Many visitors to the USA go on a road trip or two to get under the skin of the country.
Not Tim Voors. He decided to explore it by walking north to south from one side to the other – and he discovered a ‘parallel universe’ along the way.
His journey along the 3,100-mile (4,989km) Continental Divide Trail from Montana to New Mexico is charted in a captivating new book titled ‘The Great Divide’, published by Gestalten.
Voors took four and a half months to complete the trek, which he says is equivalent to 15 round trips of summiting Mount Everest. During this time, he went through five pairs of shoes, 50 hamburgers and 100 beers, and encountered 100 chipmunks, one grizzly bear, three black bears, 12 wolves, five moose, five elk, 50 deer, one bald eagle, five snakes and ‘one million mosquitoes’.
He reveals that for periods it was a life of ‘no pizzas, no cappuccinos, no nothing’, adding: ‘Living in the wilderness was like living in a parallel universe. I hadn’t been disturbed by any incoming phone calls for five months. Sure, I had been in sporadic contact with my loved ones and clients, but only with very delayed voice messages or weekly emails.
‘This parallel universe had, for a short period, become my home, and it was with wonder that I saw how quickly I had adapted to it.’ Breathtaking photographs, useful maps and charming illustrations help to recreate Voors’ journey in the tome. Scroll down to see MailOnline Travel’s handpicked selection of images from among its pages…
Tim Voors passes through the South San Juan Wilderness in Colorado while hiking The Continental Divide Trail and recalls seeing ‘endless shades of yellow stretched over the vast range’. He adds: ‘It was a beautiful blend of color, stretching out as far as the eye could see, filling my heart with joy throughout the day. Due to the remoteness, there were no roads, no day hikers, no hunters, no internet, no cell reception, no ski lifts, no pizzas, no cappuccinos, no nothing. This was the wild open expanse I had longed for the past four years’‘The Scapegoat Wilderness stretches out in front of us with some easy grasslands,’ writes Voors as he recalls reaching the 289th mile of his journey. The area comprises 239,936 acres spread across three national forests in Montana. Voors continues: ‘Countless spring flowers blossom along the trail as it winds up and over the ridges. It’s as if we’re walking across the back of a sleeping dragon as it goes down the length of the Rocky Mountains’The trail disappears under a snowfield in this mesmerising picture taken near Leadore, Idaho‘Yellowstone had a surprise in store for us,’ writes Voors, recalling the moment he came across this steaming river at Yellowstone National Park, which ‘called for one thing only: a swim’. He recalls the ‘clear creek’ flowing ‘gently’ down through the valley with ‘bubbling geysers’ on both sides. ‘It was a scene straight out of a fairytale or apocalyptic sci-fi movie,’ he adds. ‘I couldn’t quite comprehend that this entire river was so hot’A picture taken as Voors absorbs a view of Yellowstone National Park, which ‘lays far in the distance’, with the trail leading walkers down into a ‘magical, magical valley’As Voors hikes further south, he notes how everything is ‘continuously in motion’ around him and ‘forever changing’. He writes: ‘Days were becoming noticeably hotter, and I saw at least three snakes a day. The grass slowly turned golden, with dry orange flowers, and the occasional tree glinted gold.’ Pictured: Part of the trail in Wyoming, which ‘meanders past countless magical lakes’Voors finds ‘the perfect spot to camp’, pictured, high in Wyoming’s Wind River Range. ‘I have to stop and take it all in every once in a while,’ he writes. ‘The chances of me ever returning were quite slim.’ Voors describes the area as ‘a towering, flat monolith’ rising above a ‘turquoise, opaque river’. He adds: ‘The trail wound through a meandering bed of blue-mauve sage. Late summer had dried out all the flowers. The sweet smell of sage in the morning never disappointed’Behold one of the spots where Voors stops for a swim during a ‘stunning day’ hiking through the Wind River Range, WyomingDuring his time trekking through the Wind River Range, pictured, Voors is woken up by a fellow camper calling out ‘Moose’, he writes. ‘It was 6am and I quickly poked my head out of my tent to see what was going on,’ he continues. ‘To my astonishment, a large male moose with its heavy antlers was looking straight at me. No more than 8ft (2.5m) away from my tent’The road to Lordsburg, New Mexico. In his chapter titled ‘The Final Push’, Voors describes seeing ‘the outstretched golden desert with pale mountains in the distance’. He adds: ‘Perhaps I was fantasizing, but it felt like I could see Mexico on the horizon. I didn’t know if it was physically possible to see 100 miles away, but somehow it felt like I could see the end of my journey’The Great Divide, by Tim Voors, is published by Gestalten and retails at £30 ($37)
Share or comment on this article: ‘No pizzas, no cappuccinos, no nothing’: Extreme hiker treks from one side of America to the other and discovers a stunning ‘parallel universe’ of epic landscapes and heart-stopping wildlife encounters
