The "Best of List" US Road Trip 2016

Here we are, onto the New Year and of course that means onto the next adventure. With the hustle and bustle of the holidays going on, the last few weeks have not had many exciting things happening in our

Joshua Tree NP PC: JDStylos

neck of the woods. I took the leisure time to fly back to Idaho and spend a little over a week with my family enjoying Christmas and some time to relax after being on the road for the last couple of months. Joe did the same but stayed in Massachusetts to enjoy his family he also hadn’t seen in quite a while.

 As we start off the New Year, before any sort of adventure has happened we’ve done one of our favorite past times and that is writing “The Best of List”

The Best of List consists of exactly what you might think, we’ve gone through camp spots, climbs, libraries and National Parks to come up with our top favorite 3 of every subject. Not only does it give us a chance to remember the exciting things we just finished doing but also gives all of you a chance to check out some really cool places if you ever adventure out onto your own road trip!

2016 Best of US Road Trip with Katie & Joe

Best Car Food:

(Please note all the food in the top 3 of this category we made at the car while we were camping)

1.Tuna Sandwich/ Tortilla with Sharp Cheddar Cheese and Apples

This was probably the meal we made most on the trip, easy and delicious, it made for great food to make in the car while it was raining or quick stop on the road while we were driving!

2.   Salmon with Mashed Potatoes and Corn

The Salmon was given to us as a parting gift from a friend and made for quite the fancy road trip meal. The potatoes we picked from left overs in a harvested field in Idaho and they we're great!

3. Annie’s Mac n’ Cheese

Most hikers know that Annie’s are quite the delicacy on any sort of trip and Annie’s did not disappoint at any meal. Usually mixed with tuna, corn or even the rare can of ravioli’s, when one is hungry anything can taste thoroughly amazing.

Salmon Meal PC: JDStylos

Best Camp Spot:

1. Hidden Hill in Death Valley National Park, California. We would give the GPS location for this AWESOME camp spot but the fact being that we camped here secretly for 2 nights makes it a bit tricky to share with the world.

2.  Poop Lake, White Sands New Mexico (32.811420, -106.121834). Despite the name this lake was quite the surprise to the both of us, not only was it quiet and serene but we also got some great photography here too.

3.  Free RV parks across Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. (https://freecampsites.net/) Technically this is not one camp spot but the fact that throughout the Midwest there are free places to camp with electricity, bathrooms and other amenities makes it hard to choose one from the other. The website listed is what we used to find all of our camp spots throughout our trip! Highly recommended for anyone’s road trip!

Poop Lake PC: JDStylos

Best Climbing Area:

1.Woodbury Road Crags, outside of St. George, Utah. (37.017880, -113.851799) By far this climbing area took the cake for most climbs, quiet area and good weather. Seems mostly unknown to the bulk of climbers which gave us the chance to pick and choose as we pleased.

2.  Red Rocks, Nevada. (36.146247, -115.431022) If you are able to look passed the herds of tourists and a large bulk of other climbers this area has a lot to offer. We were able to climb at multiple great crags in Red Rocks. Luckily Red Rocks is a general location for many specific climbing walls located within itself. Also if you haven’t heard about the possible public development in Red Rocks you can read about it HERE and donate to the cause, save Red Rocks!

3.Wall Street in Moab, Utah. (38.547654, -109.598715) Generally another crag that’s well known and crowded but we were able to find some really great vertical sandstone climbs here. Some of which made it onto our favorites climbs list.

Wall Street in Moab, Utah. PC JDStylos

Best Museum:

1.The Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas. This place was so great it made the list of places to go to before we even hit the road. We ended up not having enough time to enjoy all that it had to offer but if we got the chance to go back I am sure we could spend another couple of days there!
2.Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona. I have been to plenty of air museums in my life and this one by far was the best one. Obviously continuing to grow all that it has to offer the community. We enjoyed an entire days’ worth of information and were the last to leave.
3. A Christmas Story House, in Cleveland, Ohio. Growing up on this movie every Christmas made me extra excited to see this classic house! Then when I went home for Christmas this year and watched the movie on Christmas Eve, I could point to the TV and say “I’ve been there!”

Fragile PC:JDStylos

Best National Park:

1.  Arches National Park in Moab, Utah. (38.615922, -109.619765) We probably spent the most time here of all the National Parks and were able to get some amazing night photography.

2.  Death Valley National Park in Death Valley California. (36.5054° N, 117.0794° W)

3.  Carlsbad Caverns National Park in Carlsbad New Mexico. (32.1479° N, 104.5567° W) This park was unexpected. Its vast size is breath taking and it most definitely stands out among the other national parks.

Death Valley PC: JDS

Best Climbing Route:

1. Katie- Potstash 5.9 on Wall Street in Moab, Utah.

Joe- Topless Vegetables 5.9 on Kelly Wall in Woodbury Road Crags, Utah.

2. Katie- Vagabonds 5.10a in The Black Corridor in Red Rocks, Nevada

Joe- The Die is Cast 5.9 on the Hamlet Wall in Red Rocks, Nevada

3.   Katie- The Inhaler 5.8 on the Back Echo Wall in Joshua Tree NP, California

Joe- The Stego Slab 5.9+ on Wall Street in Moab, Utah

Best Library:

      1.The Moab, Utah Library. Big beautiful windows, close to town and fast Wi-Fi.

2. The Flagstaff, Arizona Library. It had the fire place burning on a snowy day, hard to beat!

3.  The Lincoln Arkansas Library. We stepped out of the car and the whole town was filled with Christmas music. The tone was immediately set and the library also felt very festive!

Arches PC JDStylos

Overall the trip was a giant success, if you ever get a chance to go on any sort of road trip may I recommend using back roads and going into the trip without any sort of plan.

Now that we’ve made it to Massachusetts and we’ve gathered our winter gear we start on our next adventure tomorrow and that is driving up to the White Mountains in New Hampshire to test our skills at some Ice Climbing! Stay Tuned!

Death Valley and jumping into the New Year
PC JDStylos