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The rest of the trip went great! So many beautiful lighthouses along the coast, I think I enjoyed these more than the ones on the East Coast.
Did the Avenue of Giants, only saw 3 cars on the whole drive along it.
We did make it to see the Golden Gate Bridge, but the President made that stop a little tricky.
Also got to stop at the Bonneville Salt Flats Raceway and the Great Salt Lake.
My personal favorite was getting to stop at Lovelock Cave, extremely interesting place if you know the history. Didn't even know our trip was going to be taking us past until I checked where it was. The drive to it was very rough, 10 miles each way of washboard gravel, the faster you drive the better. We were the only visitors, odd place.
Another favorite was getting to stop at the old U.S. Carson City Mint, now the Navada State Museum. They still have the original 1870s press #1 and you can even buy pure silver commemorative coins stamped on it. As a coin collector this was a pleasure to see.
Mount Rushmore was a nice visit as well. Hardly a soul there. Very nice drives around there.
Final stop was at The Badlands NP. Pretty cool place.
All in all this was the time of year to go. Most places we were the only visitors, most roads had few cars if any. Rain was a slight issue in Oregon but that's to be expected. We didn't let that stop us from our rock and mineral hunting, came home with some very nice pieces. South Dakota we really got lucky with our finds, including rare limb casts, tons of petrified wood, agates, rose quartz, jasper among other finds as well.
Thanks for all the advice and help, it was an enjoyable 7k miles!
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