Stib’s Lab / US-50· Atlantic to Pacific
DriveWest,Young Man
3,380 miles of one road, from the back tires in the Atlantic to the last cliff in California. No interstate if it can be helped.
The trip so far
35% of the way
to the other ocean
Currently on leg 6, St. Louis, MO to Sedalia, MO — 96 of 220 miles down.
1,186miles behind us
Ocean City, MarylandPoint Reyes, California
- 5/16Legs finished
- 8/13States crossed
- 2,194Miles left
- 11,312Highest point, ft
The route
16 days west
One leg is one driving day. The road is US-50 wherever it still exists, which is nearly all of it: MD · DE · VA · WV · OH · IN · IL · MO · KS · CO · UT · NV · CA.
Ocean City, MD → Winchester, VA
190 miUS-50MD · DE · VAMile 190 of the trip
Started with the back tires in the Atlantic. Bay bridge at eight, farmland by noon.
Winchester, VA → Clarksburg, WV
205 miUS-50VA · WVAllegheny Front 2,900 ftMile 395 of the trip
The first ridge that makes the engine work. Fog in every hollow before seven.
Clarksburg, WV → Cincinnati, OH
320 miUS-50WV · OHMile 715 of the trip
River towns with a bridge each. Ohio arrives as a smell of cut grass and hot asphalt.
Cincinnati, OH → Vincennes, IN
215 miUS-50OH · INMile 930 of the trip
Corn to the horizon in both mirrors. Ate standing up outside a gas station in Aurora.
Vincennes, IN → St. Louis, MO
160 miUS-50IN · IL · MOMile 1,090 of the trip
Crossed the Mississippi at dusk with the Arch lit up like something left by a bigger country.
St. Louis, MO → Sedalia, MO
220 miUS-50MOMile 1,310 of the trip— driving this today
Today. Two lanes, ninety miles down, a thunderhead standing off to the northwest.
Sedalia, MO → Emporia, KS
235 miUS-50MO · KSMile 1,545 of the trip
The last of the trees. From here the sky does most of the work.
Emporia, KS → Dodge City, KS
240 miUS-50KSMile 1,785 of the trip
Grain elevators instead of mountains. The climb is real but too slow to see.
Dodge City, KS → Pueblo, CO
265 miUS-50KS · COMile 2,050 of the trip
Somewhere out here the Rockies show up on the windshield and stay there for two days.
Pueblo, CO → Gunnison, CO
195 miUS-50COMonarch Pass 11,312 ftMile 2,245 of the trip
Over the Continental Divide. Everything after this drains toward the other ocean.
Gunnison, CO → Green River, UT
190 miUS-50 / I-70CO · UTMile 2,435 of the trip
Red rock, melon stands, and the first stretch where the radio gives up entirely.
Green River, UT → Ely, NV
340 miUS-50UT · NVMile 2,775 of the trip
Basin, range, basin, range. Fill the tank whether or not it needs it.
Ely, NV → Austin, NV
170 miUS-50NVMile 2,945 of the trip
The stretch they named the Loneliest Road in America, apparently as a warning.
Austin, NV → Carson City, NV
180 miUS-50NVMile 3,125 of the trip
Sand mountain, a shoe tree, and a long straight line that ends at the Sierra.
Carson City, NV → Placerville, CA
100 miUS-50NV · CAEcho Summit 7,377 ftMile 3,225 of the trip
Up past the lake, then down the west slope in second gear, smelling the brakes.
Placerville, CA → Point Reyes, CA
155 miUS-50 → CA-1CAMile 3,380 of the trip
The last mile, and then there is no more west to drive.
Stops
Reasons to pull over
The plates below are drawn, not photographed. Real pictures replace them one at a time as the film comes back.
- Coast
The back tires in the Atlantic
Ocean City, Maryland · Been
Mile zero of US-50 is a parking lot at the beach. You are supposed to touch the ocean before you start. Everyone does it, and it still works.
- Roadside
The first ridge
Allegheny Front, West Virginia · Been
Where the road stops being flat and starts being decided by the land. Pulled off at a gravel turnout and watched fog sit in the valleys like water in a bowl.
- Counter
A supper counter with eleven stools
Parkersburg, West Virginia · Been
Pie under a plastic dome, coffee refilled without being asked. The man on stool four had driven this road in both directions more times than he could account for.
- Landmark
The Arch from the east bank
East St. Louis, Illinois · Been
The gateway is best seen from the side you are leaving. Stood in the weeds on the Illinois shore at dusk while it went from steel to orange to a black outline.
- Roadside
Monarch Pass — 11,312 ft
Continental Divide, Colorado · Ahead
The high point of the whole crossing. Every drop of water that lands west of the sign is headed for the same ocean we are.
- Landmark
The shoe tree on the loneliest road
Middlegate, Nevada · Ahead
A cottonwood in the middle of the Great Basin hung with decades of other people's shoes. Bring a pair you have finished with.
- Coast
The end of the west
Point Reyes, California · Ahead
Cliff, fog, and no more road. Three thousand miles of going one direction stops here, which is either an ending or the point of the whole thing.
Field notes
Written at the end of the day
Aug 23 A picnic table outside Jefferson City, MO
Missouri is the first state that has felt like a middle. Behind me the country is stitched together out of towns; ahead, from what everyone at the counter says, it comes apart into distance. A thunderhead has been standing in the same place off the right shoulder for an hour without appearing to move, which means it is enormous and forty miles away.
Aug 21 East bank of the Mississippi, IL
Crossed the big river at 8:40 with the light going. The Arch does the thing it was built to do — it makes the direction I am driving feel like an idea somebody had on purpose. Sat on the Illinois side for twenty minutes because you cannot see it properly from underneath.
Aug 20 A motel with a working ice machine, Vincennes, IN
Two hundred and fifteen miles of corn. I have started to notice that every town on this road has the same three buildings in the same order, and that the differences between them are the entire point. Ate dinner standing up at a gas station and did not regret it until later.
Aug 18 A turnout on the Allegheny Front, WV
First real climb. The fog was lying in the hollows in flat white sheets, and from above it looked like the valleys had filled up overnight. Nobody else stopped. It occurs to me that the difference between a drive and a trip is whether you are willing to lose twenty minutes.
Aug 17 Ocean City, MD — mile zero
Backed the car to the edge of the sand and touched the Atlantic, which is apparently the rule. The sign says the road runs to Sacramento. I intend to keep going until the land stops, and then a little further, to the water on the other side.