THE END OF THE ROAD THROUGH GLEN ETIVE

This week I would like to encourage you to experiment by getting off-the-beaten path when you arrive at a major tourist destination. It is hard to concede that you are part of the problem of “over tourism” when you arrive at a crowded spot after months of planning and saving and realize that your desire to “get away” has led you to a place that seems to be the victim of its own success. I believe that we can go a long way towards solving this problem not by abandoning our plans but by just subtly modifying them. It is amazing how suddenly uncrowded a place can get by simply going one more step beyond where all those crowds are willing to go. Those steps usually do not require a major expedition - sometimes merely leaving the car park can do the trick.

Such was the case when Fran and I visited Glen Coe in Scotland. To put it mildly, Glen Coe is one of the most beautiful and accessible places you might ever get the chance to visit. You are minding your own business, driving down one of the few major roads North of Edinburgh and Glasgow, when suddenly that road winds a lonely path through a valley surrounded by almost a dozen major mountains in the space of a few miles. The road almost seems ludicrous until you realize that it was the King’s Road, built not for any logical reason of getting from here to there, but to subdue the rebellious Highlanders who lived at what was literally the end of the world. But that road allows you and every other person with a taste for overwhelming beauty to enter a wilderness that for all intents starts right off the road. No wonder it gets crowded.

                                                                   A SNIPPET OF THE VIEW FROM THE BEACH AT LOCH ETIVE

The answer is to just choose a way to get away from the crowds. You can deliberately arrive at a time when most sane individuals are either sleeping or having dinner. You can go on a hike. The problem is that most of the walks are merely just down into the valley, where you will not see any different view than the one you are looking at for at least several miles in and then out, and you can see all of the people who have chosen that hike, and it too looks pretty crowded. Getting away from those hikers requires semi-mountain climbing, which most people are not ready for even if they think they are.

                LOCH ETIVE RUNS FOR ANOTHER 12 MILES TO THE OCEAN PAST THOSE MOUNTAINS ON THE HORIZON

Our answer was to take what must be one of the best ”Sunday Drives” in the world. An obscure side road of the major A82 road leads off on a dead end drive through Glen Etive, one of the only side valleys off Glen Coe that actually has a trail, much less a road. Glen Etive is absolutely beautiful, winding for ten miles past a few more mountains until it peters out at Loch Etive, which is not wilderness but might as well be. The road achieved some fame since it supposedly led to James Bond’s childhood home as shown in “Skyfall.”  Needless to say, this is all hokum, although you can follow directions on You Tube to get you to to the ”exact spot” where Bond and M had a major confab on the way to the final shootout climax in the movie.

                ANOTHER VIEW FROM THE BEACH. WHILE WE WEREN'T ALONE, IT'S NOT EXACTLY CROWDED.

Fortunately Fran already had experience driving on such roads while we visited the Lake District on the way to Scotland. I will be the first to admit that it was a lot easier navigating on the road rather than actually driving, especially since “navigating” amounted to just reassuring her that we were actually getting closer to the end of the road. There were no turn-offs anyway, and I don’t recall any places where you could actually even legally stop to take a photograph. Fran was game, and did a remarkably good job after less than a week in the United Kingdom. Single-track roads work remarkably well as long as people realize that you are still driving on the left, even if there is only maybe a lane-and-a-half. You must look ahead, which works until you meet a blind curve or someone who does not know what they are doing. Etiquette mandates that the car closer to a passing place should stop and let one or two cars pass in the opposite direction. It works like clockwork until you encounter the inevitable asshole who is either driving more than twice as fast as he should be, or is so entitled that he doesn’t feel the rules apply to him, or both. Then a “Scottish standoff” would ensue, and my only advice to Fran was to not go off the road, even if the ditch looked relatively benign, and to just stop - if the other guy wanted to hit our car, then at least we were more in the right because we weren’t moving.

                ONE OF THE MOUNTAINS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF LOCH ETIVE 

The drive to the Loch took a good two hours to go ten miles. I do not even understand how the map apps can even begin to estimate times since they cannot know how many well-behaved drivers will be on the road. I guess that they just drive the road when it is literally empty, when they really shouldn’t anyway, and throw in a few minutes for fun. We arrived at the Loch, which was absolutely stunning. These images only begin to convey its beauty, and almost all of them are stitched panoramas of multiple shots to take in parts of the view. The Loch's widest expanse is nearly a mile, and you could kayak ten miles to the ocean if you so desired. There is rumored to be one or two villages somewhere in the woods, but there was no way to get there short of walking, so we took in the view and drank our water and had some chocolate bars. Among the small number of people that had made it all the way were some who were clearly in the know, because the picnics and tables and chairs in evidence were fit for Instagram.

                BACK AT GLEN COE. THE ROAD THROUGH GLEN ETIVE LED PAST THESE TWO MOUNTAINS.

The drive back as usual seemed to take a half hour at most. We had successfully eluded most of the people we saw again as we drove back to our B&B at the other end of Glen Coe. I would really recommend that you come up with your own “Plan B” when you encounter too many other people who had the same plan as you did. I guarantee that you too will be glad you did.