Assessing Our Luck on the Road

LONG STORY SHORT
​If you spend enough time on the road, you're bound to catch a few breaks—and a few catastrophes.

By Jason Clark

We were sitting in a tandem kayak in the San Juan Islands, watching black dorsal fins crest the water several hundred feet away. Somehow, we’d won the wildlife-viewing lottery. We were in the right place at the right time to see the one thing we’d hoped to: orcas.

I looked at Kristine and said, “We can’t complain about our luck for the rest of this trip.”

Arrested Development narrator: They would still complain.
​
As with any vacation, we’ve stumbled across both good and bad luck on The Big Trip. For instance, the same sequence of events that led us to those orcas also put us in North Cascades National Park right when a wildfire had closed much of the park. I wanted to assess how our luck has balanced out on the road. What follows is a record of our luckiest and unluckiest days so far.

What counts as good luck? ​Any good fortune that fell into our laps unexpectedly. Much of our trip is planned with specific events or seasons in mind, so well-timed visits don’t necessarily count. For example, being near Pebble Beach during the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open was intentional and doesn’t count as good luck.

What counts as bad luck? Any misfortune that whacked us over the heads unexpectedly and out of our control. So self-inflicted mistakes—like towing over Sonora Pass—are not bad luck. It was unlucky that temperatures surged past 90°F that day at high altitude, but we could have avoided the situation with better planning.

---

1. Aug. 5, 2023 | Good Luck: We Spot a Wolf in Yellowstone

Things mostly went according to plan for the first month or so of our trip, and nothing exceptionally great happened either—until our last day in Yellowstone National Park, that is.
​
We were driving through Lamar Valley to see bison, of which we saw plenty, and we came across dozens of vehicles parked on the side of the road for seemingly no reason. As it turned out, a wolf had wandered down from the woods and into the valley, and she’d drawn a big audience. Thanks to a kind man with high-quality binoculars, we viewed this wolf for a few minutes until it accidentally crossed paths with a bison. We watched as the bison charged and scared the wolf off into the woods again.
​
Good luck for us. Bad luck for the wolf.

Kristine’s 55–250mm lens tried to capture the wolf. This was the best it could do.

2. Aug. 16–17, 2023 | Bad Luck: Wildfire Smoke Blankets Banff and Jasper

Banff and Jasper National Parks treated us with one clear day each before smoke from nearby wildfires rolled in and obscured the many mountain peaks that make these parks a one-of-a-kind destination. As a result, a couple of our hikes ended at viewpoints that looked like an old video game that hadn’t fully loaded.

Seeing a glacier blanketed in wildfire smoke felt rather apocalyptic.

3. Aug. 19, 2023 | Good Luck: Overnight Snow Blankets Jasper

Mountains with snow > mountains without snow. The Canadian Rockies had some glaciers but no fresh snow until we arrived in Jasper National Park and drove through a rainstorm. When we embarked on our first hike in the park the next morning, the clouds cleared to reveal mountains that looked like what they’re supposed to look like: snow-capped and beautiful.

Before visiting Jasper, we never expected to hike through snow in August.

4. Aug. 26–28, 2023 | Bad Luck: Wildfires Force Closures in North Cascades

This was the first bit of bad luck to have a substantial effect on our experience. Thanks to the Sourdough Fire, the main highway through North Cascades National Park was closed, so three of the four trails we had earmarked were not accessible. We ultimately took it easy for a couple days and then attempted the one trail we could access—only to find a massive cloud had rolled in and obscured any views we might have enjoyed otherwise.

What a view, eh?

5. Sept. 7, 2023 | Good Luck: Orcas Visit Us in the San Juan Islands

How we ended up here at just the right time still amazes me.

For one, we wouldn’t have been anywhere near Seattle in early September if a friend from college hadn’t been getting married there. Originally, we’d planned to arrive in Seattle weeks later, but I adjusted our schedule so we could attend the wedding.

For another, after we got to Seattle, Kristine and I considered taking a day trip to Leavenworth, Wash., to celebrate our anniversary. But we changed our minds at the last minute and booked a kayaking trip in the San Juan Islands instead.

Finally, the kayaking trip had several destination options. Our kayaking guides would choose where we’d go, basing their decision on a number of factors, including weather and the possibility of crossing paths with whales.
​
All of this had to align perfectly for us to see orcas. These whales had been at the top of our wildlife-viewing bucket list ever since we failed to find them in Alaska in 2021. Now, we can say we’ve seen a whole pod of them.

