November 2021 my wife, 4 year old daughter & I embarked on a memorable once in a lifetime road trip from Washington DC all the way through San Jose, CA and back.

During this 41 day journey we traveled over 8000 miles and visited amazing places of interest on the way. Except for the last 2 weeks of December we were working in the EST time zone. We traveled through St. Louis, Oklahoma City, Albuquerque, Phoenix, LA, San Jose, Death Valley, Santa Fe, Nashville. This post talks about the places we visited during this trip.

Our journey began a weekend before Thanksgiving and reached St. Louis in two days. In the olden days St. Louis was supposed to be the gateway to the West. The Gateway Arch built on the west bank of the Mississippi River is one of the tallest arch in the world and an engineering marvel. A tram lift has been built inside allowing access to the top.

Our next halt was at Oklahoma City. We took a break here for a couple of days. We worked from here during the day and explored the city during the evening. Brick Town district is a good hang out place with a canal and boat ride and restaurants on two sides of the canal. We continued our journey westwards towards New Mexico. The landscape drastically changed as soon as we left Oklahoma City. As we journeyed from the East to the West the height of the trees gradually reduced and after Oklahoma City, tall trees were replaced by shrubs along the road. It was interesting transition from the East to the West.

We had planned to explore the state of New Mexico on the way to Phoenix. Our first detour was Bosque Del Apache Wildlife Refuge which was about an hour and half south of Albuquerque. During the month of November thousands of Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese flock this wildlife refuge on their south bound journey. Early morning these birds fly from the ponds to the neighboring fields creating an amazing experience to watch and photograph. We left at 4 am in the morning to watch this spectacle. It was freezing cold but show presented by these birds was worth it.

We toured the Refuge until the sun was bright and continued our journey to White Sands National Park. This is one of the worlds largest gypsum dunefields with miles and miles of white sand and a great natural wonder.

About 12000 years ago the Tularosa basin where this national park lies featured large lakes, streams and grasslands. As the climate warmed post ice age, rain and snowmelt dissolved gypsum from the surrounding mountains and carried it into the basin. Further warming and drying caused the lakes to evaporate and form selenite crystals and winds transported it eastwards to form this gigantic white salt fields.

Our next destination was Phoenix and we worked from here for about 10 days. We had few close family members with whom spent a good time. Due to a hectic work schedule during weekdays the only place we visited in Phoenix was Papago Park where we witnessed a beautiful sunset.

During the weekend we visited Page, Arizona and Monument Valley, Utah. We had visited Page back in 2014 but were unable to visit the Antelope Canyons at that time. Hence it was on our must do list this time. We stayed at Page and did a day trip to Monument Valley the following day.

Monument Valley boasts one of the most iconic landscape in the west. The valley is a sacred area that lies within the territories of the Navajo Nation Reservation, the Native American people of the area. A 17 mile drive within the park allows closer views of most of the towering buttes. The park was especially beautiful at sunset with with sun gradually showering its golden rays on the buttes.

Monument Valley, part of the Colorado Plateau, was created as a result of ancestral Rock Mountain sediments being deposited in the area at the same time a regional geologic uplift occurred on the Colorado Plateau. The pressure of the uplift pushed the plateau upward, causing it to bulge and crack. As wind and water began eroding the area, the cracks became more wide and deep, eventually forming canyons.

Next day we covered Antelope Canyon, another geological spectacle. Antelope Canyon can be covered by visiting either Lower or Upper Canyons. We planned to covered both. Lower Canyon is V shaped with a narrow base and broader at the top while the Upper canyon is inverted V shaped, broader base and tapering at the top. It can be covered only through a guided tours. We covered Upper early in the morning and then Lower just before noon. The tour guides at these canyons had certainly mastered the art of capturing insta worthy pictures from the phones and gave a few hacks to do so.

Antelope Canyon was formed by the erosion of sandstone rock due to flash flooding and other sub-aerial processes. Rainwater, especially during monsoon season, runs into the extensive basin above the slot canyon sections, picking up speed and sand as it rushes into the narrow passageways. As it gushes through these narrow gaps, it erodes the land creating these geological art pieces.

