---TRAVEL is an activity that became an intregal part of my adult persona as a result of childhood impressions. Does this all sound familiar? The "we are a product of our environment" aficionados would love this; however, looking around at my extended family members, I also could easily detect a touch of genetic-based wanderlust.

---Nevertheless, I began my various treks away from home at an early age as both of my parents were avid explorers who once made it a mission to stay overnight at every state park in the State of Oklahoma no matter how long it took. Actually, if memory serves me right, it was done in only ONE summer! And if that wasn't sufficient exposure to the outside world, I also accompanied them and other members of that extended family to approximately 40 different states before I reached the age of 12.

---Yes, we were a travelin' bunch. My parents were both teachers in Oklahoma City and those summer breaks afforded the perfect opportunity to see and explore the myriad other beautiful sites of this fair country.

---In conjunction with all of this travel, I became very interested in cartography, a passion I hold to this day. I absolutely loved maps-reading them, drawing them, acting as "navigator" on the trips, etc.-and in those days they were (gasp) free! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, there was a time in the history of this fair land when service stations actually provided service and even offered you a free map. Nowadays, I buy topographic, relief and other maps for specific areas and also enjoy a great mapping program on my computer that can even be connected to a GPS setup.

---Those were really fun days. My grandparents, cousins or some relative would accompany us. Sometimes we'd stay in a motel, sometimes we'd camp out and many times the mid-day meal was on a picnic table in a roadside rest or park. These adventures were not with pitfalls, however. I distinctly remember a nature call where I visited a shallow depression in the ground near the mouth of a culvert somewhere in the staked plains of Texas. During the course of this necessary activity, the distinct sound of shaking rattles echoed from the culvert pipe and I quickly exited the area. As we were spending the night there, Dad quickly dispatched the diamondback with his trusty .22 and we all slept better that evening.

---Just after eighth grade, my family moved to the Central Valley of California and, finding ourselves the only family members not within a couple of hours driving time, we were obligated to make many 1500 mile trips back and forth to Oklahoma in the years that followed. Of course, these jaunts offered numerous opportunities for side trips to various points in Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico, all possessing unique vistas and areas of interest to explore. When company did come to our home in California, we were so close to Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks that it was simply obligatory that we "show them the sites." I can remember basically memorizing every linear foot of the way between our house and some of the above. The tour guide routine, at times, almost seemed to be extreme. I just hope all those relatives enjoyed the sites. If so, I suppose, it was all worth it.

---This penchant for wanderlust continued when I had my own family. We lived in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California and the pickup and camper or a weekend in a travel trailer were never far away. Once in Yosemite it was a good thing that the trailer was not "far away" when a bear lumbered into our camp. My wife and one daughter had time to make it to the relative protection of the 13' Field and Stream trailer while I grabbed the baby and just made it into the cab of our trusty Ford F-250. Living so close to many natural wonders was a real bonus as the worst part of vacationing, getting there, took a relatively short time thereby allowing more real vacation time at our destination/campsite.

---As they do today, the places then that attracted my interest the most were the little known "off the beaten path" locations. After all, if you want to "get away from it all," the last place you want to go is where everyone else is. This is where a really detailed Forest Service, BLM or topographical map comes in handy. Even so, some of them are pretty outdated. Case in point---I was antelope hunting (okay, so they're not really antelope, they're Pronghorn) in the Wagontire Unit of Central Oregon and the map issued by the State of Oregon's Department of Transportation for that area between Brothers and Christmas Valley was so inaccurate it was laughable. Enter a quadrant map from the geodetic service---still didn't do the job. So the self-proclaimed "map nut" decided to take matters into his own hands.

---I had packed about 5 different maps of the area for the hunting trip (does that surprise anyone?) so I was well prepared. Jim, my hunting partner, and I decided to take one day to explore and map the area for future reference. We carefully noted road conditions, if they even existed anymore, and the placement of new byways throughout the area. Now, having a better "mousetrap" than any currently in existence, I contacted the Department of Transportation, explained to them how someone could die out there in the middle of nowhere if they tried to follow the official state map and told them I would send them the current information we had gleaned from our travels. They said thank you and assured me they would incorporate the correct routes in the next printing of the state map.

