The Pacific Northwest Tour: Week 1

I’m one week into the Pacific Northwest tour and I find myself in Cortez, Colorado. I’m currently hunkered down in a hotel room trying to catch up on work. The whirlwind of a 1,700+ mile drive to Arizona followed by the chaos Overland Expo hasn’t left a lot of free time to process images and events but in an effort to give you a feel for how the trip looks so far, here’s the breakdown…

What I’ve been up to…

2 1/2 days driving 1,760 miles to Mormon Lake, AZ: I’ve made this particular drive a number of times and fortunately, for the first time ever, it was fairly smooth sailing. The detours, construction, weather, and general traffic load were very low compared to previous trips.
3 days at Overland Expo: OX is windy, dirty, hot… and a lot of fun.
1 day in Flagstaff and Sunset Crater: A quick overnight to regroup, catch up on work, and resupply.
1/2 day drive to Cortex, CO: I opted to split up my drive instead of camping at Bonito campground outside of Sunset Crater and having to push really hard to get to Great Sand Dunes.

By the numbers…

I had about 4 hours of challenging driving through Arkansas but it wasn’t the toughest stuff I’ve been through by a long shot. (I’m looking at you , Kansas…)

Days on the Road: 7
Miles: 2,105
States: 10 (GA, AL, MS, TN, AR, OK, TX, NM, AZ, CO)
National Parks & Lands visited: 3 (Coconino National Forest, Sunset Crater National Monument, Wupatki National Monument)
Instagrams: 14
Time Zone Changes: 4
Nights in Hotel: 4
Nights Camping: 3