north america 2023.
7 April 2023
After months of ideas, planning and eventually booking, we finally set off on our journey to Canada (only a short 13 hour plane flight away).
I wasn’t able to sleep much on the plane as usual, but after about a 90 minute nap I woke up to one of the deepest colored sunsets I’d ever seen.
Turns out some of the color likely came from Boeing’s new automatic window dimming feature, but regardless it was cool to see. That said, being so high up in the atmosphere (nearly 40,000 ft) would certainly help too.
7 April 2023 (North American Time)
After we descended down into Vancouver at around 2 pm local time, watching snowy peaks pass us on both sides, it was time to officially step into Canada for the first time. An experience that went suspiciously smoothly for an international arrival. We kept waiting to have our luggage scanned and our passports stamped, but we never did. Eventually we found ourselves in the airport carpark so I guess that’s just how things work in Canada.
To make the most of the remaining day, we decided to leave our bags at our airbnb and catch a train into the city right away. Very quickly however we discovered that our airbnb was located directly underneath the flight path of Vancouver airport, a detail I’d conveniently forgotten to bring up while booking. The area between where we were staying and the train station was interesting to say the least, with overgrown thorn bushes everywhere and some very odd looking buildings. One of which I took a photo of, as it looked like a set from a horror film.
Eventually we made it all the way into the central city where I took a few more building photos. Overall Vancouver felt a lot like Melbourne to me, with trams travelling up and down the streets and lots of art covering places like alleyways.
The lighting for urban photography wasn’t perfect, but the stormy sky in the background gave the city an interesting look.
8 April 2023
Today was the first day with our rental car. Initially I thought it was going to be hard to adapt to driving on the wrong side of the road, but after some time it started to feel natural. At least as long as I didn’t let my muscle memory take over the wheel.
Our first adventure took us to Walmart, somewhere I hadn’t visited in about six years. After resisting the temptation to buy every unfamiliar snack in the store, we settled on some easy to cook meals for the coming days, some chocolate wafers for driving snacks, and probably the worst tasting vitamin c supplements that have ever been created on this planet.
We then made our way out of Vancouver and into Squamish on the sea to sky highway, with some light rain making for a moody scene.
Next up after Squamish was the town of Whistler, a very cozy looking ski village nestled among many snow-covered mountains. While it was still heavily overcast when we drove through, the clouds had parted enough to catch a few glimpses of the snowy slopes. This was also the first time we visited a Tim Hortons store (I can highly recommend the breakfast muffin and iced latte).
Whistler was the last major town along the highway before we really entered the backcountry, and felt a sense of isolating wilderness. We stopped on top of a mountain pass when we noticed snow falling outside the car, although it wasn’t heavy enough to stick on the ground. The sky was just beginning to clear above the mountains, but as we drove east the conditions continued to improve.
9 April 2023
Sunday was the day we wanted to arrive in Revelstoke, so we woke up early to get the drive underway. Before we left the motel in Lillooet, we wanted to try some cereals we picked up from Walmart the day before. I quickly realized however that I’d set the fridge temperature too cold, and the milk had frozen solid. Luckily there was another Tim Hortons down the road that we could get breakfast at instead - which I didn’t mind at all.
I didn’t take many photos today as the drive through Kamloops was nice, but not particularly striking. The snow capped mountains from yesterday turned into brown hills as we left the coastal ranges and headed towards the rockies. But eventually as we approached the town of Revelstoke, the snow and mountains returned. Unfortunately the weather still wasn’t on our side, but we did get to see some more snowy pine trees so I can’t complain. This was also the first place that we finally tried poutine, the iconic Canadian dish that was essential gravy and cheese over french fry style chips. It was actually pretty good, but not something I think I’ll be eating every day.
As of the time of writing, there’s a weather warning in place for where we’re driving through tomorrow, so our current plan is to get up before sunrise to try and make it through before the storm hits. Ideally making it to lake Louise by late morning.
10 April 2023
Well, after a little more consideration we decided that waking up before dawn to try and make it through a snow storm in a foreign country probably wasn’t the greatest idea I’ve had. So instead we chose to wait it out, allowing us to sleep in and have a slower start to the day. We thought we’d leave Revelstoke at around midday to see where the road would be blocked, but to our surprise we made it right through without any trouble.
The storm that was predicted did seem to arrive however, with the rain turning to snow as we climbed higher in altitude.
