Last year when me and the wife got our 2017 Mini Countryman we decided we wanted to make a nice long road trip in it. We decided to go see the Redwoods in Northern California. Last month we finally made it happen. From Houston and back it was a total of 17 days, 5686 miles, 6 hotels, 3 B&Bs, 1 Inn, 4 camp sites and a yurt. We hit up so many great places along the way.



Texas:
Starting out

We gave ourselves a 1300 departure time. One minute late ain't bad.


It's actually amazing the amount of room this car has. We don't have a spare kit so the tent, tarp, grill and accessories were all stored in the area under the trunk.

San Antonio River Walk


Initially we were going to drive all the way out to Ft Davis but we decided to use up some hotel rewards points and stay on the Riverwalk our first night. San Antonio is a fun city to visit. If you haven't been, give it a try.

Ft. Davis /McDonald Observatory and Prada Marfa


Stopped at the McDonald Observatory neat Ft. Davis, TX. Was an awesome place to visit, but it was over-cast and we didn't get to see much :(


Some great rock formations on the way to the observatory.


We absolutely HAD to stop and get a pic at the Prada Marfa exhibit in Valentine, TX. Too funny.

Arizona
Once we got out of Texas the landscape got a little more exciting. There were lots of great hills and rock formations in Arizona. However we didn't get any good pictures of them accept this one. It was taken just outside of Yuma, AZ where we spent our 3rd night.



Southern California
San Diego - We toured the Stone Brewery, visited La Jolla and went to watch the sunset at Mt. Soledad. My wife used to live here and she'd come watch the sunsets here often. It really is a nice view.


La Jolla


La Jolla


Mt. Soledad Sunset


Los Angeles, We toured the Getty, drove Mulhulland Dr. and went shopping a bit in Beverly Hills. But I didn't get any note worthy pics.

Malibu - we drove out to a remote area in Malibu and stayed on an all organic farm.


This is the yurt we stayed in.


And this was the road we had to drive to get there.


It was awesome.

From LA we started taking the Pacific Coast Highway up towards San Francisco. We stopped at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park for our first night of "Cadillac Camping."


Pfeiffer Big Sur, with the Big Sure River in the background


Somewhere along the PCH south of San Francisco.

San Francisco - We had friends who lived near SF so we stayed there for two nights. We toured the city, visited Alcatraz and had a few great meals. Also, public nudity is legal there.


Golden Gate


From the moon roof of the Mini


Alcatraz, taken from the ferry


San Francisco taken from Alcatraz


The Painted Ladies behind us (not pictured are the naked dudes dancing in the park)

Northern California
Chandelier Tree and Fortuna Cabin


The Chandelier Tree in Leggett. 315 ft tall. 2400 years old!

Still enough room to open the doors too I think.



The tiny cabin we stayed in in Fortuna CA. Yes that's the tub outside to the left.

Avenue of the Giants - We spent the next day driving through the area including The Avenue of the Giants and saw 2 of the featured trees in the area.


Avenue of the Giants





Giant Tree 363 ft tall 53.2 ft around





Eureka, CA - Most Norther point of our trip
We stayed at an Inn that used to be a brothel. Good times.


The Inn was just above Cafe Waterfront


Tried to get a Mini pic here but the truck JUST pulled up. :(


The Trip back through CA
We stayed at 3 different camp sites on the way back south.

Grizzly Creek State Park





Black Butte Lake







Leo Carrillo State Park, but we didn't get any picture.

Fire Damage in Northern CA


Scorched trees





Scorched grasslands


After 3 nights of camping we spent a day at Glen Ivy Hot Springs Spa swimming in mineral baths and mud. But we left our phones in the lockers. Just know there was a lot of skin on display and a good time was had by all.

From there we left CA and headed to the Grand Canyon for our last major attraction.
Skywalk at Eagle Point, AZ


Do you see why they call it Eagle Point??


The river waaaaay down there.


The Skywalk. We weren't allowed to take our camera/phones onto the walk so I took a pic from the side. Photographers where there selling pics at $16 a pop. Was still a great view.

From the Grand Canyon we drove to Snowflake, AZ and stayed in a wonderful B&B that actually made us breakfast. And it was really, really good. Just remember to set your watches to the right timezone. And apparently not all of AZ observes Daylight Savings...
Then it was back to Texas and much cheaper gas prices.
And then after 5600+ miles we were home.

 

This looks like such an awesome trip!! I know me and my wife loved camping out of our countryman because there was so much room to put anything we needed and buy stuff along the way on MTTS2018. All of these pictures made me even more excited to go visit the west coast.

On a side note, is that the same Omega or do you have a collection? It's definitely a beautiful watch

 

Great pics, we've made two cross country trips in our Mini. The second was all the way up the PCH in California, then south thru Yellowstone. Your're right, those trees are hugh!

 

Yeah it was an awesome trip. We're trying to figure out our next one. I've heard about MTTS but don't really know much about it yet. Will have to look into it. The west coast was a blast, I highly recommend it.
Thanks for the compliment on the watch. It's the same Omega in both pics, though Ido have a small collection. I bought the leather NATO strap in Beverly Hills just to be able to say I've shopped there and as a keepsake from the trip.

 

Man I wish we had had more time to visit more parks on the way home. Hopefully we'll get back over there soon. I think next up is the East Coast. My brother-in-law lives in SC so we have a nice staging point.