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Scenic route case studies: the results and the conditions behind them
How to build a scenic route case study that is actually reusable: the fields to record, where the numbers come from, and what makes a lesson transferable.
What to take away
- A case study is a record with dates, not a trip report with adjectives.
- Record route classification and surface first. They explain most of what happened afterwards.
- Separate what you paid from what you would pay again. Those are different numbers.
- A lesson only counts if somebody else could apply it to a different route.
We do not publish invented budgets, and neither should anybody else. A scenic route case study is only worth reading if the figures came from a real trip and the conditions are stated. This is the structure we use, and the reason for each field.
Field one: what the route actually is
Start with the published classification, because it predicts more than any description. Route types are graded, and agencies say so plainly.
Route classification comparison
Cow Creek Byway
- Surface
- Paved
- Length
- 45 miles
- Type
- Type 1
- Grades
- Not stated
- Suitable
- Passenger vehicles
Owyhee Uplands Byway
- Surface
- Gravel
- Length
- 103 miles
- Type
- Backcountry
- Grades
- Up to 12%
- Suitable
- Caution slick/muddy
In Oregon and California back country byways, the BLM describes the Cow Creek Back Country Byway as a 45-mile paved Type 1 road suitable for passenger vehicles in most conditions, forming a loop between two mileposts on Interstate 5. Record that grading, the length, and the surface.
Contrast that with a gravel route. The BLM's account of Idaho's Owyhee Uplands Backcountry Byway describes a 103-mile gravel road running from Jordan Valley in Oregon to Grand View in Idaho, with grades reaching 12 percent in places.
Most passenger vehicles can manage it, but caution is needed when the surface is slick or muddy.
Field two: the conditions on the day
Record the month, the weather, the surface condition, what was open and what was closed. A case study without conditions is a story. With them, it becomes comparable to somebody else's trip on a different route, and to your own trip on the same road in a different season.
Two conditions are worth recording that people usually skip: how recently it had rained, and how busy the route was. Both change driving time and both are forgotten within a week of getting home.
Field three: the numbers, split honestly
Field three: the numbers
- Fuel, from actual mileage rather than the planned route.
- Beds, with the pattern statedcamped, motel, or mixed.
- Food, split into planned and unplanned.
- Site fees and permits, itemized per site.
- Anything you would not pay again, listed separately.
That last line is the one that makes a case study useful. A trip where the recovery of a stuck vehicle cost more than the accommodation should say so, and should say why it happened.
Numbers to record
- Fuelactual mileage
- Bedscamped, motel, mixed
- Foodplanned and unplanned
- Site fees and permitsitemized
- Would not pay againseparate
Field four: what actually took the time
Log departure, arrival and dwell times. Almost every trip discovers that the driving estimate was optimistic and the stops were shorter than intended. Recording both makes the next plan better, and it gives readers something they can convert to their own pace.
Field five: the transferable lesson
Write one sentence that would help somebody on a different route. Not the road was rougher than expected, but on gravel routes with grades over ten percent, plan sixty percent of the mapped speed. The first is a memory. The second is usable.
Build the route itself with the method in our guide to planning a scenic route end to end, and record the trip inside the entry structure described in how highway itinerary planning works.
