California is big, I don’t think anyone will dispute that, but it truly takes spending some time there to actually put the word big into context. Back in 2009 and 2010 we called California home for a short time, southern California to be exact. During that time we spent every free moment exploring, from the southern deserts of Anza Borrego and Joshua Tree to the coastal towns along the pacific coast highway and the sprawling metropolis of Los Angeles. We pushed the limits of what we could see during the weekend and well, we fell woefully short of exploring the state.

The road to Alaska is a long one, we never thought it would be a short trip by any stretch of the imagination but it still ended up taking longer than anticipated.  Plans on this trip seem to change daily and our route to Alaska was not immune to our ‘whichever way the wind blows’ travel planning technique. Originally we planned to travel through the Canadian Rockies to the Alaskan Highway and northward, however somehow we found ourselves in the Washington Cascades and needed to do some alternative route finding...

Heading west we stopped in Bend, Oregon to explore another town we had briefly visited a few years ago and where we wanted to take a longer look around. Bend boarders the Deschutes National Forest which turns out had some free dispersed camping only 10 minutes outside of town. Given the close proximity to town it gave us the opportunity to do some exploring and check out some of the local breweries...

We hit the North Dakota State line at mile marker 352 with 310 miles left to go. We passed through Fargo; yes the same Fargo from the 1996 movie; where curious folks can have their picture taken with some of the more notable movie memorabilia. We, however,  did not have time for such frivolities as we were on our way to the open road country. The miles clicked by at a pretty good pace, but then again, how could they not when the speed limit is 75 and there is no traffic. Town after town rolled by out the window, the space wide open, the sky perpetually blue, but the scenery never changing. We were beginning to wonder what we had gotten ourselves into; where were these painted hills and the mighty bison that roam them?  Then all of a sudden somebody flipped the switch-we were there. Without warning- the scenery abruptly changed from rolling rangeland to rugged badlands....