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 epic eight-month road trip that I took around America, during which I visited dozens of extreme geographic sites (and ate lots of donuts). I visited several extreme geographic places that are famous, like Key West, Florida (the self-proclaimed southernmost point of America) as well as obscure, like the highest point in the lowest state (in Delaware). And yes, I also visited the lowest point in the highest state. That's in Colorado.
I'm still posting stories here in my News section, long after my trip, so check back often to see what I've been up to. Not too often, though, because I have a job now – as a map-maker, of course – and don't post as frequently.
During my donut-filled journey around America, I traveled through 46 states and drove over 32,000 miles. Along with visiting dozens of extreme geographic places, I also visited lots of national parks and historic sites. I also visited several quirky places because, well, I'm a pretty quirky guy. 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 I love visiting "est" places for fun. And 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 in May and drove over 32,000 miles around the country while visiting lots of interesting geographic and historic places. Well, interesting to me – but then I'm pretty quirky, as you know. I spent the summer in the Colorado Rockies, where I'd worked 30 years earlier as a BLM ranger. Check out these "before and after" photos. The truck's gotten bigger, as has my waistline. Must be all those donuts!
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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 my goals for this 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). 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 a lot of misconceptions about where these places are. For instance, the aforementioned Key West, 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 figured the best way to do that is to visit them and post a story about each, with maps and directions. And indeed, I 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/photo websites ever posted on the Internet. After teaching myself HTML and CSS 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 several million pageviews.
If you want 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, 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
My Previous Road Trips Around America
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Above: This messy map shows my previous road trips around the U.S. I described my 2001-02 trip around America in DelsJourney.com. My 2016 road trip, described in this website, is shown in red. Since that trip and through 2023, however, I've driven less than 1,000 miles each year. It's called WFH (work-from-home). |
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Video of my 2016 Road Trip Around America (5 minutes, 53 seconds)
Above: Here's a video of my 2016 road trip around America. I visited 46 states and, as you can tell from this video, took a picture of nearly every state sign as I crossed the border. |
