2013. One of my favourite years of all. So much happened that year. I have such fond memories. Spring that year was magical. What was your spring that year like? If you were a Gravity Falls fan back then, you must have been waiting for new episodes given The Bottomless Pit and the Deep End both aired in the month of March. Alex had also revealed that the show had been renewed for a second season. Though they were airing new episodes, production on the series first season had most likely wrapped up by March. So, what are you to do with a crew of people working on one of the greatest animated shows of all time right after you get picked up for a second season?

YOU GO ON A ROADTRIP THAT’S WHAT!!!!

This is the story of a road trip not many fans know about, but a road trip worth remembering, this is the story, of Mystery Tour 2013.

The Road Trip

Spanning 4-days from March 14th till March 17th, Alex Hirsch and the Gravity Falls crew set out on a road trip to find the weirdest tourist traps in Oregon and Northern California.

The route travelled across the states and had many stops along the way. Some of the places Alex and the team went included, the House of Mystery at the Oregon Vortex (in many ways a real-life Mystery Shack, google it), a Masonic Temple (get it), the Trees of Mystery's Paul Bunyan statue which is located along Route 101, the World-Famous Grandfather Tree, and One Log House.

Do any of these sounds familiar? Well maybe not but does this look familiar?

Ya. Roadside Attraction has a lot of references in it to real life Tourist Traps in Oregon. It payed homage to the state of Oregon and its beautiful tourist traps. Even if you don’t like the episode (I’ll talk about that in another post) you have to admit, it was a visually stunning episode and one of the best in that category. This just aided in E16’s perfection. A lovely episode.

The road trip not only may have helped inspire an entire episode but it also had another little surprise. Throughout the trip, Alex and the GF crew hide 10 Bill Ciphers throughout the road trip’s path. Well not actually Bill.

Remember, this was early 2013.

The pre Dreamscaperers era.

The first 18 episodes. This was before Bill Cipher had been introduced to the show. I’m no expert given I was not in the GF fandom back then but he was referred to as the pyramid guy back then. Or as he was in this trip, the secret pyramid (oh how simple everything was back then. What happened?).

10 “secret pyramids” hidden throughout the route, and with the mystery, came reward. Released through out the trip on his twitter and keeping to the theme of mystery, Alex stated that any fan who found a pyramid guy and took a picture of themselves with it and sent it to him would receive a mystery prize.

Fans got to work and discoveries were made. Here’s how it went down (photo's of the 10 pyramids below)

Pyramid one was found literally the following day by a fan named Damien. He received his mystery prize the same day too, a drawing of himself as a GF character with Dipper and Mabel drawn by the one and only Matt Braly.

Pyramid number 2 was found on the same day (March 15th) by a fan named Kimberlee and her mystery prize was receiving a phone call from Alex and Jason Ritter, the voice of Dipper.

Pyramid number 3 and 4 were found a while later but it is unknown what mystery prize the people who found them received (the GF wiki page has nothing).

Pyramid 5 was found on March 15th and the person's mystery prize was one of my favourites. It took a few days but he got it. He requested a drawing of himself and Alex riding on a Mershaq back together. Holding hands was optional. And Alex, being the awesome guy he is, obliged to the request.

Pyramids 6 to 9 were found by fans too but like with 3 and 4, it is unknown what their mystery prizes were. But they got them from what I read.

Pyramid number 10 was never found.

Now before you get excited and jump into a car for Oregon thinking that if you can find pyramid 10 you’ll get a drawing from Alex, don’t. There is a reason number 10 was never found. It can NEVER be found and will NEVER be found.

Why? Simple.

Alex and the GF team ate it.

10 pyramid guys that we now call Bill Cipher. This story really goes to show how dedicated the Gravity Falls fandom is. I’m pretty sure many of you did not even know this road trip existed. I didn’t for a long time. But it has left a legacy on the show as seen from references in episodes. What’s more, I reckon there is a high probability that Cipher hunt got its roots from this.

And that is the story of Mystery hunt 2013. A story not many fans know about but a story that is worth telling. The story of a 4-day road trip in the spring of 2013 led by Alex Hirsch. The story of how 10 (9) pyramids were hidden along a road, foreshadowing the upcoming, and how fans raced through to find them and be rewarded for their dedication.

The journey to find the weirdest tourist traps eventually found its way into an episode. Stan’s quest to sabotage those tourist traps and all the throwbacks and references to real places, (I wonder if the masonic temple made it in).

I hope you enjoyed this little look back into the past of Gravity Falls. So many fans talk about other things that these stories are often forgotten to time. Hopefully this post taught you all a little something new about this show. Everything had a reason. Sometimes you have to look deeper and beyond the show’s boundaries to get the answers. And also, hopefully this shows to all the new fans what the past of this show was like.

Its nice to talk about the current and what we know now, but sometimes, it is fun to look back into the past and see where it all started. In this case, one spring many years ago.

The End

Enjoy the photos and gifs the gf team took.

#curatorreview

#gfhistory