Yellowstone and Grand Tetons Epic drive and meet 2013 First item: I have gotten some flak from people on the different forms for putting this on as well as asking people to only post if they were going or at least seriously interested. I am not being paid to do this nor am I asking for money. I am doing this because I love to drive and seem to be one of the few people out in the community willing to take on such a headache. All I ask is if you are going to post on this thread, please be serious about attending. Just posting to say "say not for me" or "to far" makes the thread long and does not add value. Thank you. Second item: There is no way I can please everyone for this event and nor am I trying to do so. I have done my best to make an event that balances the areas I felt were important. Being able to see the sights you have not seen as well as take your ride on a drive you normally would never do. Being able to drive the car in a fun manner at some points to “stretch its legs”. Make a successful event that we can have move across North America to see the sights. Dates of the event June 24-28 – for meet and group activities. If you include driving to base camp it would be June 22nd – June 30th possibly depending on location you are starting from. Base camp will be West Yellowstone. There is plenty of lodging, parking and activities for a hopefully big group. I will be working on group rates at the first of the year for everyone. June 24th, 2013 - Yellowstone park North loop June 25th, 2013 – Yellowstone park South Loop June 26th, 2013 – Beartooth Pass drive. (This will be the drive day and will make for some great roads. This will be a LONG day, as we will cover some miles) June 27th, 2013 – Leave West Yellowstone and travel to Jackson WY - Explore Grand Tetons during the day on the way to Jackson WY June 28th, 2013 – Explore Grand Tetons In an effort to help facilitate getting people in touch with each other to arrange caravans, I have made a form that I will use to populate a Google document. I am the only one who will see this as a FYI. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHZTaDBYVnFONUxrTlZheW9RcFlhQUE6MQ What will we be doing there? We are in the oldest national park in the world so we will be seeing the sights and doing some walking around. In addition, a few others and I are trying to arrange some group photo shots at the parks attractions. I have included one day for just pure driving for those who are interested. What will this cost me to go? You will be responsible for fuel, lodging, food, park fees and anything else you might want to do. The only fee that is 100% for sure is the $25 for a 7 day pass which allows you to see both Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. If I get enough people interested, I could have some removable decals made to be placed on the side of the car to be like we are on a rally event. If you want me to look into these costs, let me know on the form above. This sounds LAME! I know some of you have posted you hated Yellowstone and would just do the Grand Teton or you just want to hall ass around all day seeing what your car can do. Sorry this is not the place to do that. The best explanation I can say why this is not lame is because you are going on a ROAD TRIP, which to me has always been a reason to go to places. This also is a continental wide event that hopefully will be the first of many more to come. Therefore, if you still think this is a lame idea then I wish you a safe summer in your adventures. Currently I have four cars from Sacramento area 100% going. In addition, I know of a few in Montana that will be attending. This means we have about eight cars ranging from BMW, Audi, Ferrari and Lotus already attending. If you wish to email me directly my email is norcal.drivers@gmail.com. Please make sure to let me know you are asking about Yellowstone as I organize many drives for the NorCal enthusiasts. Cheers Adam Here are some sample images of the visit my wife and I did in 2011 in our 2006 E90.
If you plan on attending even please make sure to fill out the Google form so i can start getting a better idea of numbers when i call the hotels towards the beginning of the year. Please feel free to email you regional Euro car clubs to see if more people would be interested. I plan on inviting the CA Euro car marks that I know of.
