Topic: Next cross country trip is in planning stages. Need ideas of places to go.

[Shenanigans]

Not that I have a route planned, but I want to start compiling a list of places to go. I am kinda looking for maybe lesser know or weird placea anywhere in the U.S. Anywhere from forgotten air craft grave yards to things like "the old man of the lake".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man_of_the_Lake



Tell me what you know!

[scunny]

can't help but am looking forward to your trip report, really enjoyed your last one.

[scottly]

Check out Mono Lake, near Yosemite.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_Lake

[Shenanigans]

Check out Mono Lake, near Yosemite.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_Lake

If Mark Twain himself wrote about it...  Awesome!


Alright need some more!


While we are in Utah, I came across a list of ghost towns. I have to check to see which ones are worth it.

Black Rock     Iosepa
   Sego
Bullionville    Jacob City
   Soldier Summit
Cisco    Kimberly
   Standardville
Clarion
   McCornick
   Sulphurdale
Coal City
   National
   Temple Mountain
Cove Fort
   Newhouse
   Thistle
Dividend
   Osiris
   Upper Kanab
Frisco
   Paria
   Victor
Georgetown
   Rains
   Widtsoe
Giles
   Richville
   
Grafton
   Scranton
   

[Shenanigans]

Also adding Moab utah to the list.

The Salton sea and salvation mountain.





I know you guys know more places!

[scottly]

Also adding Moab utah to the list.

Check out the south-west corner of Utah. A friend was up there a couple of months ago. Zion, Bryce Canyon...

[scottly]

Anywhere from forgotten air craft grave yards

Not sure if it's forgotten, but there is an air craft grave yard near Mojave, CA. Before highway 58 by-passed the town about 10(?) years ago, you could see the jets from the road, approaching Mojave from the east.

[BeSeeingYou]

Might be out of your way but how about the world's largest Holstein at New Salem, North Dakota.

On the way there you can check out   http://www.enchantedhighway.net/

Smith Mine near Bear Creek Montana

[Shenanigans]

I shall add it to the list, if all goes well nothing should be too far out of the way. 

[Stev-o]

How 'bout the Telluride, CO area?
I camped for 10 days outside of town on a lake a few years back, it was beauiful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telluride,_Colorado

[faux fiddy]

Wow the hot springs  look great.  Those are the kind  of places that are better the park itslf.

If you are headed that direction, there is a place called Mesa Falls, ID.  When I was there  there was a lodge that they were hoping to restore that was built as a waypoint for people going to visit the park.  It was large and shabby, but supposedly slated for restoration.

All along the road bu mesa falls there are different public campgrounds which unlike crowded Yellowstone there is actually many spaces not filled.

Pulling up a link about the area....it has a map of all the stuff around there.



http://www.idahobyways.gov/byways/mesa-falls.aspx



Rexburg is like visiting 1950.

[Shenanigans]

That place looks great! Directly west of it (via terrain maps) looks really interesting in a desolate kind of way. Before the mountains starts look at all those trails!

[B.O.X.N.I.F.E.]

We should really try and meet up if you're going to ride out again, I haven't posted any info or started a second blog yet, but I just got home from 22 days out West. Hit up 6 national parks (all 5 in Utah), Bonneville, went surfing, crossed the Rockies. I want to get more off the beaten path and do another ride anytime within the next year, before I have to get a job or something 

[Shenanigans]

We should really try and meet up if you're going to ride out again, I haven't posted any info or started a second blog yet, but I just got home from 22 days out West. Hit up 6 national parks (all 5 in Utah), Bonneville, went surfing, crossed the Rockies. I want to get more off the beaten path and do another ride anytime within the next year, before I have to get a job or something 

A job? Pfffft, A job is what is keeping me from leaving right now! I hope to sneak in a smaller trip (like a week or 2 long) in the near-ish future. I really want to explore a lot of Utah, are you too Utah'd out?

Having a job is the pits but I have to pay for my next big trip somehow 

[Grnrngr]

Ever been thru the Vermillion Cliffs area north of the Grand canyon? 395 up the east side of the Sierras is some nice country too, and there are a bunch of state highways you could crisscross back and forth over the mountains and get some awesome views of the Sierras. Kings Canyon, Sequoia Nat'l Park, Inyo Nat'l Forest, Yosemite...lots of gold rush era sites and history in the middle and northern Sierras, if you time it right, the Frog Jumps at Calaveras County used to be a big bike party, Mountain Aire festival was some good times too  http://www.frogtown.org/
maybe take a couple laps around Lake Tahoe, lotsa mountainous twistys (Greg LaMond can ride his bicycle around it in like 4 hours), got some famous Casinos on the Nevada side..Highway 1 is pretty nice the whole length of the CA coast, gets more rugged & twisty the more north you get, then the Oregon and Washington coast and the Olympic Peninsula at the tip of WA....I hear there's some islands a little north of that..    'course you'd need a boat..probably wanna stay away from Portland and Seattle tho...nothin but a buncha bad influence folks who'll try to getcha into trouble...

[Nortstudio]

A job? Pfffft, A job is what is keeping me from leaving right now! I hope to sneak in a smaller trip (like a week or 2 long) in the near-ish future. I really want to explore a lot of Utah, are you too Utah'd out?

Having a job is the pits but I have to pay for my next big trip somehow 

The whole "trail of the ancients" up through southern Utah is amazing.  Works it's way right up to Moab (I woke up on the banks of the Colorado River on my 28th b'day in Moab!).  Can check out the Hopi Reservation just before you begin the crossing into Utah.

Badlands is not to be missed.  Also, check out Deadwood, just south of Sturgis.  Very weird vibe, part 1870's, part modern gambling/slots haven.  Stayed in a haunted hotel there.

The trip from Athens, GA up into South Carolina is pretty cool, and definitely gives you a southern feel for the non-southerner.

Loved the last tour diary.  Hope this one goes just as well.