Summer Road Trip
Drive across western USA, in my electric car, with my Chinese friend, Li Chi.
Each year, I migrate about 1,200 miles (2,000 KM) between my winter house, in Denver, and my summer cabin (or "dacha") in White Salmon, Washington. White Salmon is a tiny town, but it is across the Columbia River from Hood Rive - kite-surfing capital of the world. :)
This trip is made a bit more interesting, because I do the whole thing while driving an electric car. The car can drive approximately 200 miles (320KM) on a single charge, but in order to keep the battery healthy, I only charge about 175 miles each time. This used to mean that I would stop and wait for up to 7 hours, in order to go just 175 miles! But thanks to Tesla's "SuperChargers" the time has been reduced to just 30-50 minutes.
The drive starts with a huge climb up into the Rocky Mountains.
That's the first part of trip.
This is at the "Continental Divide". That's the electric vehicle, a "Tesla Model S". This is where the two tectonic plates in America meet, and create the Rocky Mountains. You can drive quite high, to 4,100 meters, and then hike even higher.
Here, I'm hiking at about 4,300 meters elevation, together with my road-trip passenger, Li Chi. Li Chi is my Chinese friend, who I know from Mongolia a long time ago. He is visiting the USA, but he works in Myanmar now (Rangoon).
On the hike to "Hanging Lake" -- a beautiful lake that hangs between two cliffs.
The next morning, we entered the Utah desert. Here is the road heading into Moab, Utah.
so-called "courthouse rock" in Arches National Park
"Double Arch" in the Arches National Park -- the people walking under it, provide some perspective of size.
Li Chi takes a photo. It was very hot that day -- about 111F, or 45C.
Now, I'll spend my summer in this place - the Columbia River Gorge:
Here is Multnoma Falls, in the Gorge. I once fell about 30 meters at these falls!