Eventually we crossed over from British Colombia into Alberta where the snow was coming down in flurries. When we arrived at Lake Louise the pine trees were all white with snow, and although we couldn’t see any mountain tops, the falling snow made for something of a winter wonderland.
The famous turquoise lake was still frozen over and completely white due to the recent snowfall in the area, allowing people to walk out onto it.
The weather forecast for the area is predicting heavy snowfall overnight, and issued a warning until 8 am Tuesday. We’ll be attempting to drive as far north as Jasper tomorrow if the conditions allow for it, so hopefully the roads will be cleared by then.
11 April 2023
Once again the day didn’t quite go to plan. We showed up to the information center at Lake Louise only to be told that the road north to Jasper (the icefields parkway) was unsafe to drive due to the snow, and likely to be closed. With no alternative route to Jasper available, we decided to cancel that plan and stay the night in Banff instead. There had been some very heavy snowfall overnight, giving the trees (and our car) a fresh coating. Not long after we made it to Banff the snowfall increased significantly with some of the biggest snow flakes I’d ever seen.
Not long after the huge snowfall in Banff, the sky began to clear and the sun came out. As soon as we saw this happening, we jumped into the car and drove somewhere scenic to watch the mountains come out. The resulting landscape was probably my favorite so far in Canada, not such a bad ending to an unplanned day.
12 April 2023
The original plan for the day was to have a slow start to the morning, find somewhere for breakfast and a coffee, before making our way north. This all changed right away when we realized we had been given a short blue sky weather window in Banff. So naturally we threw our things in the car, grabbed some coffee at Tim Hortons (as was now tradition) and started the icefields parkway.
Right away the views were incredible, with huge snowy mountains rising above the morning fog.
The sky to the north didn’t look quite so clear, but to our surprise it continued to clear throughout the day such that we had blue sky above us more often than not. About halfway along the highway we noticed some cars stopping in the middle of the road. As we got closer we found out this was due to a few mountain goats that had made their way onto the highway. They must be pretty used to cars and trucks driving past, as they didn’t seem phased at all.
The day ended with my first and likely only night sky shoot in Canada (spoiler - it wasn’t). Jasper National Park is a dark sky preserve, but despite this we still needed to drive for about 15 minutes to reach bortle 2 (aka very dark skies) as I wanted to try capturing a panorama with airglow and the faint part of the milky way near Capella found in the northern hemisphere, despite it already starting to disappear by this time of year.
To say the shoot didn’t go to plan would be an understatement. I quickly learnt that the highways in Canada are full of truckers at night, with high beams so bright they lit up the entire valley as they came through. I also didn’t realize how few accessible locations there would be to shoot photos with a wide open view of the sky, as every side road had pine trees high on both sides. Eventually we found a little grass park next to the main highway to take a panorama. The resulting photo was honestly a mess, with truck headlights lighting up different parts of the frame and leaving all kinds of light artifacts from interactions with my filter. Regardless I still think it’s an interesting photo, and it highlights a few parts of the sky that are impossible to see from home, including the north star and the big dipper, seen just above some roadside pine trees (single frame from the panorama).
At the end of the night I was basically frozen and couldn’t even feel my fingers (I realized in hindsight that only a light jacket in -4 C weather wasn’t the best idea), and almost passed out when I made it back to the car. Thankfully the car came with seat warmers and a heated steering wheel so I was able to warm up quickly.
13 April 2023
After a late night and a good sleep in, we woke up to near perfect weather conditions, a blessing for our drive south back down the icefields parkway. When we saw this we raced to get ready before grabbing a coffee and once again hitting the road. One thing I noticed about the Canadian Rockies was how obvious the different layers of the mountains were, as they were all covered in horizontal lines. This made for an interesting texture when paired with a dusting of snow, as these layers caused huge white streaks across the face of the mountains.
Those two guys in the bottom right of the photo above asked us to take their picture in front of their car. In exchange they gave us a company branded flask which was an unexpected but cool souvenir. After a couple more hours of driving we made it to Canmore where we both decided that a lazy night was in order. We found a local pizza shop that was actually really good and picked up some Dr Pepper from a grocery store, leading us to now where I’m sitting on the bed of our hotel typing this up.
14 April 2023
Today wasn’t particularly eventful, but we woke up to some nice views before checking out of our hotel in the late morning. Our next room wasn’t ready until later in the day so we spent some time in central Canmore, where I found an astronomy book filled with amazing retro artwork. We also found a candy store with all kinds of foreign looking sweets (and of course candy corn too).
