A Western States Tour

Three weeks alone on the road. There’s nothing much better than that. I traveled through Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho and Eastern Washington. Visited Klamath Falls, Palm Springs, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Barbara wine country, Vegas, Reno, Bryce & Zion Canyons in Southern Utah, Wolf Creek in Northern Utah, Walla Walla and the Palouse.

There were some fabulous roads down and back and to top it off, not one cop stop. Utah’s interstate speed limit was 80, so naturally I drove at 105 mph through the whole state. Unreal. I hit some iconic roads like CA 74, the Palms to Pines Highway from Palm Springs to Capistrano (fabulous, and beautiful on the plateau), the famous Latigo Canyon road from US 101 to the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, and several Destination Highway roads in Northern California and around Walla Walla. I topped out at 135 mph in the Mojave Desert and relied heavily on my radar detector. That probably surprises no one who knows me.

Visited the Desert European Aston Martin dealer in Palm Springs to wash off all the road bugs (the car wash is free, but they hate it when I show up) and between Santa Ynez and Walla Walla I bought way too much wine (about six cases worth).

At the invitation of Team Seattle, I spent a day at Laguna Seca raceways watching the TUDOR United Sportscar Championship races from their VIP suite along with a pass not just to the paddocks but directly to the pits.  Climbing the hill to the famous corkscrew, I saw an Aston tap a Mustang exiting the corkscrew, forcing the Mustang to go off and roll into the wall right in front of me.  The cars are so loud ear plugs are a prerequisite.

My car performed fabulously the whole trip and I had an absolute blast driving those back roads.

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Golf came into play three times – once in Klamath Falls at the beautiful Running Y, again in Palm Springs on a windy day at Terra Lago with an idiosyncratic Chinese couple from Calgary, and again outside of St George, Utah at the spectacular Sand Hollow golf course.  We met some really nice people and generally had a lot of fun.

I began the trip in the usual way, south through Portland then off on US 26 over Government Camp to US 97 and Bend.  I was a little nervous over the Timberline Summit with some slush and snow flurries, but we made it through without much delay and were on to Klamath Falls.

The Running Y Golf Course, designed by Arnold Palmer, was a gem of a surprise.  While the weather wasn’t great (42 deg.) when I started, I played really well and the course suited my game (read LH fade).  I shot 80, with a bogey on the last hole (damn!).  Playing by yourself always seems to work well for me.  And, it was an absolutely beautiful course.  I can see why it is one of Arnold’s favorites.

On day 3 it was on to Reno, and a try at some backroad driving.  First on the list was Forest Service Road 15, just over the California border.  I got waylaid, however, when snow crossed my path about 20 miles in.  A V12 with street legal racing tires isn’t the best combination for snow.  So, it was turn around and find an alternate – really, the road wasn’t that great anyway as the expansion joints were killer bumpy.  I ended up taking CA 139 to Susanville and US 395 the rest of the way to Reno, where I found a hand car wash place to clean off the hundreds of bugs.

On day 4, it was south through Carson City and off on CA 88 to connect with CA 89 at Woodfords.  I hooked in behind four Canuck motorcyclists who obviously had the same Destination Highway book I did.  None of us minded ditching the county mounty tailing us while we were on CA 88.  At the turnoff they pulled over, let me pass and off I went!  This road was so incredible I got to the junction at US 395 and turned around to go back to the 8,314 foot Monitor Pass summit.  At a viewpoint near the summit I came upon the Canucks again, so I stopped and had a fun conversation with them while they took pictures of the car.  When I left they all wanted to hear the V12 roar, so I gunned it and was back down the road in a rush.  There’s good reason why the Destination Highway book rated this the best cruising road in Northern Cali.

From there it was down to just east of Mammoth Lakes on US 395, where I took a left at Whitmore Hot Springs onto Benton Crossing Road.  With a summit of 7,650 feet at Wildrose Pass, this road was a wonderful bit of remote cruising fun, combining sweepers, straightaways and cornering with good scenery.  From there it was a boring drive on US 6 and 395 to Palm Springs and the end of a long 12-hour drive.