---Now all you pollyannas out there who are expecting a happy ending to this story, wipe your tears. In the usual bumbling governmental fashion, they didn't redo the entire area and replace the roads on the state map that hadn't existed for 30 years as I had thoroughly pointed out with drawings, mileages, etc.; they simply tried to cut and paste the new routes over the old ones and created a more confusing and inaccurate mess than they had before!

---You're probably wondering why I seem to be so fixated on the lack of firm cartographic direction in this particular geographical area. Well, the antelope/pronghorn expedition was not the first time I had been in this remote area. The previous encounter was on a moonless night shortly after we had moved to Oregon from California. Our family had spent a little too much time exploring the natural wonders around Christmas Valley (i.e. Crack In The Ground, Hole-In-The-Ground, The Lost Forest, Sand Dunes, etc.) and the sun was starting to set when we decided to head home.

---Instead of returning via the paved highway, I decided to take a shortcut due north to US Highway 20 (after all, the route was shown right there on my trusty OFFICIAL Oregon map!). It was Springtime and the heavy rains in the area had made many of the dirt roads soft and I think I found every one of them. After two hours of fruitless wandering, I finally gave up on the map, poked my head out of the window and followed the North Star like some lost seafarer. Eventually, we arrived at the highway and I don't recall when asphalt ever looked that good.

---There have been other "adventures" that befall those like me who like the more "non-traditional" routes of travel. Let me preface this next story with a fact known to many travelers, explorers and hunters in Eastern Oregon and uniformly detested by all of them---the practice of some ranchers that have county roads bisecting their property of erecting locked gates across said road. Of course, this is completely illegal, but I guess they figure being a billion miles from anywhere, nobody's going to notice.

---We were traveling through some absolutely gorgeous country of painted hills and unusual geological formations on a road that, according to the latest map, clearly made a loop through the area and exited about 20 miles later onto the same highway where we had started the drive. Well, you guessed it---18 miles later we came to a locked steel gate by a ranch house with nobody home and no way around the gate. From this vantage point near the top of a hill, I could see the road continuing on through his property and could also see where it met the highway a couple of miles ahead. That view of "so close yet so far" only compounded my frustration as we backtracked the full 18 miles of gravel and dirt roads to our point of origin. Talk about misplaced territorial imperative!

---A discourse on travel would not be complete without a "Top Ten" list of favorite vacation spots. Actually, I didn't construct this list based upon a particular specific destination spot but more on certain "areas" in the West that I've enjoyed visiting. Also, there is no particular ranking as they all are equally interesting.

(1) Central Oregon: Offers both rolling, hilly and mountainous terrain, juniper and pine forests, world-renowned Smith Rock (a rock climbers mecca), rivers and waterfalls, numerous hiking opportunities, interesting lava flows, views of stunning, snow-capped mountains, unique geological formations and great hunting and fishing. But most importantly, approximately 80% of the land east of the Cascades in Oregon is public land---no fences (except as mentioned above), easy access and plenty of places to get away from it all.

(2)Eastern Oregon: A sometimes stark contrast of endless high desert punctuated by mountain peaks surrounding crystal-clear lakes, the wild and scenic Hell's Canyon of the Snake River, Steens Mountain rising abruptly from the Alvord Desert floor, the oasis of Frenchglen, ghost towns and old schoolhouses standing alone against the desert winds, the remains of a huge inland sea and a cave where a moccasin was found and carbon-dated to be at least several thousand years old and a plethora of locations where you can be the only human being within a radius of 20 miles if you so desire.

(3)Western Oklahoma: Especially beautiful in Springtime when the grasses are lush and green, it offers rolling prairie dotted by herds of cattle, towns and settlements that have remained relatively unchanged for decades, hard-working, honest and friendly people, a rich history of pioneer times and settlement of Indian lands, great fishing in reservoirs and rivers, some of the best quail hunting anywhere and many pleasant childhood memories too numerous to recount here.

(4)San Juan Islands: A part of the state of Washington located between the "mainland" and Vancouver Island, British Columbia where the Strait of Georgia meets the Juan de Fuca Strait, the San Juans are a popular vacation spot that offers a menu of vacation choices for the traveler including quaint shops in Friday Harbor and other locales, getaway rentals for extended stays, boat trips that weave throughout the many islands and the relaxing freshness of sea air to breathe.