Above the town of Canmore were the three sisters, an iconic string of mountain peaks that made for a pretty dramatic backdrop to our shopping.
Later in the day, the weather forecasts began to show clear skies overnight and being our last night in the Rockies, I felt like I had to go out again to shoot some more photos. I decided on Lake Minnewanka as my location, a short 30 minute drive from our stay although the lake was still completely frozen over at this time of year.
I set out at around 2 am, and although the sky wasn’t completely clear I could see a faint region of the northern milky way rising over a nearby mountain peak. As soon as I started shooting I began to hear strange noises all around me, from twigs snapping in the forest to weird creaking sounds from across the frozen lake. All this had me wondering if there might’ve been some Canadian wildlife awake, so I quickly finished my panorama and headed back before I had the chance to find out. This was one of the images from my panorama, with the bright star Vega sitting above the faint band of the milky way. You can also see the light pollution from Banff, Canmore and Calgary, appearing as a warm glow coming from the horizon and illuminating the surrounding landscape. Luckily the lake was still in a bortle 3 zone so I had no trouble seeing most of the sky.
15 April 2023
It was time to say goodbye to the Canadian Rockies and begin our journey back to the west coast. Before leaving Canmore I took one last picture of the three sisters, a panorama of about nine different images taken with my 135mm lens.
Unfortunately the main road out of the rockies was closed for construction, meaning we had to take a detour that added another couple of hours to our drive. The detour took us through Kootenay National Park which was filled with picturesque mountains and forests, so the views were great but because I was driving I didn’t take any photos. After finishing the detour we headed back to Revelstoke, where we were able to see all the mountain peaks along the way that had been hidden just a few days earlier.
16 April 2023
There wasn’t a whole lot to write about for today. We made the drive back to Lillooet from Revelstoke which was nice but it rained for most of the journey. We also noticed that a few of the frozen lakes alongside the road from our drive a week ago had begun to thaw, revealing some very clear green and blue lakes underneath. I’m sure these lakes would look very nice during the summer months.
While Lillooet is a nice town, and I’m sure there would be more to see here if we put some effort into exploring it, it does feel a little like a glorified truck stop with a motel attached so I think we’ll probably have another lazy evening here. Tomorrow we’ll be driving back to Vancouver, going back the way we came through Squamish and Whistler. As much as I’ve enjoyed driving in Canada, I’ve probably spent an average of about four hours each day behind the wheel, so it’ll be nice to drop the car off and enjoy some train and bus rides for the next few days.
I thought that was where today’s entry would end, but right before we were about to crash for the night I noticed the sky clearing (no prizes for guessing where this is going). Being only a couple of days away from the new moon, and staying in the middle of nowhere, this was a perfect opportunity to shoot the northern regions of the milky way. So I set an alarm for 3 am and went to sleep with the intention of shooting a full panorama in the early hours of the morning. Well, once again this didn’t go to plan. Either my alarms never went off or I slept through both of them but I woke up at 4:10 am, only a few minutes from the beginning of the dawn light. I decided to rush out anyway, frantically throwing my camera gear in the car before driving to the outskirts of the Lillooet town (very safely and slowly of course, and definitely didn’t almost hit a deer). As soon as I begun shooting it was clear that I had started too late, with blue light from dawn flooding the image and washing out the colors of the milky way. To make matters worse I accidentally set up right underneath some powerlines, and framing them against the moving night sky made for some terrible parallax errors. I kept shooting regardless and decided to jump into one of the frames as a little self portrait. Like Jasper, the panorama was messy but I’m glad I made it anyway as I was able to capture the northern summer triangle (the three brightest stars in this single frame below - Deneb, Vega and Altair).
17 to 18 April 2023
I’m combining these two days together as nothing overly notable happened. We dropped the car off in Vancouver without any trouble, and took an uber to our room for the night. We were both pretty tired from all the traveling, so we crashed pretty early in the evening.
The next day we dropped our stuff in a locker for a few hours and walked around the city, getting coffee and souvenirs etc. before heading off to the train station. When we arrived we found out we had actually booked a bus to Seattle, but we they had seats available on the train as well so we opted to switch our tickets. The Amtrak train to Seattle is notorious for delays, and we quickly discovered why. We probably made it all of two minutes before we had a half hour stop to let a cargo train pass. Then another two minutes later, another cargo train needed to use the tracks ahead. Once we finally left the city the train lost power, coming to a halt for about another 15 minutes. What was supposed to be a 7 pm arrival into Seattle on the bus, turned into an 11 pm arrival on the train. At least the views were nice while there was still daylight outside.