Sorry, no whale photos here. Kristine’s lens could barely catch the wolf. Take what you can get.

6. Sept. 21, 2023 | Bad Luck: Mt. Rainier Finally Shows Itself in Our Rearview Mirror

We spent more than a month in the Seattle area in 2023, and we visited Mt. Rainier National Park twice: once in April and again in September. And yet, we’ve seen the namesake mountain a grand total of three times. (I have, anyway; Kristine’s only seen it twice. Loser.) During our stay in the park in September, clouds shrouded the mountain every single day, and Mt. Rainier didn’t reveal itself until we were driving east into Idaho.

Mt. Rainier may have felt shy, but the rest of the park was really showing off.

7. Sept. 28, 2023 | Bad Luck: Kings Canyon Closes a Campground and Cancels Our Reservation

I put a lot of effort into making sure we’d visit Lassen Volcanic, Yosemite, and Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Parks before their campgrounds closed for the 2023 season. And I booked said campgrounds many months in advance to claim our spots. So you can imagine my frustration when I got an email from Recreation.gov in early September saying my reservation had been canceled because the campground was closing “for administration.”
​
That late in the season, every other campground nearby was fully booked, so we were left without somewhere to stay for nearly a week. For better or worse, the part of Kings Canyon we’d yet to see was also closed due to road damage caused by major storms during the previous winter. In the end, we decided to book two nights at a campground an hour from Sequoia’s Giant Forest and devote the remaining time to a visit back home.

We missed Kings Canyon, but at least we got to see some big trees in Sequoia.

8. Oct. 26–28, 2023 | Bad Luck: We Lose the Permit Lottery for The Wave—Three Times

Permits for Coyote Buttes North in Vermillion Cliffs National Monument—otherwise known as The Wave—are some of the most coveted wilderness permits in the country. They’re awarded only via a pair of lotteries.
​
In the advanced lottery, hopeful visitors can apply for permits months out. Winning a permit via this lottery is incredibly unlikely, and people can apply every single month for years without being selected.

The daily lottery offers the best chance to win a permit by far. This lottery is geolocked to applicants within a certain area around Vermillion Cliffs National Monument; in other words, it’s only open to people who are near the park. The odds of winning are still low—a maximum of 16 permits are awarded each day—but we thought visiting during the shoulder season would give us a decent chance.

Whatever our odds were, they were not high enough.

For three days straight, our lottery applications were rejected. We found other beautiful areas around Kanab to explore in our newly found free time. We’re planning to stay near Vermillion Cliffs for a few nights again this year, so hopefully our luck will improve.

We missed The Wave, but a day at the Grand Canyon is never a bad day.

9. Oct. 31, 2023 | Good Luck: We Win Permits to Hike Angel’s Landing

While we struck out on permits for The Wave, we did get a nice consolation prize: permits to hike Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park, one of the most popular trails in the National Park System.
​
We’ve hiked Angels Landing before—specifically, before Zion implemented the current permit system—and thanks to the new system, we got to do this hike without the massive crowds we’d endured last time. It made for a much better experience. In our opinions, implementing this permit system was a great decision by park officials.

Without the permit system, a line of people would be queued up behind and in front of Jason in this photo.

10. Aug. to Nov. 2023 | Bad luck: A Hurricane Floods Death Valley

Our final stop of 2023 was supposed to be Death Valley National Park. But in August, Hurricane Hilary hit Southern California and tore its way up to Death Valley. The storm caused significant damage to park roads and turned Badwater Basin—the lowest point in the U.S.—into a lake.
​
Some park roads eventually reopened, but we decided to cancel our campsite reservation and head home early anyway. We don’t regret that decision—burnout had settled in—but it did mean we missed out on a legendary wildflower bloom that sprouted from the rain-soaked desert floor.

Final Tally for 2023: Bad Luck 6, Good Luck 4

All things considered, we’ll take it. The good-luck moments were really great, and we only had two trip-altering bad-luck moments, both involving places we’ve already visited (Kings Canyon and Death Valley).

As for 2024, maybe we’ll catch a foul ball or win a permit for The Wave. Or maybe we’ll catch a foul ball in the teeth and still not get a permit for The Wave. Who knows?
​
Either way, we’ll make the best of it.