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Favorite Roads


mstar1
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And, by the way, how can I leave out the AlCan Highway? The AlCan is the Alaska/Canada Highway. I have driven it from mile zero at Dawson Creek all the way to Fairbanks. Many sections of the AlCan at the time I first drove it were in fact gravel stretches for hundreds of miles at a time. But it was big and wide, and at times I hit 85 mph on the gravel in my 79 T-Bird. Anyway, there is nothing like the AlCan. I have seen thousands of caribou along the road and crossing it too, while I had to wait for them, and I have seen moose, wolves, coyotes, ptarmigan, grouse, black bear and grizzlies too. And one time, incredibly, in the dead of winter, close to Destruction Bay near the banks of Kluane Lake (pronounced Kloo-wan-ee), we came across two wolverines fighting in the middle of the road! They didn't even stop fighting as we rolled up next to them and rolled down our windows! And finally, they stopped, looked up at us as if to say; "What?!" Then one of them scrambled up the embankment to the left, and the other ran in the direction we were going along side of us and then finally scrambled up the embankment. It was too cool! It has been said that many people have lived in Alaska and have still never seen a wolverine. And there it was, my wife, all my kids and I all saw these two fighting in the snow in the middle of the road, and they were only three feet away! Too cool. And to think that I had a video cam right there on the console, but I was too dumbfounded to use it, it was such a sight.

Yup, the AlCan is one road not to miss fore shore! Nuttin like it!

http://www.outwestnewspaper.com/akhwy.html

Edited by Jonny Lingo
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God I love the Alcan-i drove it when i was 18 in a 66 Plymouth Valiant and the road was all dirt and gravel. 5600 miles one way from my home near Boston. I had 17 cracks in the windshield and went through 4 headlights when I was done , but it was worth every mile. It was the first time this suburban boy had seen a lot of those wild critters or amazing views, vistas, and passes through British Columbia, and the Yukon up to Alaska. After the long journey through the wilds of Canada I was 'welcomed' to Alaska by a series of about 15 rainbows and views that seemed as long as eternity. It made a huge impression on my young mind.

Its been a long time goal to go back and do that again. Is it paved now? In those days it was common for sections of the road to wash out and for you to get stuck for a few days at a time while the road was being repaired, which was fine, it just was the way it was......

what a place

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Wow, this is a tough one.

As I'm from Michigan, I've got to say highway 22 up along the coast of the "little finger" from Sleeping Bear dunes to Northport has got some of the prettiest country I've ever seen. Great drive. Great small towns. Great burgers at Fishers Inn. (the half pound ground round is famous in that part of the State)

Then again, I lived a stones throw away from the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville, NC and drove it many, many times. I agree with others in that it's one of the nicest rides you can take.

Over all (and I know this doesn't count cuz it's not in the US) I would have to say south from Wesport to Greymouth on the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand has got them both beat! It's got everything. Ocean, tropical rainforest, decidous forest, snow capped moutains, flat streches, sheep, deer, cows, bell birds, seals, extremely well-maintained roads and virtually no traffic!

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California Hwy 1 south of Big Sur there is an outdoor restaurant (not great food) but the views and air are out of this world. The restaurant is called Nepenthe(sp?) and it sits in the giant the redwoods overlooking the Pacific Ocean 1500 ft below. The air is usually crisp (low 60's) but if the sun is not shrouded in fog it is very warming. The fragrence of the giant trees makes the experience even more surreal. Another favorite is US Hwy 287 going west out of Riverton Wyoming towards the Grand Tetons. You come up over a hill some 40-50 miles east of the Tetons and all of a sudden these spectacular moutains jump up out of the ground at you...it takes your breath away. Going out of the Northeast gate of Yellowstone on US Hwy 212 from Cooke City Montana to Red Lodge Montana is a stunner also. I could go on, but that will do for now.

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Most of the AlCan is paved now, but every summer, the only time to work on it, there are gravel detours while they work on the main stretch. Seems like it is mostly in Canadia where the work is always going on. Since my first time, which was in a 1966 Plymouth Valiant Signet (I kid you not! With the 225 slant six!), I haven't had to wait more than a couple of hours. But my first time, near Liard Hot Springs, I did have to wait 3/4s of a day. And so, I just went to the hot springs and soaked and watched the girls, some of them nekked! Yahoo! I love that kind of wild life too! :wink2:

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LOL---ah yes bringing back memories of the Hot Springs --its been over 30 years but I remember getting warmed to the bone -the very bone---and being relaxed as I have ever been in that springs----and being able to control the temperature by moving further one way up or down the springs--that was on my return trip and after about 2200 miles of bumpy gravel it was the absolute perfect spot for extreme relaxation...