19 to 22 April 2023
Because I’m lazy, the next four days are all grouped together. Most of the time was spent exploring both Seattle and Portland (both very cool cities). We picked up some American sim cards, tried out a few new food chains (I liked evergreens a lot), and drank too much matcha latte. I didn’t take many photos here either as I was just enjoying spending time with my sister and great aunt (who we stayed with in Portland).
We did go for a scenic drive however out to Mount Hood. And although the mountain peak was shrouded in cloud, the surrounding area was still beautiful to explore.
23 April 2023
The drive yesterday was fun, but we found out shortly after packing the car to leave for the airport that we must’ve punctured a tire. We made it all of about 20 meters before realizing our back tire was completely flat. Thankfully a kind lady from the same apartment happened to see this, and offered us a ride to the airport. This was where I said goodbye to my sister as she flew back home to continue her university semester, and met up with my dad in Denver. I had a brief layover in Seattle and then I was off to Colorado. The flight wasn’t particularly interesting except for one small thing. When the cabin lights went off, I noticed a bright glow on the horizon. And after pointing my camera out the window of the plane to see what was happening, this is what I saw on the back of my camera screen.
It was the aurora borealis, my first time ever seeing it. The photo wasn’t great as I couldn’t shield the window from all the on board lights, but the green glow of the aurora was still pronounced, you can even spot a couple of stars too as well as another plane (the streak to the right).
A couple of hours later and I was in Denver. I briefly contemplated walking to my motel, but given it was 20 kilometers from the airport, about midnight and I had all of my bags, I quickly realized that was a great way to never arrive. I managed to land a free train pass however, so all went smoothly and I made it to the motel a little before one in the morning.
24 April 2023
Our motel curtains didn’t do a great job of being curtains so we were awake very early with the sunlight, and after a brief stop at Walmart and chick fil a, we left Denver. The mountains were all snow capped and visible from the highway, but the views became more and more scenic the further in we drove.
The first place we stopped at for more than a quick break was twin lakes, situated at the base of Colorado’s tallest mountain, Mount Elbert.
We tried skimming some stones on the lake, but even though it was starting to thaw, there was still too much snow sitting on top. After leaving twin lakes we carried on down to Crested Butte, a scenic alpine resort town a couple of hours south. The drive was of course very scenic with snowy mountains in all directions, some of which reminded me a lot of back home. I found it interesting that even though Colorado’s mountains are taller than the ones in New Zealand, because the valley floors were often around 10,000 ft above sea level the mountains didn’t appear all that tall in comparison. Mount Cook is only a little over 12,000 ft above sea level, but rises from less than 2000 ft. In contrast, Mount Elbert was more than 14,000 ft, but rose out of a valley that was already more than 10,000 ft high.
Because of Colorado’s high elevation, I actually reached the highest point on earth I’ve ever been to, Monarch Pass at 11,312 ft. This isn’t even Colorado’s highest pass, so I might break my own record next week. Shortly after Monarch Pass, we made it to Crested Butte where I am currently, writing this up as it snows outside.
25 April 2023
We left Crested Butte quite early as we had a long day of driving ahead, with our destination for the next night being Moab in Utah. As we left Crested Butte another snow storm came in, lasting for about half an hour as we made our way south to Gunnison.
The drive out of Colorado was scenic as always, with fresh snow and mist framing the roads.
Before long we crossed over into Utah, and instantly we noticed the drivers began following the speed limit. We later found out the Utah police are much stricter than in Colorado, and as such the speed limit is commonly followed.
Rather than taking I-70 all the way across towards Moab, we decided to take a back road past castle valley. This turned out to be an excellent decision as the scenery in the valley was something straight out of a western movie set.
Our campsite in Moab was fairly minimal, but had all the essentials. I decided to sleep in the car as I wanted to wake up early and photograph the stars in Arches National Park, about a 30 minute drive from where we were camping.
We decided to take our dinner into the park and watch the sun go down, which was a very cool experience. Not long after we arrived however, we heard some piercing screams coming from the restrooms as two women ran out in a panic. For a second I was half expecting a rattlesnake to follow them but it turned out to be a little mouse. But the atmosphere was otherwise very peaceful. After finishing our dinner and watching the stars come out, we returned back to camp.
