Greetings! My name is Del Leu and thanks for visiting ExtremeGeographer.com.
I'm a geographer and I created this website in 2016 to describe an extensive road trip that I took around America during which I visited dozens of extreme geographic sites. That includes places that are renown, like Key West, Florida (the self-proclaimed "southernmost point of the continental U.S.") as well as obscure, such as the highest point in the lowest state (which is in Delaware). I'm still posting stories here in my News section, long after my trip, so feel free to check back occasionally to see what I've been up to.
During my eight-month trip around America, I traveled through 46 states and drove over 32,000 miles. Along with visiting dozens of extreme geographic locations, I also visited numerous national parks, historic sites and quirky, off-beat places. I've posted hundreds of stories on this website, more than 1,600 photos, dozens of webmaps and 65 interactive panorama pictures to describe my adventure.
It's virtually hours of entertainment for the low, low price of... well, nothing.
What's "Extreme Geography"?
Think of places like the highest city in the U.S., the lowest lake, the largest county – basically anything with an "est" in it. That's extreme geography. I do computer mapping for a living and in my spare time, I love visiting "est" places for fun. In 2016, I took an eight-month break from work so I could do just that.
Summary of My Trip
For those who don't want to read all 239 pages of this website (smart people), here's a quick summary of my journey. From 2013 to early 2016, I did computer mapping work in Qatar, a small country in the Middle East, then I returned to my hometown of Portland, Oregon, in March 2016 ready for some adventure.
I bought a four-wheel drive Toyota pickup truck and spent two months getting ready for my trip, then I left Portland on May 13 and drove over 32,000 miles around the country while visiting lots of interesting geographic and historic places. I spent much of the summer in the Colorado Rockies, traveling and writing updates in the same area where I had worked 30 years earlier as a BLM ranger. Check out these "before and after" photos. The truck's gotten bigger, as has my waistline!
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Above: That's me and my Toyota truck (with the XT GEOG license plate) near Lake City, Colorado in July 2016.Below: And this was me at the same location in 1985 as "Ranger Del," patrolling the Rockies in my BLM truck. |
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After visiting the Midwest and Northeast in the fall of 2016 and spending November in Florida, I returned to the Northwest in December and finished my trip. During my journey, I visited 46 states, 56 extreme geographic sites, and all 16 extreme geographic compass points of the contiguous United States. Speaking of that...
The 16 Extreme Compass Points
One of the goals of my trip was to become the first person to visit all 16 extreme geographic compass points of the contiguous United States (i.e., the Lower 48 states) and document it. That includes places like:
- the westernmost point (Cape Alava in the state of Washington),
- the northeasternmost point (near Madawaska, Maine) and
- the west-southwesternmost point (near Point Arena in northern California).
There are lots of misconceptions about where these places are. For instance, Key West, Florida, a city that proudly boasts of being the southernmost point of the continental United States, isn't the southernmost point of anything, I'm afraid.
I wanted to set the record straight about these places and I figured the best way to do that is to visit them and post a story about each, with maps and directions. I indeed visited all 16 points during my trip, which you can check out here.
Del's Journey Continues...
This site is a continuation of an earlier blog I created called DelsJourney.com, which was one of the first and most extensive travel websites posted on the Internet. After learning HTML in 2001, I created DelsJourney to describe my travels around the U.S. and the world, and I kept posting stories there – over 500 pages worth – until 2016, when I created this ExtremeGeographer.com website. DelsJourney, one of the "granddaddies" of all travel blogs, now has over six million pageviews.
If you'd like to read about my earlier trips, including my solo travels around the U.S., New Zealand, Australia, Central America, the Middle East and the South Pacific, be sure to check out DelsJourney. You won't be sorry. Or maybe you will...
Once again, welcome to ExtremeGeographer.com, thanks for visiting and please check back for more stories!
Del Leu
Video of my 2016 Road Trip Around America (5 minutes, 53 seconds)
Above: Here's my entire 2016 road trip around America in less than six minutes. I visited 46 states and took a picture of nearly every state sign as I crossed the border. |
