Postscript

Western Parks and Forests Postscript

So the sun sets on another American Road Trip and another review, the Western Parks and Forests Postscript. 2770 miles with some great memories made and sights witnessed. Once I left Seattle the first part of the trip until Yosemite would have to be classed as disappointing from a scenic and driving perspective. There was little to get excited about for the most part apart from a few sections of US-395 S. I’m glad I did it because as mentioned on earlier pages, I regularly read news and travel site articles eulogising over US-395 as a great drive or road trip. But I’m afraid I’d have to disagree, certainly on the sections I drove.

Tunnel View at Yosemite

Yosemite however was mind-blowing. I think live baseball is not for me but the 49ers game was a highlight again although subsequently the season as a whole became a bit of a disaster. Sequoia National Park and Joshua Tree National Park were both awesome. The weather was for the most part excellent, and thankfully no rain. Just a pity about the heatwave in October forcing a change of plan for Death Valley.

I can’t see at this point how I can try to get there again but I need to give it some thought. Palm Springs was just too hot, hot, hot. Most of my time in San Diego was excellent, the Coronado Walking Tour less so. But this visit has given me more information about what more I can see and do in the city on a future visit. Hopefully I get back there sometime.

Thankfully there were no car troubles this year, apart from an initial minor tire pressure adjustment. I do seem to have a few learning points to reflect on after this year. My research on bars for dinner let me down a few times, with some places closed on the day I visited or distances that were too far to walk in the evening. Hotels all turned out OK although room prices have increased sharply. I think I had a good run with meeting people in bars, better than some previous trips. As ever I thought some evenings would be ‘quiet’, and they were, but that’s to be expected at times.

Overall I got to tick off a lot of the places that were on my ‘must see’ list. I just needed some karma to come together in a coherent way that flowed logically into a road trip, without too many transition or ‘dead’ days. And that worked out fine. Great trip!