Go West?

HoosierCowgirl · Aug 31, 2007

Hi, everybody,
Have any of you traveled in the West? What are your favorite places and why? Scenic? Inspirational? Historical?

The family is in the talking stages of going out to Yellowstone "someday."

Best regards
Ann

JeanneTGC · Aug 31, 2007

Well, I've only lived in the Southwest, so the majority of my travels have been "out here".

The Grand Canyon is not to be missed. All of Arizona is great, but, trust me, come in the fall or winter.

Unless you really and truly love it HOT, and then we're your year 'round opportunity.

All the Southwestern states have fun and interesting things to do. Aside from Yellowstone, what does your family like to do/have an interest in? It's easier to recommend if we've got some kind of idea of what you're shooting for. (This has been an unpaid announcement for the Arizona and Southwestern Tourists Bureau.

)

Cav Guy · Sep 1, 2007

All Western states have many things of interest, both scenic and historical. Yellowstone alone has a very rich history, but near there you have the site of the Fetterman Fight, The Little Bighorn Battlefield, the Tetons...I could go on and on.

Never been to the southwest myself (unless you're one of those folks that include Utah in the southwest...like the creeping midwest/heartland phenomenon that drives me insane), but I may have to at some point since I'm working up a historical Western set in and near Fort Whipple/Prescott/Camp Mohave.

HoosierCowgirl · Sep 1, 2007

I've been reading "Son of the Morning Star" about Gen. Custer, partly because I enjoyed his wife's books ("Tenting on the Plains,"etc.) so much as a kid.

I was hoping to see the BAdlands, the Black Hills, Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone. I noticed lots of places I'd read about in the atlas. DD and I would lean toward historic sites while DH and the boys would lean towards wildlife and hiking. The Sioux have always fascinated me

If the kids got bored I could tell them to imagine coming out this far in a wagon and teams of oxen.

Pre-kids, DH and I talked about seeing the Grand Canyon one year but we were still milking cows at the time and not able to get away.

Then, there's Texas.

Perhaps more than one trip is called for

Do you all find travel inspirational?

Ann

JeanneTGC · Sep 1, 2007

I find the different scenery inspirational. But I'm lucky -- much of my writing is centered on the Southwest, and I can look out at Arizona's landscape whenever I want to. And I grew up in Southern California so know that well, too.

I think you can find inspiration pretty much anywhere. But sometimes it's fun to find it someplace other than where you live.

Vanatru · Sep 2, 2007

I traveled a fair bit throughout the southwest, having been stationed in Texas, Arizona, and California. Also have traveled a fair bit through southern New Mexico.

All are very beautiful...........and inspiring. Loved the Big Ben area of western Texas. The mountains of Arizona are amazing (now if I could just find Cochise's treasure). California was ok, nothing special. When we had down time we'd go to the historical settlements and I was constantly amazed at how hard life must have been back in the day. How tough the people would have had to be to get by.

Of course, that always leads me to think how wussified people are today. IMO. OMG, the AC in your car is broke? How do you get by? What, I have to walk there? That's half a mile away. Mom, the microwave is broke. And so on.

100 years ago even, they were tough capable people.

HoosierCowgirl · Sep 3, 2007

The kids are perking up their ears ... your comment about walking made me smile. The kids grumble if we have to park out-of-the way at a store or restaurant and DH likes to aks them who are the ones who are so crazy about hiking the "rugged" trails at the state parks

They insist this is different.

If we do get to go out that way, definitely taking a sketch book as well as a camera.

Ann

AussieBilly · Sep 3, 2007

Go west young lady ... to the real west

HoosierCowgirl said:
Hi, everybody,
Have any of you traveled in the West? What are your favorite places and why? Scenic? Inspirational? Historical?

From this thread I get the idea that y’all are a bunch of Yankees … or all from the left coast. True at this time of my life I’m on the east coast of a foreign country but I grew up in the Pacific Northwest … so when someone says ‘the west’ I naturally think of what’s familiar to me … not the tourist gonna visit places, but the home places. That includes the best parts of California (that’s mostly everything north of the gold country … great history and wonderful for your heroes and villains) Idaho and Montana, more history and locations for your fictional history … but the best, as far as I’m concerned, is the high desert of Central and Eastern Oregon. The Oregon Trail, Nez Perce and Shoshone tribes, cattle ranching and rustling, stage holdups and the 1860s Sheep War, Peter French and the infamous P Ranch saga … Oregon is perfect for the writer.

