Anyone who didn’t grow up in the United States has probably fantasized at some point or another about taking the Great American Road Trip. I’m from Turkey, where I grew up watching American road movies like Thelma and Louise, Paris, Texas, and Something Wild, and I yearned to re-create some of that magic for real. A few months ago, a couple of my friends, Alara and Arda, decided to finally do it. We started in Austin, Texas, and slowly made our way west to Las Vegas. Here’s to Alara, Arda, and all our memories of this trip: Shaggy, Monopoly, ice storms, aliens, stars, pitch black, not camping, Donald Judd, Burger King, cowboy boots, and slot machines, and here’s to the open road!
Images 2–7: Marfa, Texas.
Images 8 & 9: Alpine, Texas.
Valentine, Texas.
11–13: White Sands, New Mexico.
Roswell, New Mexico.
15–17: Carlsbad, New Mexico.
New Mexico.
19–22: Arizona.
Utah.
24–26: Monument Valley, Utah.
Somewhere in Nevada.
28 & 29: Las Vegas.
Asli Baykal is a Turkish filmmaker who runs TANK, a production company, with her BFF Tracy Antonopoulos.
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Rookie is an online magazine and book series for teenagers. Each month, a different editorial theme drives the writing, photography, and artwork that we publish. Learn more about us here, and find out how to submit your work here!
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15 Comments
Amazing photography and captions! Loved it so much! Also really relevant atm
My family went on a Great American Road Trip a few summers ago. I wasn’t too happy at first (what 14 year old wants to spend 3 weeks away from her friends in the summer?) but after the very first night, I was totally into it.
I met a beauty queen at a rodeo (to which I would no longer attend b/c animal abuse), discovered Taco John’s potato-ey fritter thingies, fell in love with the smell of a campfire, pumped gas for the first time (at a SEEMINGLY ABANDONED GAS STATION), and saw a lightning storm on a plain from miles away.
I always dream of doing just this. Hopefully one day I can!! (I live in Australia) Paris, Texas is one of my all time favourite movies. And so many other films inspire me with America/on the road/nostalgic vibes, such as 3 women.
Awesome photography Asli!!! What camera do you use to take your photos? :-) XXXX
I’ve lived in the U.S. my entire life and dream about a trip like this. :) Beautiful photos, and thanks for the movie recommendations!
ohhhh my god I wish I had the money to do something like this in summer haha
whimsicalprocrastination.blogspot.com/
The ice on the grass is so pretty… I also loved the picture of the train. I am kind of obsessed with trains wherever I go, even though there are tons of them around where I live as well. Standing close to the tracks as they pass by and you can feel the rumble through your whole body… Ahhhh.
beautiful photo set.
this is one of my FAVORITE sets on rookie. so wonderful ah!! everything about this is perfect and sort of felt like an honor to view.
oh wow this is perfect!! I wish I do this one day!
this is totally my dream
LOOOVE THIS. So calming.
Even Americans have dreams of going on the Great American Roadtrip :) I especially dream of going out to the deserts and the Grand Canyon out in Arizona/Nevada. Your trip looked fun, great photos!
I love road trip photos! So cool
Oh my goodness, yes yes yes! This is so cool!!!