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Well done story of a long trip! I admit that I like those Utah shots since I'm a local meself. You should post pics of Bryce Canyon;
Ask and you shall receive.
The next few are of the Hogback. It was really cool to see. The videos I'd taken with my Contour gives a much better indication of what this stretch was actually like.
This was the view on the opposite side.
I failed to take any pictures of the arches (I think that's what they are called) that extend over the road that goes through Bryce Canyon, but did get them on video. I'd definitely recommend Utah to anyone looking to go on vacation. If you're the outdoorsy type, you'd likely have your mind blown.
My favorite thing to do is roadtrip in my Z, you can fit just enough bags for 2 people for a great trip! But don't expect to have a cooler or anything!
Wonderful pictures and travelogue, sounds like fun. Went to the Smokey Mountains this spring, the scenery was not so beautiful but the roads are nice.
Tom
Wonderful pictures and travelogue, sounds like fun. Went to the Smokey Mountains this spring, the scenery was not so beautiful but the roads are nice.
Tom
Nice. Love the Deals Gap picture. Personally, I've never been obsessed with going to The Dragon but I'd love to hit it one day and the million dollar highway in Colorado, Beartooth Pass in... Montana? Only problem is with my job I can really only take sizable vacations in very late fall and winter. Which wouldn't have a pleasant end result.
Great post! Days in my Z that would be a something!
Thanks for reading! If you believe you'd enjoy it, set a trip. http://autoweek.com/article/car-news...driving-routes
That's one site I used to research routes and also Google maps street view. Your trip doesn't have to be as long or as ambitious. It simply needs to be fun.
Oh, T-minus 3 weeks for the next driving vacation.
As previously posted, I had taken a driving vacation to Utah. This past fall I took a similarly spirited vacation to Arizona. To be a bit more simplistic, I drove to Arizona to drive Hell’s Highway. Granted, there were several other routes I wanted to explore but I had been hearing Route 191’s siren song since I read about it a couple years ago.
My second driving odyssey started like my first; in the wee hours of Halloween morning. However with age comes wisdom, so there would be items accompanying me this trip that were not present the first time. New items include: books on tape, a travel pillow, a new headunit with an auxiliary jack and my mp3 player with hours worth of new music.
By daylight I was midway through Illinois on I-70. Ten hours to go to the hotel in Oklahoma City. Around this time in Illinois I encountered a small hindrance that would pester me until well into Oklahoma… the remnants of Hurricane Patricia. Thankfully, the rain never became anything more than a heavy shower.
Around 4 or 5 that evening I arrived at my hotel. The only hiccup from this vacation’s maiden voyage was yet another accidental detour through St. Louis. Apparently, my GPS desperately needs to be updated because I screwed up and took the exact same exit on my first trip.
The following morning I left for my next destination, Safford, Arizona nearly 13 hours away. Or more simply put one hell of a long way. I enjoy driving my Z, but 13 hours is a long time to be doing anything. To help escape the prolonged monotony of interstate driving, I decided I’d travel to Westeros via one of my audio booksA Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
The entire day was not all boring though. On I-40 in the flats of Texas I check my rear view mirror. I can tell by the headlights that it’s a newer car. Looking at its approaching silhouette I try to determine what kind of car it is. The only thing I was sure of was that it was approaching… fast. Once the white silhouette gave away to more detail; I set up straight in my seat, uttered an expletive and grabbed my phone. There would be no time for a quality photo from my DSLR.
A McLaren MP4-12C! The owner clearly had a very important place to be because he was well into the triple digits when he passed me. This gave me the lovely opportunity to hear the beautiful noise from its V8. On my first trip, the driver of a 458 Italia was at a hotel I was staying and a McLaren sighting this trip. Love it.
After 10 hours of audio book, 13 hours of driving and nearly 900 miles covered in a single day, a bald, 27 year old, exhausted Indiana resident slothfully walks into the lobby of a hotel in Safford Arizona.
The trip to my hotel totaled around 25 hours. After two days covering so many miles I thought I’d check out a road not terribly far from my hotel the next day. Route 366 was only about 10-15 minutes from my hotel. This asphalt jewel runs up Mount Graham. After so many miles it turns into a dirt road and ultimately terminates at the Mount Graham Observatory. And no, my Z didn’t go off-roading.