Here is another possible idea for a decal. These are to be the friction type decal so you can remove it once done. These are optional if people want to do them. Let me know which one you like. Cheers
I wanted to wish everyone a happy and safe Thanksgiving. So far, if everyone who has filled out the form can attend we have 23 cars and 41 people. Not too bad for a completely underground organized event. Maybe we can get enough cars and people to take over the town HAHA. Tell your friends about the event and if you can reach out to your local and regional Euro car clubs to see if they have any members interested. Cheers Adam
A question came up if you need to attend the whole event. Answers is NO. If you can only make half the event or only want to do half the event you can still attend. I am not holding anyone to the fire so you are welcome to come and go as you please. I will have some scheduled actives (group shots, drive areas, other being planned) that I would hope you attend but if you do not, I am not going to hunt you down ;-)
I am still getting people singing up =) great to see all the eclectic mix of Euro cars that will hopefully be in attendance. I am working with the West Yellowstone chamber of commerce on some special events activities while we are there. I also have a call into the National Park Service to see about arranging a special photo shoot inside the park. Navigating the red tape at the moment but hopeful i can pull it off. Remember to email friends and contact your local Euro car clubs to let them know about this event. For a forum / underground created event, it is growing rather nicely. =)
Looks like the world did not end on the 21st as predicted. The event is still on and a email with hotel information and additional details has been sent to all those who filled out the Google doc. If you want the info and are planning on attending, please fill out the google doc and I will send you the info. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHZTaDBYVnFONUxrTlZheW9RcFlhQUE6MQ Have a safe new years.
I wanted to wish everyone a safe and happy New Year. Look forward to seeing some of you in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. Hopefully we will have a great event. or those who have filled out the Google doc, you should have gotten an email with the hotels rates. Additionally there is a link to a website to order the stack decals for your car. If you did not get this email please let me know. A few people have already ordered the decals so there are a few numbers less to pick from. I realized I never said you get to pick your car number if you order the decals.
Just a FYI, For those who signed up on the Google form, I sent a email a while back with a webpage on how to order decals. I have updated the page with a desired car number field. No Promises yo will get that number so please have a few choices. You can do all numbers ( 00-99 ) or letter and number ( A0 ) Please email VS PM as I am not on some of these forums very often. norcal.drivers@gmail.com
A reminder to those who have received the hotel info to call in sooner than later. We have currently 77 cars signed up. Not to shabby.
I sent an email to those who sided up with details on some rental car options. If you did not get this email please check spam as I used the Mail Chimp service to make the email pretty and easier for me to send the details of the event. As this is a Euro car road trip I looked into what Euro cars were available. I was able to get rates on some BMW’s and Mercedes for those who want to do the trip but not in their car. The cost is about $100 a day which normally is between $125-$165. I was also able to get leads on a few Porsche's for rent but you would have to go to LA and drive with the people coming from there. For the whole week would be about $2400. There are some Mercedes SUV’s I was able to have for rent in Salt Lake for those who want to fly and meet us on the way.
Just a update to remember to reserve your room if you are thinking of going. You can always cancel 72 hours before check in. So if you plan on going make sure to at least hold your room. Details on room rates were mailed to those that signed up on the Google doc.
For those who are somewhat interested in going, make sure to reserve your room sooner than later. If you have not received the email with hotel information please email or pm me.
Just a bump and a update that we crossed the 108 person mark for information request to attend. Not to shabby. If you signed up and have not gotten the info, please email me directly. norcal.drivers@gmail.com
We are 76 days away from the event, wow time fly's For those who are thinking of going, make sure to book your rooms sooner than later. There are BMW and Mercedes rental cars available for those who do not want to drive their car. Email me for details on rooms and car rentals.
For kicks I took the time to map out all the people that requested info. This is the caravan routes according to Google for the fastest route there based on ZIPs provided. If everyone that requested info is able to attend, that will make for a truly continental event. Alaska is winning for furthest traveled as you can see. If you have questions or have not gotten the last email update, please email direct - norcal.drivers@gmail.com
For those who signed up for information, I just sent out a May update. If you did not get this email please check your SPAM folder for a email from NorCal Drivers. If you still do not have it please email me at norcal.drivers@gmail.com and I will send it to you directly.
I will be ordering shirts soon. Below is what we came up with for the event. For those who have signed up, I will be sending out the itinerary for the weeks activities. If you still want to go, sign up and join us.
