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Disclaimer: No tripod used in any of these photos.
Photos from a road trip over 16 days in May 2024. It was also my first scenic road trip in the US.
I started the trip from San Jose, CA in a car. To begin, I followed I-80 eastbound.
Soon I reached the Sierra Nevada mountains:
The west side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains is considerably greener, easily because of its terrain and the Pacific from which moist wind originates. This gradient happens within a mere 30 miles. The two photos above are only 15 miles apart and both look to the east. Quite a difference for me; I grew up in the biggest monsoon system in the world, east Asia.
Greet the Great Basin, an arid region scattered with small mountain ranges that characterize the more general Basin and Range Province. These ranges have a peak elevation of over 3000 meters. Grass plains and dry salt lakes fill the gap between these ranges. The biggest dry salt lake is of course in Utah, and I visited it a few hours later.
Spoiler? These ranges in Nevada look mostly the same. There are a dozen ranges on I-80, give or take depending on what you count as a mountain range. And on I-80, it takes 5.5 hours to cross the state of Nevada.
Every mountain pass in Nevada will give you a photo like this:
See dirty spots? There were about three hundred dead insects on the windshield, very difficult for any photographer to avoid. Nevada isn’t a wasteland; your suburb is.
Many of these ranges are snowy. Pictured below is Sonoma Range, viewed from I-80 Nevada Mile 190. The freeway makes its way right around many such ranges, resulting in close views like this one. There are fewer mountain crossings than what I expected.
Regardless, I-80 has no shortage of distant views of mountains, accompanying vast grasslands rather than human development. View from Nevada Mile 259:
Perhaps the best view of a mountain you can have on this route is of Ruby Mountains around Mile 321. This mountain range contains peaks of over 1500 meters prominence. There are local roads in this area you can view and photograph from, in a quiet setting. I like the wide valleys in the Basin and Range Province; they give an open rather than restricted view, and I don’t need to be intimidated by vertical difference.
Proceeding east, my next stop was the great salt flat in Utah. Specifically, I went to the “Bonneville Salt Flat” near I-80 Mile 4. For a higher point of view, I could have gone to Wendover Viewpoint, West Wendover, Nevada, but my time was limited.
Blackfoot Reservoir accessed from ID-34 at 42.898, -111.533, where these photos were taken. The water level was high: it had just come to submerge some green grass on the bank, presumably because of spring season. Particularly, shallow water extended by nearly 2 kilometers in my direction compared to its typical level. I like there being land, water, and not much vegetation. (I should find Cambrian period Earth very appealing.) This was the most surreal moment in my trip, being close to high water and some low hills, in cold air.
Could Microsoft Surface Laptop 3, 4 and Windows 11 “Sunrise” wallpapers have been inspired by something similar?
I proceeded to the Teton Range area of Wyoming. The stretch of US-191 from Jackson to Moran was in a wide, open valley.
Teton Range is too jagged for my liking.
It only takes a short detour from US highway to visit Jackson Lake with the Teton Range behind it. This area was mostly stock scenery™️, for me.
Because of a road closure on US-191 into Yellowstone, I continued on US-26. It was a quick ascent in the first 25 miles, then some spectacles eastward from the continental divide. These jagged mountains were much of a déjà vu; I felt like they came from Canada or at least Montana.
Descending to the first town, Dubois, I was surprised by some Badlands-like formations. Intriguingly, they only exist on the north side of the road which runs along Wind River. The width of carved plateau increased as I continued to the east. The final photos in the gallery below were taken somewhere near coordinate 43.407, -109.348.
The remaining segment in Wyoming was a less colorful, less spectacular version of this Badland-ish carved plateau. I don’t think I need to visit the Badlands after this!
After running out of carved plateaus, I was approaching the middle of South Dakota, a land of nowhere.
More somewheres and nowheres loved by Midwesterners, considering I stayed here for three years.
Back to some mountains in Colorado! I crossed the majority of Rocky Mountains in this gloomy weather.
Vail really is a vacation resort on steroids, and I do not like resorts even though it was not resort season. So I avoided staying there and went a little farther to Eagle.
The next day, however, was totally clear.
I-70 has a segment between Dotsero and Glenwood Springs, CO in a steep, rocky canyon carved out by Colorado River. It is gray-brown rather than red. If you want to see a red canyon from below, perhaps UT-128 is a good choice. It also has free beaches in case you want to try the chilly and muddy Colorado River. There are a wide variety of geographic features along UT-128.
I visited Arches National Park in a hurry. Arches are not my type, but the park is fine.
The next morning I saw sunrise near Monument Valley. The actual Monument Valley is not on US-163, but is visible from around Forrest Gump Point. This location was filmed for the end of Forrest Gump, except the modern signs.
I can see why the Monument Valley is a sacred site.
The next stop I made was the Glen Canyon Dam, which forms a reservoir named Lake Powell. Although a lake on Colorado River, the water here is exceptionally clean, and I took a few drinks.
Most of the Lake Powell shore is managed by National Park Service and require a ticket. The shore I accessed, 36.950, -111.485, was outside of that area. Apparently if you are moderately bold you can swim to the paid Park area.
The artificial water level created a unique landscape without the typical vegetation around water. The rock shores are more appealing than beaches. Somehow I still liked Blackfoot Reservoir better.
I arrived in Las Vegas in the afternoon. Still cannot understand why people built a city in this desert.
Death Valley had a tiny bit of water left in it when I arrived, and there was a tiny amount of snow on top of Telescope Peak. However, it was 38 degrees Celsius on the lake bed.
Because CA-1 was closed along the central coast, I went to Monterey via the less interesting US-101.
I drove the allegedly legendary Santa Cruz Highway, CA-17. It was indeed a tough route. By official numbers, in many years an average of 2 traffic accidents happen per day.
The trip finally ended in San Jose, CA.