Of course, so is any of the other dozen or so ‘western states.’

Vanatru · Sep 3, 2007

HoosierCowgirl said:
The kids are perking up their ears ... your comment about walking made me smile. The kids grumble if we have to park out-of-the way at a store or restaurant and DH likes to aks them who are the ones who are so crazy about hiking the "rugged" trails at the state parks They insist this is different.

If we do get to go out that way, definitely taking a sketch book as well as a camera.

Ann

I think I scare my kids when they say something that smacks of lazyiness and I throw them that crazy-eyed look and grimace. I make sure I don't throw in that "we used to have hump 30 miles to get to an operational zone and your bitching about skipping a 100 meters?"

It's not just Americans that have gotten lazy. It's most of the Western world. I pretty much always smirk when I hear how tough these kids think they are, which usually comes out when they're playing video games.

"Oh yeah, your a real bad ass. Get your shoes on, we're going for a walk." That'll usually stops the smack, and I'm thinking of just a walk to the mailbox.

I always tell 'em I'd love for us to go on vacation with the Survivorman or Bear Gryhils (sp), for two weeks!

Ok, I just recieved some intell: While I admire the toughness of the earlier generations............I will admit they did have several suck factors: Crappy medicine. Crappy iPods.......though I hear they did have sPods (steampods), and no computers. While very vogue, the telegraphboard forums just never caught on. Maybe it's not the living conditions I should admire but the resolution of the people to drive on in the face of adversity.

On, I forgot. Indoor plumbing. Man, what a blessing that is. Specially if you've ever had to burn a thousand gallons of human waste and gas. Not just in Vietnam, but in Iraq/Afghanistan as well. Kudos to my evil cat friend for pointing that out.

JeanneTGC · Sep 3, 2007

Vanatru said:
Ok, I just recieved some intell: While I admire the toughness of the earlier generations............I will admit they did have several suck factors: Crappy medicine. Crappy iPods.......though I hear they did have sPods (steampods), and no computers. While very vogue, the telegraphboard forums just never caught on. Maybe it's not the living conditions I should admire but the resolution of the people to drive on in the face of adversity.

On, I forgot. Indoor plumbing. Man, what a blessing that is. Specially if you've ever had to burn a thousand gallons of human waste and gas. Not just in Vietnam, but in Iraq/Afghanistan as well. Kudos to my evil cat friend for pointing that out.

Hey! I resemble that remark.

No sin, no joy, no rapture can equal central air conditioning. Or indoor plumbing.

Cav Guy · Sep 4, 2007

AussieBilly said:
From this thread I get the idea that y’all are a bunch of Yankees … or all from the left coast. True at this time of my life I’m on the east coast of a foreign country but I grew up in the Pacific Northwest … so when someone says ‘the west’ I naturally think of what’s familiar to me … not the tourist gonna visit places, but the home places. That includes the best parts of California (that’s mostly everything north of the gold country … great history and wonderful for your heroes and villains) Idaho and Montana, more history and locations for your fictional history … but the best, as far as I’m concerned, is the high desert of Central and Eastern Oregon. The Oregon Trail, Nez Perce and Shoshone tribes, cattle ranching and rustling, stage holdups and the 1860s Sheep War, Peter French and the infamous P Ranch saga … Oregon is perfect for the writer.

Of course, so is any of the other dozen or so ‘western states.’

My family's been in Montana since 1866...so I've got about as many local color stories as Oregon (lynchings, mysterious range wars, a couple of major Indian wars...and so on).

Actually, about anywhere in the 'real' West is ideal for the writer. I know L'Amour was fond of the "Four Corners" region. Interesting how location can shape the writer.

HoosierCowgirl · Sep 4, 2007

Since I'm married to a Midwestern farmer, we just don't travel much. Thus we have to make some tough decisions about what do we really want to see.

As far as moderns having it made, amen! At one point growing up, we lived in a house trailer with no running water. So, yes, if you've got running water, life is good. Hot running water is heavenly, and whoever invented air conditioning is a genius ;-) Before we got water in the trailer we had go to my uncle's farm with Jerry cans for water and had to use an outhouse. Not my favorite experience!

