Search NoeHill   Contact NoeHill  
NoeHill.com
  Home    San Francisco    California    The West    The World Visit NoeHill on Facebook Visit NoeHill on Twitter  
 
 
  
  
 Alaska
 Arizona
 Colorado
 Nevada
 New Mexico
 Oregon
 Utah
Historic Sites and Points of Interest in the American Golden West
 

This section of NoeHill contains photographs of historic sites and points of interest in the American Golden West, which in our definition extends from the Pacific Ocean eastward to the Rocky Mountain states, including Alaska but excluding Texas.

We inaugurated our NoeHill website with the limited goal of sharing photographs of officially designated San Francisco Landmarks and Historic Districts. We soon expanded our mission to include San Francisco properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places and California Historical Landmarks located in San Francisco. (We ponder the difference between historic and historical.)

We were prompted us to expand our coverage to all of Northern California by day trips in the Bay Area Counties and road trips in Northern California and the Sierra Nevada . As we began road trips outside of California, covering the entire Golden West became feasible, if not exhaustively at least selectively.

So far we have traveled in Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Oregon, and we have scheduled a trip to Alaska in the late spring of 2011. By our reckoning, this leaves Washington, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana.

The following links will take you to some of places we have visited.

 
An Edsel on Old Route 66 in Seligman An Edsel on Old Route 66 in Seligman
4 August 2007
Arizona  
Grand Junction, Colorado, Viewed From the California Zephyr Grand Junction
Viewed From the California Zephyr
25 January 2008
Colorado

Heavy winter storms in late January 2008 inspired us to book a roundtrip on the California Zephyr between the Bay Area and Denver to enjoy the frozen beauty of the Sierra Nevada, Wasatch and Rocky Mountains without the hassle of tire chains.

In the summer of 2010, we drove through the San Juan Mountains in southern Colorado and spent some time in Durango.

I-80 Somewhere West of Winnemucca I-80 Somewhere West of Winnemucca
Viewed From the California Zephyr
28 January 2008
Nevada

Nevada is large, arid and deserted. It is crossed latitudinally by sections of three historic trails: the California Trail, the Pony Express Overland Trail, and the Old Spanish Trail. All three trails are now modern highways, and we have traversed all three.

Jemez Mountains Viewed from the Sangre de Christo Mountains Jemez Mountains
Viewed from Sangre de Christo Mountains Near Santa Fe Ski Area
27 July 2010
New Mexico

In 2007, 2008 and 2010, we drive from San Francisco to Santa Fe to attend the Santa Fe Opera.

In 2007, we choose the beginner's route, Mapquest's preference from San Francisco to Santa Fe:

  • I-5 South down the Central Valley
  • Exit I-5 at Route 58 East to Bakersfield
  • Over the Tehachapi Mountains
  • Through the Mojave Desert to Barstow
  • From Barstow east on old Route 66, now I-40, alas
  • I-40 East all the way to Albuquerque
  • I-25 North to Santa Fe

Unbidden songs pop into our heads at every other town:

Well, I'm a standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona and such a fine sight to see,
It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford slowin' down to take a look at me.

Well if you ever plan to motor west
Just take my way that's the highway that's the best
Get your kicks on Route 66
Well it winds from Chicago to L.A.
More than 2000 miles all the way
Get your kicks on Route 66
Well goes from St. Louie down to Missouri
Oklahoma City looks oh so pretty
You'll see Amarillo and Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaff, Arizona don't forget Winona
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernadino.

(Breakfasting at the Inn of the Anasazi in Santa Fe, we meet a contingent of Aussie bikers who were getting their kicks biking Route 66 in reverse from L.A. to Chicago.)

A Farm Near Glendale, Oregon A Farm Near Glendale, Oregon
28 September 2010
Oregon

Since 2006, we have made an annual road trip to Ashland for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Monument Valley, Utah Monument Valley
21 July 2008
Click Photos to Zoom
Utah

Utah is a red state.