World’s Largest Things: Scaling Your Photography on US Road Trips

There is something very enticing about the solo road trip. You can go wherever you like, spend as much or as little time at any destination, park or museum without worrying about ruining someone else’s good time, and you have free rein to pursue personal hobbies, such as photography. But for some road trips, having a companion along can mean a lot more than just someone to talk to while you log those miles in the car.

For example, if you plan on driving a route from Minneapolis to Montana and back (along two different routes), you are going to pass a whole lot of “world’s largest” things. And having someone in the picture to provide some scale can make all the difference. Don’t believe me? Take a gander (get it?) at the world’s largest scrap metal statue (North Dakota), below. How big is this thing? Click ‘Continue’ to find out.

Pretty damned big. Especially when you consider that those hills my friend is walking towards are also made of metal. You can find this monstrosity along Highway 94 near Gladstone, North Dakota, as part of the Enchanted Highway, which meanders south towards Regent. What you won’t find out at this statue is much of anything else, which can make giving people an idea of its size tricky. Had I not had my friend with me, my rental car would have been parked suspiciously close to the statue as a fill-in…but that would have looked like crap, so huzzah for my friend.

Likewise, consider the case of the World’s Largest Holstein Cow (and, I believe, outright world’s largest cow, period). Here it is doing its thing:

Looks big. Real big. But how big? You would have to know how tall they make the lamp posts out in good old New Salem, ND. And even if you learned that tidbit in school, you have probably forgotten.

But if a 6′1″ man can stand under the cow and take this picture, it starts to give you a little more idea of what’s going on in terms of size.

By contrast, if I offer only the above picture of the World’s Largest Sandhill Crane (Steele, ND), you won’t be in any position to tell how tall it really is, beyond the fact that it is tall enough where a photographer can get this shot with a camera. But I could be standing, sitting or laying in a hole.

No such trouble with the unimaginative but helpful “Person in Front of (Sight)” shot, is there? (This buffalo hangs out in Jamestown, ND, by the way).

And lastly, the world’s largest Booming Prairie Chicken statue (along Highway 94, Minnesota). Again, the presence of a fellow traveler puts in perspective that the prairie chicken is small, the buffalo large, and the massive goose sculpture far larger yet. And if you haven’t taken the drive from Minneapolis to Miles City, Montana, I can assure you that you will not be spoiled for choice in the volume of readily available things to provide context to the ongoing flatness, emptiness and sky, sky, sky. Do yourself a favor: bring a friend.

Because while the world’s largest statue of a cherry in a spoon (Minneapolis, MN), may be readily surrounded by strangers and passers-by to provide size context, a quick trip to Google Maps’ Street View along Highway 94 in North Dakota will clue you in to your chances of finding strangers out in Gladstone.