However, it did show how my parents rolled with the punches one very difficult year and made the best of what they had.

As far as terrible medical care ... hoo, boy. Don't want to think about it. Especially child birth (shivers)

JeanneTGC · Sep 4, 2007

The West was hard on women and horses.

I'll take our civilized times and just write about the times without all the things that make it nice to live here in Phoenix.

Oh, and I just want to state again for those who seem to think everyone here is an Easterner, that I've never lived further east than Phoenix, Arizona, thankyouverymuch. And I've never lived further west than Ventura, California, further north than Porterville, California, or further south than San Diego, California.

We're very regionally sticky, my clan.

HoosierCowgirl · Sep 4, 2007

I"ve been as far east as Ohio, and that's as far as I care to go

Ann

Tom Johnson · Jan 19, 2008

I'm from Texas, near the Salt Fork of the Brazos, so naturally I set my recent western short story in this area. But loving the old B Western of my youth, my hero is a Zorro type (or Durango Kid, if you prefer), a masked rider of the plains. I would love to see more traditional westerns back on the market, not these adult westerns that are flooding the market.

Puma · Jan 19, 2008

I missed this thread back when it was initiated. I'm from Ohio and have been to the west coast and back more times than I can count (including across Canada). My first trip to the west was in 1958 (no air conditioning, desert water bags for when the car over-heated, towing service on some of the passes - really neat). That trip would probably be what I'd recommend to anyone who'd never been west before - the Corn Palace in Mitchell, S.D., the badlands, the Black Hills, across northern Wyoming and up the Shoshone into Yellowstone, down through the Tetons and over Teton Pass to Idaho, along the Snake River, across Oregon to the coast and then up the coast to the area of Mt. Rainier, back across Washington and Idaho and then across Montana along the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers. In my opinion, the Southwest is pale in comparison. The Grand Canyon is one spot, but Montana goes on forever and is a continual contrast. Yep - Go West - you'll never regret it. Puma

JeanneTGC · Jan 19, 2008

*considers duking it out with Puma for region superiority...decides that all the West is super and all should come and visit*

*must race back in to insist that the Southwest is not pale...we get plenty of sun here and prefer to think of ourselves as rugged and attractive, with a sometimes cosmopolitan flair*

Unique · Jan 20, 2008

HoosierCowgirl said:
Hi, everybody,
Have any of you traveled in the West? What are your favorite places and why?
The family is in the talking stages of going out to Yellowstone "someday."

Best regards
Ann

Gosh. It's been a while ....

Colorado was grand before it was 'discovered.' I haven't been there since '76 but Red Rocks, Central City, Estes Park, the Sangre de Cristo range in the 4 Corners area was outstanding. I don't believe I ever crossed the divinde overland though.

Vanatru said:
Of course, that always leads me to think how wussified people are today. IMO. OMG, the AC in your car is broke? How do you get by? What, I have to walk there? That's half a mile away. Mom, the microwave is broke. And so on.

100 years ago even, they were tough capable people.

Har, har. But I have to agree with you.

"Two tin cans and a string."

HoosierCowgirl said:
The kids are perking up their ears ... your comment about walking made me smile. The kids grumble if we have to park out-of-the way at a store or restaurant and DH likes to aks them who are the ones who are so crazy about hiking the "rugged" trails at the state parks They insist this is different.

Ann

Toss 'em out with a pack and some extra water. Tell them you'll meet them at the Denny's in an hour.

AussieBilly said:
From this thread I get the idea that y’all are a bunch of Yankees … or all from the left coast.

Hey, now! I'm a Southern Yankee and there is a distinction, I'll have you know. hmph.

HoosierCowgirl said:
Since I'm married to a Midwestern farmer, we just don't travel much. Thus we have to make some tough decisions about what do we really want to see.

As far as terrible medical care ... hoo, boy. Don't want to think about it. Especially child birth (shivers)

Medical care was often a 'do it yourself' procedure.

JeanneTGC said:
The West was hard on women and horses.

Rode hard, put up wet came from somewhere, Ms. Jeanne.

I'd like to see Yellowstone. Half Dome particularly and not from a car window. I want to be out there in it smelling it, tasting it, touching it and without 50 million jizzbug tourists clotting up the place.

