Andrew Acomb

A conversation at work made me think about a cross country road trip Jennifer and I took a few years ago. The entire trip was in a little two seat convertible. I documented the whole thing with over 50 rolls of film and a journal that I would write in every night before bed. We only had a few rules: never drive at night because you miss too much scenery and never eat at the same place twice so we would be forced to find the local joints. The top was down every day of the 28 day road trip! If we were on the road when the sun would start to set, no matter where we were, that’s where we were going to stay.

We started the journey in Seattle, Washington. From there we drove south into Oregon. On the way to Crater Lake National Park, we stopped off at Clearwater Falls. After the lake, we continued south into California passing through the Redwood National Park on our way down the coast. We crossed over the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco. We stayed there for a couple of days, and then headed east to Yosemite National Park. Our next stop was Death Valley and onto Las Vegas where we stayed at the Luxor for a couple of days. Then it was onto the Hoover Dam and Utah. We went to every national park in southern Utah. First we explored Zion, Bryce Canyon and then Capital Reef. We stayed in Moab, Utah a couple of days nestled between Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. We then went south through Monument Valley into Arizona. We toured the Grand Canyon in a helicopter. Then we headed south and further east to see the Petrified Forest National Park. The trip took us though St. Louis and eventually to Saratoga Springs, New York.

The few sentences I have written to briefly summarize the trip does it no justice. Every single day was an incredible adventure. Whether it was seeing another natural wonder, finding a hidden local treasure, or meeting someone new, every moment of the journey seemed to be better than the last.

I took this picture in Death Valley National Park near the twenty mule team. It is the largest national park south of Alaska with about 3.3 million acres. It was proclaimed a national monument in 1933 and was re-designated a national park in 1994. It is a park of extremes. It has North America’s driest and hottest spot with less than 2 inches of rainfall annually, and it contains the lowest elevation in the Western hemisphere at 282 feet below sea level in a place called Badwater. It is also home to the world’s toughest race called the Badwater Ultramarathon. This nonstop race starts in Badwater and ends on Mount Whitney, the tallest point in the contiguous United States. It is 135 miles long and covers 3 mountain ranges.

Out of all the national parks I have visited, this is one of my favorites. I loved being in a place where you can walk around and hear nothing but the ground crunching beneath your feet. At times, it can be so quiet it almost hurts the ears.