"I Wish I Could Go Travelling Again". Stacey Kent, Breakfast on the Morning Tram (2007)
The daily rummage through my map box has, perhaps inevitably, triggered nostalgia for past road trips.
Two of my favourite road trips were in North America - only six months apart. Firstly joining up a series of National Parks in and around the Rockies in the US in September 2006, then driving between Vancouver and Athabasca in northern Alberta in Canada in April 2007.
The first trip was entirely vacation, and the second (mostly, -ish) a work trip.
The US trip was very vaguely planned - hotels were booked a day in advance and the standard dinner conversation theme was 'where do we go tomorrow?'. The Canadian trip was booked in advance (couldn't be late for the various work meetings in Vancouver, Edmonton and Athabasca) with quite a lot of guess work about how long the driving was going to take each day, given that April is still snow season in that part of Canada. My one real concession to the weather was renting a 4x4 truck rather than a standard 2-wheel drive compact we had for the US trip.
The US trip started (and finished) at Denver airport, and meandered through Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, the Dakotas and Nebraska, and featured time in Rocky Mountain, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Glacier and Badlands National Parks plus Devils Tower and Scotts Bluff National Monuments - and at Mount Rushmore. And to ensure a taste of genuine Americana, the list of hotels included Comfort Inns, Quality Inns, Days Inns, Best Westerns plus a variety of Motel 6s and Super 8s. And once we got back to Denver Airport (not in the original car - it gave up the ghost somewhere in rural Montana) we'd clocked up just under 3000 miles.
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| Yellowstone National Park |
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| Grand Teton National Park |
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| Glacier National Park (the US one) |
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Mount Rushmore
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| Devils Tower / Bear Lodge Butte |
The Canadian trip started with a few days in a waterside hotel in Vancouver (conference venue) - just round the waterfront from Stanley Park and in a room with an awesome view across the Coal Harbour marina. By virtue of good planning the next meeting was in Edmonton three days later which gave me plenty of time to drive the 1300 km, stopping off in Revelstoke and Lake Louise en route (passing through Mt Revelstoke, Glacier, Yoho and Banff National Parks). After Edmonton a short (by Canadian standards) drive north to Athabasca. Next confirmed stop after that was to drop off the rental truck back at Vancouver Airport - but the opportunity to spend a couple of days around the Jasper National Park wasn't one to be passed up (although I did manage to resist the temptation to head up the 'scenic route to Alaska', maybe next time). By the time I dropped the truck off at the airport I'd clocked up just over 2000 miles.