Our original plan was to stay in Phoenix and visit places over the weekend and return. However one of our very close friends in San Jose surprised us with the amazing news of planning a baby shower around the same time. So we thought we are about 12 hours away from the Pacific coast why not complete the circuit! And so began replanning. We cut our Phoenix stay shorter and decided to spend a week in San Jose. We had to return back to Phoenix during Christmas as there was another family get together planned.

Staying in San Jose and working in EST meant starting the day 3 hours early and ending the day 3 hours early. My day usually started at 7 am and ended by 3 pm. So now I was up at 4 am and wrapped up by lunch. We have a lot of friends in the Bay area so most of our evenings were spent hanging out with friends. It was a welcome break for my 4 year old daughter as she could talk and entertain people other than her parents. Since we didn’t plan any places to visit while in San Jose, I spent a lot of time running and exploring the area around Milpitas where we stayed. The beautiful hills of Ed Levin county park was one such place.

After spending a week in San Jose, we began our return journey and one of the destinations we had planned for was the Death Valley National Park. If I had to choose one national park where I would love to return again and again, it is this one. This was our second visit to the park. During our first visit in 2016 we realized there is lot more to do than what we had planned and decided to return once again. We had officially began our vacation now so we wanted to make most of it.

Death Valley is the largest national park in the contiguous United States, as well as the hottest, driest and lowest of all the national parks in the United States. It the land of extremes. On one hand you have the lowest point in North America, the Badwater Basin, on other hand you have the Telescope peak which is 14,000 FT high. This time we wanted to visit some remote places that we did not get a chance to cover last time.

Artist Palette: This place was natures way to display painted art. Here, we can find array of colors (red, orange, yellow, blue, pink, and green), splashed across the hills. These colors are from volcanic deposits rich in compounds such as iron oxides and chlorite, which creates a rainbow effect.

Golden Canyon Trail: We did a 5 mile hike in the Golden Canyon. This hike is right behind the famous Zebriski point and it goes through the same landscape. This are unique hill formations and the trail allows us hike in the canyon, particularly when we climb up the ridge, the view of the surrounding landscape is amazing.

Eureka Dunes: Frankly visiting these dunes was the main reason I wanted to visit Death Valley this time. These are one of the highest dunes in the United States and nestled in an extremely remote north western corner of the park. It takes close to 2.5 hours to reach these dunes from any of the visitor center and is as desolate as it got get. The road to the dunes is mostly a dirt / gravel road. I didn’t want to take any chance with my vehicle hence we rented a 4X4. I could see few other regular vehicles visiting the dunes. This park is so remote that we were the only 3 people on the massive dunes. I climbed to the top of the dune and I could see no one else besides us for miles.

These mighty dunes were still dwarfed by the impressive limestone wall of the Last Chance Mountains which rose another 4000 feet above the valley floor.

After spending a good 3 days in Death Valley, we headed back to Phoenix for a family get together during Christmas. On the way we visited the Petrified National Forest.

One of the distinctive places to visit in the Petrified National Forest is the Blue Mesa trail. Here we can see distinctive layers of different colors, blue, grey, purple formed on the hillocks. These colorful bands of mudstone and sandstone were laid down during the Triassic period around 250 million years ago, when the area was part of a huge tropical floodplain. Back then, the region was full of rivers that carried water northwest toward a large, shallow sea, leaving sand, silt and mud behind.

We had decided to return back home from south to avoid the cold weather as much as possible. Our final leg included halts at Santa Fe, Memphis and Nashville.

Finally after 41 days of travel and adventure we were happy to reach home sweet home. This trip definitely helped us understand the vastness of this country and the different landscape, cultures that shaped it. We were happy to meet a lot of our friends and families on the west coast. We were still in the midst of the pandemic and the omicron variant was picking up. So this was a fun way to uncover the journey across the North American continent. We drove through 15 states and countless cities and gather amazing moments on our way. By the time we were back my daughter was already missing her toys and tired of the constant travel. But I am sure the countless memories that she gathered during this trip will remain with her for the rest of her life.