After 3 days in Palm Springs it was off to Capistrano on CA 74 and then up to see Chip Foose Design in Huntington Beach (at left, a custom build in his shop).  CA 74 between PSP and Hemet is just without peer.  Incredible twistiness, perfectly engineered banking, not too many blind spots, fabulous scenery on the plateau and, if you go early enough, not much traffic.  I made it to Huntington early enough to stop at In-and-Out (yes!) and still make the noon daily tour at Foose.  After that, it was an epic drive down famous Latigo Canyon Road to Malibu on the PCH.  What a challenge – lots of blind corners, no shoulder, rock debris, homes sometimes in close proximity; absolutely no room for error.  But if you want twist this has got it in spades.

After my stop with Chip Foose, it was time to haul on up to Solvang for my three days tasting wine in Dutch country.  Funny enough, though, my dinner haunt became the new Irish Pub in town.  Good guys, good food – good enough for me!

I visited the Firestone Vineyard, along with tasting at Zaca Mesa, Foxen, and a few others.   Saturday I was off to Laguna Seca to watch Seattle local Don Kitch’s Team Seattle compete in the TUDOR Sportscar Championship Series.  Don got me a VIP Team pass, so I had a super time!  Sunday I had lunch oceanside at Pismo Beach as well as wandering around downtown Santa Maria.  Pismo Beach was what I expected, but I was surprised at how nice Santa Maria was.

From Solvang it was off to Vegas for a couple of days.  Sunbathing by the pool, walking the Strip a bit, stopping in at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville restaurant and The Linq shopping plaza outside the Flamingo Hotel (with a YardHouse Pub), and I was ready to move on to St. George and what I hoped would be the highlight of my trip – Zion and Bryce Canyons.

On the way to St George I would find a nice surprise in a visit to the Valley of Fire State Park and a great destination road, NV 167, to get there.  On the way to the park you are greeted by wonderful curves of great pavement on a well-engineered road bed, fabulous scenery and very little traffic – but that changes once you are in the park.  Nevertheless, it is a super drive and once inside the park you actually WANT to drive slow so you don’t miss all the interesting stuff.

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After the Valley of Fire, Zion beckoned.  Here is the entrance to Zion National Park – a pretty impressive expanse of peaks luring you in. I actually parked my car near here, as the park offers shuttle buses every ten minutes or so to the lodge and many of the main viewpoints and trail heads.  I had lunch in the lodge, which was very cool and rustic. I did seven or eight miles of hiking on my newly replaced knee and was no worse the wear for it – just tired!  The next day I was off to Bryce Canyon via SR 9 and Zion’s east park entrance. Very beautiful, and much different than the canyon as you made your way east.

There is no doubt Zion is a hikers park, as most of what is there to be experienced and seen requires you do so.  Unlike Bryce Canyon, sticking to the roads will only give you a small idea of what can be seen.

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Bryce, on the other hand, shows you what it has almost immediately. It’s breathtaking when you first come upon it. That’s because unlike Zion, where the road is nestled in the valley, the Bryce road rides the rim of the canyon and provides a great variety of views as it stretches nearly all the way through the park. The viewpoints are right on the edge of the cliffs, and numerous trails immediately descend and disappear from several of them.

Both Zion and Bryce are parks that beg you to hike them, but if I were to choose one I would hike Bryce. It is just simply spectacular. Having said that, I can tell Zion has many beautiful secrets only those who hike its back trails ever find. As I said, though, Zion is a serious hiker’s park. Bryce is much more accessible and does not require a hiking commitment of several days to make a loop.

After Bryce, I headed to Wolf Creek north of Salt Lake City. It’s a golf/skiing destination, and although not mainstream, has proximity to lots of areas. The weather was so bad, however, I didn’t do anything but lay low the day I was there. I got lucky on the weather score, though, because a storm hit Northern Utah while I was in St. George, then hit St. George while I was on my way up I-15.  Not sure how it missed me, but I’ll take it.

So, then it was on to Walla Walla, which again was much more beautiful, with a great little downtown, than I had imagined.  Of course, springtime does help, but as you will see by a couple of the photos, the Palouse is everything they say it can be. And I found a nice breakfast eatery, the Maple Counter Cafe, along with the iconic Marcus Whitman Hotel and all the endless great wineries!

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All and all, a trip I would not hesitate to do again (in fact, I did do it again with Janice), but next time I want to start a little later in the year to avoid snow (the Aston hates snow), and stop at Yosemite.

Let’s go now – Whoo Hoo!