I didn’t sleep for long however, as I woke up to my alarm at around 3 am and drove back into the park.
This was my first time seeing the Northern Hemisphere milky way in a truely dark location. Despite being fainter than its Southern counterpart, I could still reveal lots of detail with some long exposures, including the panorama below taken at balancing rock.
After balancing rock, i made my way over to the Garden of Eden. I didn't know where i was at the time, and only found this out afterward, tracing back my path on google maps. By now the milky way had risen higher into the sky, sitting perfectly for another arch panorama.
In hindsight i wish i had purchased a good lens for panoramas before this trip, as all of these nightscapes were taken at 14mm, but either way the dark skies made for easy shooting.
26 April 2023
We had the intention of spending the next night near castle valley alongside the road we drove in on, but our plans changed when we explored the wider Moab area.
Arches National Park was trialling a new timed entry program to reduce congestion in the park, giving us the morning free as our ticket was for midday. In this time we decided to explore a canyon south of Moab that I’d found on google maps. Almost instantly we decided this was an even better location to stay, and there were numerous campsites along the way.
After picking out a campsite, to which we’d later return, we headed back into Arches to explore the park during the day. We decided on a couple of arches in particular to visit, with the first being perhaps the most famous, a very picturesque location named delicate arch.
The walk was around 3 miles return which didn’t take too long, but it meant the crowds thinned a little. Even so, being such a popular location there was always going to be a crowd at the lookout.
In hindsight I wish I’d brought my proper camera, as there was a beautiful composition with the background mountains inside the arch, but my kit lens wasn’t able to zoom in enough to capture this properly. Regardless, the arch was cool to see and although this exact photograph has probably been captured millions of times before, it was fun to see it in person.
We spent a little more time exploring the park before heading back into our canyon campsite. The sky was perfectly clear as night fell, with a quarter moon illuminating the landscape nicely.
27 April 2023
I could have easily stayed in Moab for weeks, exploring the various canyons and desert landscapes, but our time had come to an end. We packed our things and set off for Monument Valley, an iconic western landscape on the border of Utah and Arizona.
This was the first day that the vastness of the American west truely became apparent, with huge flat plains stretching out as far as the eye could see. The drive to Monument Valley didn’t take too long, and after a couple of hours we had arrived. The valley wasn’t operated by the national park service but rather it was situated on a Navajo reservation, and featured a drivable loop around the most iconic lookouts.
The loop road was probably the bumpiest stretch of earth I had ever encountered, and I’m somewhat surprised our rental car even survived it. There was also a very fine dust that was kicked up by passing cars, sticking to everything it touched. The views made up for this however, as the familiar buttes framed the landscape in all directions. Monument valley seems to be the default location for western Hollywood movies, and an iconic view point was featured in Forrest Gump. As we drove past “Forrest Gump lookout” we had to be careful as there were dozens of people trying to take the famous photograph standing in the middle of the road.
As night fell I decided to wake up again to try and photograph the stars after moonset, however the dust from earlier in the day was blowing like crazy outside. Unfortunately this ended with both me and my camera getting covered in fine red dust, which also managed to somehow coat the inside of our car too. I was happy with how the photos came out though, with the milky way arching over our illuminated tent. It would’ve been cool to drive out and photograph the buttes close up under the stars, but I think if I’d stayed out any longer my camera wouldn’t have survived the invasion of red dust.
28 to 29 April 2023
Our time in Monument Valley was short as well, and as morning came we packed our things and left, destination Santa Fe.
I didn’t take many photos during my time in Santa Fe, as we were staying with my aunt, and my dad and I were just enjoying spending time with her. That said, the town and surrounding areas of Santa Fe had some beautiful architecture that I wish I had photographed more. Almost all of the buildings and houses were adobe style, and the town almost felt like a part of Mexico (just with more Starbucks and Teslas).
30 April 2023
I wish I could’ve stayed longer in Santa Fe but once again it was time to move on, with our next stop being back in Colorado. We didn’t have a plan for where we would stay the night but found a last minute campsite on the side of Blanca Peak, a prominent mountain just outside of San Dunes National Park. The mountains behind the sand dunes were some of the closest in shape to those back home, and reminded me a lot of the Remarkable's in Queenstown.