Dead of Winter more likely, eh? pfft...
I want to see Mt. Rushmore but only after they finish the other 4 guys that are supposed to be up there with 'em.
(Ask in PM - you know you want to know)

Puma · Jan 20, 2008

Hi Jeanne - I spent five weeks in New Mexico north of Santa Fe when I was in college and loved it. I've enjoyed my trips to the southwest - through all the states, but there's something about the northern parts of the west that are more compelling to me. But don't get me wrong - I love all of the west. Puma

newshirt · Feb 22, 2008

I'll add my vote for Colorado!

I've climbed 29 14'ers (mountains over 14,000 feet elevation), and visited a dozen ghost towns up in them thar hills. The old rusted mining equipment is still there - overhead trams, ore buckets, headframes, potbelly stoves, wooden cribbing, marble headstones. I love it all.

Sometimes I like to just drive around and absorb the feeling of the old 1800's mining operations. "Look Honey, there's an old glory hole. Let's go look!" Drive's my wife crazy...

--ray

stc · Feb 23, 2008

raywhite said:
I've climbed 29 14'ers (mountains over 14,000 feet elevation), and visited a dozen ghost towns up in them thar hills. The old rusted mining equipment is still there - overhead trams, ore buckets, headframes, potbelly stoves, wooden cribbing, marble headstones. I love it all.

Sometimes I like to just drive around and absorb the feeling of the old 1800's mining operations. "Look Honey, there's an old glory hole. Let's go look!" Drive's my wife crazy...
--ray

Ray, I'm curious: Is there any danger in such places from abandoned hidden wells or mine shafts?

newshirt · Feb 23, 2008

stc said:
Ray, I'm curious: Is there any danger in such places from abandoned hidden wells or mine shafts?

Oh, yeah. There's hundred-year-old stamp mills and shacks that look like they are ready to collapse. Very spooky. Most of those places are fenced off, but curious history-seekers (and dope smokers) find ways in. Mine shafts are all barred, but I've walked in Cyanide-soaked gold leach beds and climbed through collapsing wooden cribbing. It's pretty cool.

--ray

JeanneTGC · Feb 24, 2008

*Hands Ray the Daredevil award*

You writing about those experiences, Ray? Sounds fascinating from the little you've written here.

Festus · Feb 25, 2008

Howdy friends,

I've traveled all over the traditional west, I loved all of it. I've also experienced the "West" in many places elsewhere in this wonderful country of ours. I like to think of westerns and cowboys as a state of mind and a gesalt of all of the traditional themes more than I do of specific locations.

That being said, I've been doing a lot of research lately on Texas of the 1800's and find myself utterly fasinated by it. The state is a country all in its own right, not just from size but in the fact that it has a dab of terrain found darn near anywhere else in the world.

The facts of this era of Texas often far surpass fiction, as I continue my research I stay interested and frankly, utterly amazed at the exploits of the Texas Rangers and their common sense solutions to problems that would send the politically correct folks running to drown their sorrows in kool aide. The people of Texas in that era were larger than life.

The few places in the west I haven't been are the Dakota's and Montana. My friend Cav has introduced me to Montana in his writings and has made me want to visit that wondrous state before I go to the big pasture in the sky. He has described scenes there so vividily that I have felt I was walking that land with his characters.

I thank my God for all of you, my fellow writers, in taking me to places of beauty and for preserving the spirit of the west in your works. I've had far more satisfying trips by turning the pages of good books that in physically being in the actual locales.

AussieBilly · Feb 25, 2008

Wow ... this thread has gone nearly everywhere. And for all you flatlanders, if the words and descriptions you find here aren't enough to get you out 'west' for a long visit, nothing will.

However, I have to say, the best 'west' for me is the one I created for my latest western story. It is a small ranching town called Short Creek, a couple days ride north from Golden, Colorado. You folk who live in Colorado might not know of Short Creek cuz I made it up. But to help you find it, the town lies where Short Creek flows into the Blue River.

All the better western locations are of my own devises ... it works out better that way. The real west we all dream of and write about is long gone ... even the cowboys of today have given up carrying their tobacco in Bull Durham sacks and cattle rustlers use semi-trucks and trailers to move their stolen beeves instead of herding them through the pass.

Long live the westerns of yesteryear ... keep writing, folks.

Go West?

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