Highlights and Lowlights from the Rogue Trip

Is there such a thing as a good fight? Yep, when it leads to this :)

If you've been following the stories on this page for the last few weeks, you know that I just completed at 13 day road trip consisting of: 12 states, 5 national parks, 1 national monument, 1 national recreational area, and 2 'other' monuments. The trip was amazing and in many ways life-altering. I did it all with the help of a co-pilot, my recently designated ex-girlfriend. Although the relationship hit the rocks, I can't tell these stories without mentioning her so with every one, I do have the not so enjoyable experience of reliving some tough times. That being said, I still haven't worked myself up to telling the truly sad stories I expect out of the second part of the campground hunting experience so we'll keep it a little light for now. Here are some of the highlights and lowlights from the trip:

Best National Park Experience (Redwoods National & State Parks): Let me start by saying that every one of the parks that we visited was gorgeous. I would recommend each of them and hope to revisit them all some day for a longer stay. This is solely about the experience. Redwoods was amazing. I'll admit I'm a little biased because I nerded out a little during this stop. I have wanted to go to Redwoods since I was in elementary school and read about it in one of those weekly news handouts we used to get (I'm sure they're on iPads these days). This was the part of the trip I was waiting for and it exceeded my expectations. I'm pretty sure I weirded the co-pilot out a little when I just stood there with my hand on one of the tree roots for about five minutes just breathing the air and thinking about how long the tree had been here before me and how long it will stand after I'm gone. I've already decided I will be making a trip back sometime within the next year to spend more than a few hours among the giants.

Worst National Park Experience (Yosemite): Again, nothing to do with the beauty of the park. I hope to go back again some day to visit again. The drawback to this stop was the day we chose to see it. The Sunday of 4th of July weekend probably wasn't a great choice. The park was too crowded and the added issue of one of the lanes in Yosemite Valley being restricted due to firefighting activity led to a terrible experience. We were able to get out for a quick hike to view Bridal Veil Falls, but couldn't find any parking to view Yosemite Falls. We spent hours just trying to get through the loop on the valley floor. I tried to get some enjoyment out of the experience by stopping the car before we exited the park to set up our camping chairs in a meadow and eat some sandwiches and Doritos. I loved the view during this time, but the co-pilot was so frustrated by the experience it was impossible to salvage.

Best Stretch of Road (Entering Colorado): Alright so there might be a reason I enjoyed this stretch so much and that reason is that the stretch from Mount Rushmore through South Dakota and Wyoming until Colorado is terrible. Driving through the Rockies after coming out of deserted areas was spectacular. The mountain view were gorgeous. We zig-zagged across the Colorado River at least 4 times by my count. Every time it was beautiful.

Worst Stretch of Road (South Central and Southeastern Oregon): To be fair, South Western Oregon is quite beautiful and from previous travel experiences I loved the Northern half of the state. The South Central Part and Southeastern part are desolate wastelands. This was also one of the biggest surprises for me. Growing up in North Dakota, I thought I knew boring roads but these areas made ND look great in comparison. At least in ND there is a farmhouse near the road every 5 miles or so. These areas of Oregon don't seem to show any sign of human life, but plenty of rabbit life. I'm proud to say I didn't hit any of them but I did find myself driving extremely slow to avoid all of them at points.

Best Outside of Park Experience: After leaving Yellowstone, I have to say I think the area outside of the park may be more beautiful than the area within. Exiting on the Cooke City, MT side of the park we saw a family of 4 bison calmly strolling next to the road. But that was just the start of it, we would discover our own private waterfall, mountain goats, beautiful snow runoff lakes, snow patches and a gorgeous sunset over the Rockies.

Worst Outside of Park Experience:  I hate to pick on Yosemite because it really is an amazing place, but trying to find a campground outside of the park was a nightmare. Again, this is probably our fault for going over the 4th of July weekend. But every campground within 20 miles of the park was full. After searching for hours, we finally just set our tent up in the woods just outside of a campground that had posted the "Campground Full" sign. Never go to Yosemite on a holiday weekend without a reservation, unless you're willing to put up with some terribleness.

Worst Fight of the Trip:  A couple on the road for 13 days is going to fight. I think there might be something wrong with the two people involved if they didn't. For us, I think the worst fight came on the 3rd day, when I didn't stop at a Chevron to get coffee. She claims I hadn't passed it yet. I still claim that I was already getting on the freeway when she even brought up the topic. Honestly, I don't know who was right. It occurred while we were leaving Valley of Fire in Nevada and heading to Las Vegas. I figured everything would be fine because I planned to stop at a Starbucks in Vegas (less than 30 minutes away) so we could use the WiFi. The 30 minutes of incredibly uncomfortable silence would prove me very wrong. She got mad. I asked why. I said we passed it already. She said we didn't. I called her a "nutcase" and immediately wished I could take it back. We sat quietly across from each other pounding away at our laptops until we had calmed down. We both realized we have 10 more days to survive together.

Best Fight of the Trip: How can there be a "best" fight? Well this fight led us to the "private waterfall" I mentioned earlier. We got stuck in traffic at Yellowstone. I got a little road-ragey when drivers started getting out of their cars in the middle of the road and yelled "Don't get out of the car!" I still don't really know if I was directing it at the other drivers or at her because she was getting ready to get out of the car. Either way she took it as me yelling at her, yelled back "I'll do what I want!" and I replied "Okay, yeah go ahead" because I recognized the tone in her voice. When she got back in the car the awkward silence set in again. It continued until we left the park. Finally, I broke it by asking what was wrong. She said it showed my angry side and she was afraid it might get worse in the future. I apologized but the silence continued. Finally, I pulled off to the side of the road and got out of the car. I asked her to stop looking at the dashboard and start looking at the scenery around us. My point was to stop dwelling on the negative, but I will say I probably didn't do a great job of not being upset while I was doing that. I'm pretty sure my statements included "Look at all this beautiful f***ing scenery!" and some other expletives. I decided to take a cool down walk while she stayed in the car. That's when I discovered the "private waterfall" with a bridge that overlooked it. I still can't believe no one else was there. When she finally joined me, it was a special moment. I don't know of too many times in life when I've seen something so beautiful and I was glad she was there with me.

Best Relationship Moment: A road trip like this is obviously not just about the sights. There is a certain level of bonding that two people will go through. We may not be together today, but I have to say some of the happiest moments of the trip were shared childhood experiences. The first came when we ended up in Merced, CA, a city where she had spent her middle school years. After she told me she lived there I wanted to find something that would bring back memories. We tried finding her old home, but it no longer stood. We were ready to leave town when by chance we came across her old middle school. The look of happiness on her face and hearing her talk about happy childhood memories isn't something I had experienced much during the relationship. I'm not too macho to say it brought me to tears. On my end, I loved showing her my hometown. We drove up and down the streets and with every turn of a corner there was another memory. This isn't something I've ever been able to share with someone I was dating, so it was special to me.

Worst Relationship Moment: Let's also call this the Biggest Shock. As anyone who knows how the story ended would probably suspect, the worst moment came after the trip had ended. The end of the trip spelled the end for us. For 13 days we spent almost every waking hour side-by-side. In the end it only took a few hours of not being in each other's presence for things to come unraveled. This kind of sums up the relationship the co-pilot and I had. When we were together the relationship was strong, but as soon as separation was introduced the struggle began. I don't know why it was so tough to hold it together when we were apart. Most people would think 13 days together would be the relationship kiss of doom. For us, it was half a day apart.