366 as it approaches Mount Graham
The only things of note that are located on this road are a federal prison and the observatory. In other words, there was little traffic. Halfway up the mountain there was a small recreational area to pull off and enjoy the scenery.
One great perk to vacations, as we all know, is the opportunity to try the local eateries. One stand-out of the trip was the Copper Steer Steak House in eastern Safford. I’d recommend they change their name to Proof Vegetarians are Buffoons.
Now if Route 366 was an appetizer, the Devil’s Highway was certainly the main course. For years Arizona’s Route 191 was originally designated Route 666 earning the road its nickname. I read that the road was renamed Route 191 due to pressure from church groups and due to the fact that signs would routinely go missing. I can certainly say that had I ran across a Route 666 sign, it would have come home with me.
The driver’s holy-grail portion of 191 starts in the town of Clifton. There you can take the road north and ascend into the mountains. A few minutes north of Clifton is the mining town of Morenci.
Once north of Morenci, 191 guides you from a domesticated land to a place that’s eerily secluded. The best known stretch of 191 for driving fans is from Clifton to Alpine. Driving this part of 191 takes around 4 hours, during this time I doubt I saw more than 5 cars. The remoteness is quite jarring. The elevation change is crazy. In the space of less than an hour I went from palm trees in Clifton to pine trees.
Last edited by frivoloushobby; 04-11-2016 at 11:46 AM.
Once I neared the town of Eagar I picked up 261. This road doesn’t go anywhere. As far as I could make out, the only thing of significance on 261 is a lake creatively called Big Lake. Shortly after turning onto 261 there was a sign that said something to the affect of “This road is not patrolled or plowed. Travel at your own risk.” I’d never read a more welcoming sign.
It was odd to see the landscape in this area. After hours of driving through high alpine forests the area now was devoid of trees and dominated by flowing hills covered in prairie grass. 261 was composed mostly of long sweeping turns, most of which were not blind allowing for very good lines of sight.*
Interesting fact: the left hander that disappears in this picture is where my Contour video camera fell off my car. I suction cupped the camera to the rear bumper to record some exhaust sounds to touch myself to later and the suction cup failed. Several miles later I walked to the back of my car and at that point the scavenger hunt began. Amazingly I did find the camera; looking skyward watching the clouds like a California hippy. Happily, it’s still functioning to this day.
The following day, for no particular reason, I drove to Theodore Roosevelt lake in the company of rain showers.
Over the last few days of my stay in Arizona I drove the Devil’s Highway once more and ran up Graham Mountain on multiple occasions. After ten days on the road I arrived home with new stories and memories. As well as a few more miles on the Z. As anyone would guess it was great fun and I recommend the Devil’s Highway if you enjoy tackling a challenging road.
The trip was reset before I left my house. This is the final tally of my driving vacation.<br/><br/>
There are plenty of other roads I hope to drive at some point. I’m toying with the idea of running The Dragon’s Tail and other alluring roads in that area this summer. Coming from the boring flats of the Midwest, I had a distinct feeling that my car was as happy to be on these great roads as I was. I urge all of you to go and enjoy these cars the way they were meant to be enjoyed… on awesome roads.
OK, so while we're in necro-thread-bump mode, I'm wondering if anyone has any COVID-19 era road trips to add to this thread? (Or any that can be added to the "Zs in competition" threads?)
Would really like to shift the balance between the fix-it & PWRR sides by adding more discourse about the "reasons we drive what we drive"!
Anyone? I've got a couple of stories but they're not much different from my other road trip/morning drive threads. And, they involve my two roadsters, no Z, so not greatly relevant here.
This is all politics. But, it's also a very important topic to me, since I am going to work in the USA, I have already issued a TN visa on the website http://tnvisaexpert.com/ , I can't wait until I go to this magnificent country through the NAFTA campaign. By the way, I want to add from myself that when applying for a visa, there were no difficulties; everything went just perfectly. It seems to me that if I take the time to sit down and read the site, I will find the answer to any question that interests me, because there is a lot of information
08-15-2015, 11:17 AM
