09-27-2023 Primtime Living - Flipbook - Page 10
10 A Special Advertising Section of Baltimore Sun Media Group | Wednesday, September 27, 2023
TRAVEL
Highway 50
The USA from
shore to shore
By E. Rose Scarff, Contributing Writer
T
he first time I turned off Interstate 80 onto Highway 50 toward Placerville
in California and saw the sign that read “Ocean City, MD, 3,095 miles,” I
wanted to go from one end to the other. I grew up in Maryland and now live
in the San Francisco Bay Area. This past summer I finally had time to do the trip.
Highway 50 is not an interstate highway, but travels through the center of
our country, through ranch land and
farms, across mountains and rivers.
After leaving the San Francisco Bay
Area, the only large cities you encounter
before Washington, D.C., are Kansas
City, St. Louis and Cincinnati.
I had two weeks for the trip, which I
thought was ample, but I spent so much
time in the West that I had to rush the
last part of the trip. I would have liked
another week to do a more leisurely
journey and a whole month would have
given me time to explore some of the
cities as well.
When planning the trip, I found
“Moon Road Trip USA” by Jamie Jensen
very helpful. He mentions things to do,
places to eat and places to stay in the
towns you pass through, plus details
for side trips you could take if you had
the time.
Because of my time constraints I did
not stray far off Highway 50 but enjoyed
the small towns and the National Parks
that were on or just a few miles off the
Highway. Here are a few of the highlights for me.
Nevada: from Carson City to Ely,
Highway 50 is called “The Loneliest
Highway” and the “Lincoln Highway”
and follows part of the route used by
the Pony Express. Nevada surprised me
as I traveled across one mountain range
after another. Because of all the snow
and rain this past winter and spring,
the countryside was surprisingly green.
Great Basin National Park is at the far
eastern edge of the state. Wheeler Peak
(at 13,063 feet) has a scenic drive up
to over 10,000 feet. From there I hiked
higher to Stella Lake with a wonderful
view of Wheeler Peak.
Utah: Highway 50 travels through a
landscape that gives you a taste of what
is to be found in the many National Parks
there, which I did not have time to visit.
At the far eastern end of the state, along
the Green River, is the excellent John
Wesley Powell River History Museum.
Powell led the first trip down the Green
and Colorado Rivers through the Grand
Canyon in 1869. The museum does an
excellent job chronicling Powell’s first
and second trips down the rivers. It also
features modern river runners, before
the creation of the Glen Canyon Dam
that submerged much of their river running territory.
Colorado: Just across the border
from Utah is the Colorado National
Monument. It is an education in the
geology of the area and well worth a
drive-through and a hike. Then the highway leaves mesa country and climbs
through verdant mountain valleys, ranch
land and forest as it crosses the Rockies.
But Bent’s Old Fort, situated on the
Arkansas River on the plains, I found
most impressive. It is an adobe fort
built originally by the Bent brothers in
1833 and was a busy fur trading post
until 1848 when it burned. The current
fort was recreated for the bicentennial
in 1976 using plans and drawings made
by an early visitor. It gives a very real
picture of what life was like on the plains
before the great western expansion.
Although there is plenty to see in
Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio
and West Virginia, I did not stop for
real sightseeing until I reached Virginia.
Although I have made many trips to this
state over the years, I had never been to
Middleburg to visit the National Sporting