
The route we’ve planned prioritizes BLM (Bureau of Land Management), Forest Service, and park service roads which are largely unpaved or listed as “primitive.” Further, Yosemite will likely still be covered in snow with its primary pass road closed, Death Valley is largely unpaved, and the roads into the northwestern part of the Grand Canyon are described by a Park Service website that could be summarized simply as, “please don’t try to drive here.”
So we’re thinking off-road capable vehicles for this undertaking. Bumbles, the Alfa, and the Pickup will have to stay behind.
Naturally, we’ll be doing another Top Gear-inspired “Cheap Car Challenge” to find the perfect companions for our antics: buy used cars over the Internet for a pittance, drive them over a long distance (meandering routes preferred) while being hilariously abusive to each other, and competing to see who got the best deal (measured largely on strength of personality).
The second Great Roadtrip begins the evening of Friday, May 12th. Yet again, I’ll be documenting the whole journey here. We’re excited to have you along for the ride.