There were also some great night skies at Blanca Peak, and after waking up at 4 am, I decided I needed to get another quick shot. My dad was also awake and agreed to light up the tent again, this time with a white light. I took a two panel panorama to create the following image.
I was impressed with the amount of detail I could get without a tracker, and only using 20 second exposures (for both this and the monument valley photo).
1 May 2023
On the first day of the month we made a short journey across the San Luis valley to Penatente Canyon. Once again I didn’t take many photos today, but right before night fell a nice cloud formation became backlit by the setting sun.
This was almost where the entry for today ended but shortly before midnight my dad came and joined me in the car to sleep. There had been a pack of Coyotes coming right up to the tent and making all sorts of growling sounds. Eventually he realized they weren’t going away, and sleeping in the tent would not be easy that night. In the morning we found dog prints all around the tent site.
2 May 2023
Today was once again a fairly uneventful day. We packed up our things and began to drive north, back to Denver. We had an early morning flight to California the following day so we had decided to book a motel room right near the airport. On the way through Denver we caught up with a distant relative at a local brewery, and it was nice to hear another New Zealand accent for the first time in weeks.
Our motel was pretty nice, much nicer than the motel 6 from our first night in Denver anyway. We found a local Mexican restaurant for dinner, and after not long after we were both asleep.
3 May 2023
We’d picked an 8 am flight from Denver to LA, but because we had to drop off our rental car and go through airport security etc, we were both up at 5 am. The flight across the western US was pretty scenic, with Bryce and Zion canyons visible from the air (both locations we had visited around six years earlier). I also managed to spot the hoover dam in Las Vegas, as well as one of the valleys in Utah we had driven through a week earlier.
As we approached LA, the city seemed to go on forever. We must’ve flown for at least 20 minutes just over the endless suburbs, really giving a sense of just how big the city is, and what we were about to have to drive through. Not long after landing we were on the highway out of LA in our rental, the traffic wasn’t as bad as I was expecting although I think we were there at a good time of day. On the way out of the city we tried ‘in and out’ for the first time which I thought was pretty decent.
After a couple hours of driving, and a couple of missed highway exits, we finally made it into Joshua tree country, with the alien trees lining both sides of the road. The trees continued to thicken as we approached the national park, until we finally made it through the park gates.
I know the park is called Joshua tree national park, but I was still surprised at the sheer number of trees around. They were everywhere, in all shapes and sizes, with some looking perfect for climbing although I’m not sure you’re allowed to do that unfortunately.
We somehow found ourselves at our campground playing a ball game with two very drunk (or high? not sure) middle aged Americans.
4 to 7 May 2023
After leaving Joshua Tree, we headed north towards Lone Pine - a mountain town nestled under the highest mountain in the lower 48, Mount Whitney. The drive was quite a long one, but nothing crazy compared to some of our last few days.
A few hours north of Joshua Tree we passed by an iconic sign - Trona. This was the town that we accidentally drove through six years earlier, one of the most barren and desolate places I had ever seen. Our maps had told us there were dozens of cafes and food shops but instead we only found a glorified abandoned looking gas station with a dirt football pitch next to it.
A couple of hours later and we were in Lone Pine, a small alpine town at the base of Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the continental United States. The scenery here was epic, featured in plenty of Hollywood movies over the years; in particular the so called “movie road” that ran through the Alabama hills.
We spent a couple of days exploring rock formations in the area and enjoying the mountains scenery - particularly the views of Mount Whitney and Lone Pine Peak.
One evening while walking through town, we stumbled upon a photography gallery that was celebrating its opening night. The photographs inside were incredible, several of which were taken in New Zealand and looked oddly familiar.. the next day I realized it was the gallery for Joshua Cripps - a photographer whose work I had discovered years prior!
After a couple of days at Lone Pine, we drove south again back to LA for our flight back home. Along the way we found an art piece called the musical road, basically small grooves covering a section of road such that the frequencies would generate music when driving at an exact speed. The music however was awfully out of pitch, something that was hilarious to experience. I remember first hearing about the road from a Tom Scott video on YouTube so when I realized we would be driving right past it, I knew we had to check it out.
This was basically where the trip came to an end, and after a struggle against LA traffic, we finally made it to LAX where we flew back to New Zealand. The trip was one for the books, and gave me a new found appreciation for the landscapes of North America, an appreciation that will no doubt have me returning for more soon.