I had taken apart and rebuilt my 225slant six (my more industrious and youthful days) took it on a two block 'test drive' , pronounced it OK, then packed and went for a five month drive to the farthest places I could see on the map with about 2 or 3 hundred in my pocket.... :biglaugh:

I liked being 18!---That was one incredible trip-1973 was really good to me

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Excellent topic, Mstar.

I love driving. When we lived in MD we would drive out hear to CO all the time. Of course we would pretty much do the straight shot with little sleep. But when you consider the time it takes to drive to the airport, deal with security and check-in, fly and deal with the airport at the other end and still drive to where ever you are going, the 26-27 hour drive was well worth it. I discovered that even Kansas on I-70 is a beautiful place.

Since JL piped in about Maryland, I must say that without a doubt the greatest highway I have ever been on is Seward Highway. It stretches from Anchorage to Seward driving through one of the worlds last great wildernesses. It travels along the Turnagain Arm (where the rushing tide can change 12' during the day) and down through the Kenai peninsula, where you can turn off any of the very few side roads and get lost forever, and be utterly content. The pictures on the link do not give it justice.

Since moving to CO my family has become Sunday drivers. We will just take a drive with no perticular destination and no perticular course and just explore the roads. It doesn't take much to get away around here. So when we want to talk or just chill we will take a drive. Damn those gas prices!

Anyway, many of the roads around here don't really get you anywhere other than somewhere else in CO, although taking the northern route you could take 14 out of Fort Collins and connect to Rt-40 and that will get you to Utah. Of course, Rt-40 was a transcontinetal highway. Much of it is burried under other larger highways now, but it is still around in some very scenic areas of CO and many other places.

We always take the back road to I-70 from Boulder. That takes you down 93 along the foothills and the Flatirons to Golden, home of Coors. From there we take rt-6 (also once a transcontinetal road going from MA to CA) through what I believe is called Clear Creek Canyon. It follows Clear Creek as you might suspect. Once you reach I-70 you have to continue on to the old mining town of Idaho Springs and stop in for pizza at Beau Jo's. It's the best.

One must-drive is Trail Ridge Road through Rocky Mountain National Park. It is the "highest continuous motorway in the United States, with more than eight miles lying above 11,000' and a maximum elevation of 12,183'." It is closed in the winter months so hit it in the spring and summer. Of course, up there it can snow on July 4th.

I could go on and on....

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Ya know Lindy,

I used to live in Kenai, and so, I made that trip up to and back from Anchorage many a time. Do you remember the "bore tides" of Turnagain Arm? Not only will there be a twelve foot tidal change in one day, but some times three to six feet of it will come in all at once in the form of a continous steady wave! A true "tidal wave", if you will. I have pictures of it, for I drove along side one when we were coming back from Anchorage once. I even took pictures. I think that people have actually surfed the bore tides of Turnagain Arm. Purdy dang cool. And, folks, for those who do not know, it is called "Turnagain" because when driving to and from Anchorage, one must drive an hour one way to the very eastern terminous of that "Arm" of the Cook Inlet, "turn again" back west and drive another hour in the opposite direction, making a one hour drive from Kenai to Anchorage a three hour drive. Purdy drive though, with Mountain Goats easily sited along the north wall.

http://www.wildnatureimages.com/Surfing%20Boar%20Tide.htm

A "blurb on bore tides: Northern Lights News Spring/Summer 2005 - 2006

Bore Tide

Turnagain Arm displays a fascinating natural phenomenon, a true tidal wave known as a bore tide that occurs when a rising tide enters a narrow and shallow basin. The Turnagain Arm bore tide can attain heights up to six feet and speeds of 10-to 15-miles per hour. Recently, extreme sports enthusiasts have taken to surfing the bore tides.

Note: The bore tide can be dangerous. To be safe, stay out of the water and away from the shore shortly after low tide.

And we used to go down to Seward for the Fourth Of July, and so we 've driven that one too. And down to Homer? You've driven down to there? And what is that one, the Sterling Highway? Can't quite remember. One thing's for sure, when you drive anywhere on the Kenai Peninsula, watch out for the moose! I hit one just down the hill from Cooper Landing on the flats, and, she wrecked my car (that 79 T-Bird), but then she also walked away. Yeah, I went back to shoot her and put her out of her misery, but her tracks simply moved off through the snow. Thankfully, we were unharmed. We didn't hit a moose, a moose hit us!

Edited by Jonny Lingo
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Every week end and holiday from the spring through the fall every motorcycle and car club shows up here in the great Texas Hill Country. Why you say.

