I am thinking of taking a road trip next summer to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Northern Wisconsin. And ultimately visit the “Sand County” , Aldo Leopold Shack and Farm in Wisconsin and the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, after spending sometime exploring in the UP after crossing the Mighty Mac Bridge, hopefully not in bad weather. None of those places are necessarily the highlight of the trip, but I’m giving them as well known examples so you can plot them on your mental map.

Honestly, I get very little pleasure out of visiting “well known” tourist places. It’s like my deep aversion to both the High Peaks of Adirondacks and the St. Regis Canoe Area. Yeah, I admit both places exist, and I may have once gone there, but it’s not exactly a place I strive to visit as much pass through.

I’ve been considering for some time doing trips out west, and people will argue that UP and Northern Wisconsin aren’t the west. Which I don’t disagree with based on map, but it’s further west then I’ve been to before. I thought about taking an airplane and renting a car, but for the UP isn’t not that far to drive from Albany, especially if I spend an overnight in a state forest in Chautaqua County, NY. Only 7 hour drive from there to Huron National Forest in Northern Michigan. Then the next day I could head up to the UP.

The truth is the places I am most interested in exploring aren’t well documented in National Tourist Bureau brochures, but are more off the beaten track, mostly known to locals and those who have been there in the past. I have a real aversion to National Parks, and parks more generally, though I will stop at a National Park or some well-known landmark if it’s not far out of the way and too not expensive if only to snap a photo or two and say, see I went there, and give people a frame of reference of where I was in my travels.

When I mentioned to people last week that I was thinking of taking at trip out west, the first reaction I got was, oh, I bet you would like Utah. They have some good National Parks there. Aren’t you excited about the possibilities of visiting
Byrce Canyon or Zion National Park? Those were the same kind of people who were sure I would enjoy the Blue Ridge Parkway and Shenandoah National Park. Both were fine, I did part of the Blue Ridge Parkway twice, and it was fine, but I got to say neither one was particularly appealing even if it made for some nice photos. Too developed, too unnatural and unwild for my tastes.

Truth is I like to visit places that are remote and do not cater much for tourists. I’d rather be driving winding mountain roads, camping along little dirt roads in the back country, a long ways from anywhere else. Visiting “known-by-few nationally” landmarks that are scenic and wild but don’t get many tourists at all outside of locals. Deep, vast forest lands, remote country, in the sense they don’t involve parking lots full of cars and concession stands or mowed lawns. Places that when you tell people you want to visit – they respond with a blank stare – and ask why? Is there anything even worth visiting there? Places that are just a blank spot on the map.

I’ve also been thinking about taking a trip out to badlands of Western South Dakota and also the Ozarks of Arkansas and Missouri for a few years now. Those places also evoke a lot of confusion. Moreover, I am not looking per se to stay in motels or developed campgrounds there either, but to explore the back country of National Forests and other public lands there, away from the developed recreational areas. I’m not so against staying in a campground or motel when necessary for a night or two, or even visiting a well known park, but I’m hardly enthusiastic about the possibility either. Even if I had to take an aeroplane due to reasons of time, I’d probably pack a hammock for forest camping  and rent a car so I could get away from the cities and developed areas as quickly as possible.

I am sure there are similar opportunities like that in the Rockies and even Arizona and Utah. Actually I know there is, they are called BLM and Forest Service lands. And there is a whole activity called boondocking. But despite the vastness of Western US, I am also aware how popular many parts of the West, and how unaccessible many other parts of West are once you get far away enough from the popular tourist destinations and big cities of West that bring out the crowds to back country. Plus one of goals of these trips is to find out where I want to build or buy my off-grid cabin – with the high housing costs and limited privately-owned rural land in West – and fire danger I’m really kind of turned off by the West. The Western US is vast but the population overwhelmingly lives in cities and their suburbs, at even higher rates then much of the rest of the United States.

Why wait until next summer? For one while I’ve been talking about it for some time – vague notions of visiting the Ozarks or South Dakota or maybe Idaho – truth is that I haven’t really made any serious plans on a route or destination. It’s a bit hard to plan such things when you want to avoid motels, campgrounds and popular tourist traps like the National Parks. Aeroplanes are expensive, as is renting a car, plus it seems werid to spend so much money if you’re not planning to visit the aforementioned places already photographed a million times and widely known. And most I’m lazy.

But also I’m hesitant this year to drive Big Red out to Michigan and Wisconsin, as it’s 13 1/2 years old and somewhat on it’s last legs with the odometer pushing 120,000 miles and growing rust on it. Much rather take such a road trip in a newer, more comfortable, fuel efficent vehicle that is more of a joy to drive long distances then a big jacked up truck. I’ll probably get a new car or truck before next summer. With a car, and planning to spend much of your time in back country, you have a lot more flexibility then having to follow a train, bus, or aeroplane schedule, and you can bring much more gear and supplies. The only thing you have to rush against is daylight and the end of the trip.

There is a lot more to figure out. What good places to visit in the UP and Northern Wisconsin? It would be so easy to take an airplanes out Utah and go to designated viewing spots and stay at the designated motel at Zion National Park or wherever the tourist bureau insists I should visit, but I’m honestly not interested in that kind of trip, as I think you miss a lot by following a set agenda and visiting places that you can just watch a video from home on the internet. While scenic, my impression of Shenandoah National Park was boring and frankly quite pedestrian. And there is a lot more of America to see beyond what the experts think you visit.