(5)Victoria, British Columbia: Just next door to the San Juans is the historical city of Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia, the westernmost province of Canada. Home of Parliament, the museum of natural history that ranks with the best I've seen, beautiful gardens, especially the Buchart Gardens north of the city, side boat trips to the myriad islands dotting the Strait of Georgia between the city and Vancouver on the mainland and other unique characteristics make this city, although certainly not qualified as "off the beaten path," a great place to visit.

(6)Northern Arizona: I have many childhood memories of this beautiful area where one can see many natural wonders including, of course, the most famous one of all, the Grand Canyon. I remember the first time I approached the edge of this giant chasm in the Earth and the awe (and a little trepidation) I felt looking down. Later, as an Explorer Scout, my troop took a trip to the area, descended to the bottom on the Kaibab Trail and climbed back to the rim the next day on the Bright Angel Trail. No mules for us! Other spots of beauty in this region are Monument Valley, Walnut Canyon, the Petrified Forest, Painted Desert, Tuzigoot, Meteor Crater and, until just a few years ago, the last, remaining vestige of US Route 66 in Williams, just west of Flagstaff.

(7)Central Sierra Nevada Mountains: The home of Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, this area offers plenty of different delights for the traveler including a tree you can drive a car through (Wawona), majestic waterfalls (Yosemite, Bridalveil, Sentinel), incredibly tall and ancient trees (General Grant Grove), deep scenic canyons, Moro Rock, El Capitan, great opportunities for hiking and/or bicycling and just across Tioga Pass on the leeward side of the mountains, the stark landscape of Mono Lake and the ghost town of Bodie which is kept in a state of "arrested decay," as the Park Service describes it.

(8)Oregon Coast: While living in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, I had plenty of opportunities to visit the many beauties of the Oregon coastline. Unlike many other states, Oregon law has deemed its coastline as forever public lands so access is not a problem. From Astoria to Brookings, one can see points of delight with names like Fort Clatsop (the final destination of the Lewis and Clark expedition), the "D" River (shortest river in the world) near Lincoln City, the Devil's Punchbowl, Cape Perpetua, a supposedly haunted lighthouse, the Oregon Dunes and many others. And no trip to the coast is complete without a piping hot bowl of Mo's famous clam chowder, served with a slice of toasted garlic bread and a cup of piping hot coffee.

(9)Wyoming/Montana/South Dakota/Colorado: This geographical area in the north-central Rocky Mountains especially appeals to me due to its historical connections. It is home to the Oregon Trail, the Battle of the Little Big Horn (also known as Custer's Last Stand) and Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands among others. Usually foreboding and seemingly impassable, at South Pass in south central Wyoming, the Rocky Mountains seem to melt away into a broad flatland barely discernible as a mountain range. It was here, at the only geographical opening of this kind in the U.S., that thousands of immigrants trekked through on their journey westward to California and Oregon in the mid-1800's. Two hundred miles to the north, in the stillness of a Montana afternoon, you can almost hear the sounds of battle and smell the burning powder along the Little Big Horn River in the unrelenting heat of that fateful June afternoon. Nearby is Devils Tower, an very unusual geologic formation with religious significance to the Native Americans of the area (and a key prop in the movie "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind"). Moving eastward and the magnificence of Mt. Rushmore and eerie beauty of the Badlands greet the traveler's eyes. And finally, if you're ever in Colorado, be sure and drive on the "World's Highest Highway," a winding drive to the top of Mt. Evans. On the way, you'll look DOWN at the peaks of mountains over 12,000 feet tall and any type of strenuous exercise at the top might require a trip to one of the oxygen dispensing machines available there.

(10)Home: It's really unusual perhaps to view one's home in a dual role as a favorite "vacation" spot but alas it is true. I live on five acres in the country surrounded by other unoccupied acreage, a hundred or so juniper trees, a variety of animal life including deer, rabbits, birds and coyotes and with a stunningly beautiful panoramic vista to the west called the Cascade Mountains. A simple stroll through the property (usually followed by my two cats, Elton and Habibe) or a hike to the Deschutes River only a half-mile away offer the same sense of peace and tranquility as the more conventional method of "getting away from it all."

---In closing, I'd like to hear about your adventures in the some of the areas mentioned above and if you have some "must see" spots you've visited, let me know. I'd hate to miss out on some "diamond in the rough" that I overlooked.

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Send E-Mail To Dave: davemasonhall@blazemail.com

© 1999--Dave Masonhall

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