We have hills with views. Valleys with streams and rivers. Roads that go through pecan groves where you can't see the sky. Open range roads where their is livestock on the highway. One lane bridges over the rivers where the tourest stops in the middle and I almost have a wreck when I come around the corner onto the bridge.

All of the above on roads that are narrow and seldom traveled.

So you want to know which highway? Well start in Kerrville and head south on Texas 16. You will go over Medina Mountain on switchbacks that will hang up anything larger than a single axle. Head down through a narrow road that has a mountain on one side and a gaurd rail on the other. Through a tree lined valley crossing a creek and river several times.

When you get to Bandera turn right on FM 470. Drive through the hills until you get to Utopia. Go any direction you want. Its all beautiful.

The problem is that there is no set rought.

The next problem is take your own lunch. many of these small towns don't have a selection of restaurants. Several don't have a grocery store. Some only have a Post office.

You don't understand what rural really means until you find the nearest store is 50 miles away.

Stop at historic Camp Verde and see where the army tryed out camels.

Go to the YO ranch and see what wild game hunting is all about. Or just take pictures of garaffs on the open plain.

See a motorcycle museum that is out all by itself. No town within 20 miles.

Go swimming in the Frio River. Frio is cold in spanish and it gets that name for a reason.

I can't say enough great things about this area.

Well I do know one bad thing. It is unbelievably hard to earn a living here. Everybody wants to move in. Land prices are sky high and the number one industry is retirment.

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Sweet pic, JL.

I haven't seen a bore tide quite that big, but while I was there you could definitely see them coming in. There really isn't a bad view on that road...like mountains rising up out of the water.

I have family who totalled an RV on a moose once. I believe the moose walked away from that one.

Never been to Homer, but I hear that drive is just as nice.

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The Going-to-the-Sun Road through Glacier National Park. Not for the faint-hearted or the reckless driver, but breathtakingly beautiful. Winds through the park from west to east. No guardrails to speak of. BIG mountains.

Also gotta agree with George about the North Cascades Highway. We camped in the National Park there once, and when I got up in the night for a potty break, the stars looked like they were just hanging right over the tree tops. Amazing!

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I've loved road trips since,well,probably my LEAD experience...I guess hitch-hiking through America's heartland was more appealing to me at the time than wearing a suit,listening to a phone hookup on 'Romans night'...This was back in 1981 and we had gotten dumped off by a trucker in this nearly deserted town in New Mexico (it may have been Santa Rosa)...The town was deserted because I-40 was completed in that part of New Mexico,leaving many of those towns on Rte. 66 that catered to the road travelers with little sources of income...It was actually quite haunting---abandoned cafes,filling stations and motels--some with weeds growing around them higher than the roof...There was also an abandoned Ford dealership,that the locals or the land owner took upon themselves to dump their old broken down cars of the 40's and 50's---I remember my hitching partner grabbing me by the arm,telling me to keep walking,as I was mesmerized by everything I saw in this town...It was a little like the Twilight Zone;we wanted to yell out "Where did everybody go?",but at the same time it illustrated for me the passing of one era and the beginning of a new one...Get out the cookie cutter...

Of course,now Rte 66 is a designated historical landmark,and some of those towns have made a comeback due to the nostalgia of it all,but it's not quite the same...

For those who have to travel from L.A. or Arizona to Chicago and have a couple of extra hours,I would recommend picking up U.S 54 in Tucemcari,N.M. ...It'll take you all the way to Springfield Illinois...It's about the same distance as the interstate,but you go through some pretty cool towns,that are still functioning much the same as they did years ago...There's also a cattle feed lot along the way,with heads of cattle as far as the eye can see--hundreds of thousands of them...It reminds me of what it must have looked like when Israel crossed the Red Sea...

From Chicago to Denver you can also pick up old U.S. 6 a good part of the way...A nice old highway that you can move along at a good clip in-between towns,but enough stops to keep the trip from being too monotonous...

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You guys, I am going to have to copy and paste all of these...they all sound so wonderful. Now we just need the time and $ to travel as much as we'd like.

We spent Sept 10th, 2001 driving south from San Francisco to Big Sur on Hyw 1 and spent the night there...the beauty of that drive and that day were in such stark contrast to the ugliness and horror we saw on tv the next morning. We want to go back and have a "normal" vacation next time.

The Teatons...any road with a view of the Teatons is a wonder.

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Wow this is all great----Ive been down Turnagain Arm as i lived in Homer in 74-which was an exquisite drive, and just last week drove through Asheville which there is nothing like at all...Im taking these all down

This from ex70's

Drive through the hills until you get to Utopia. Go any direction you want. Its all beautiful.

Im going to have to drive this someday just on general principal-how can you spend your life and not drive to Utopia at least once?

Edited by mstar1
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