Grand Canyon to Bryce!

I know I said that before, but after two weeks, I am now completely back in the traveling rhythm. Even the aversion of updating this blog is back, despite knowing how good it can feel to squeeze the latest events in short passages. But that’s part of the deal and I am willing to keep it.

Before entering Las Vegas, we already had booked a hostel room in “The Cat” in advance. Having a bed for yourself, being able to shower as well as having air conditioning felt quite nice after the devastating heat of the Death Valley. Nevertheless, I never was and still am not a big fan of hostels. But visiting the city of sins it is a necessity. On our arrival we were told, that there will be a meteor shower that night. Those things are quite rare and it was supposed to be the perfect night for it. So we decided to book the tour after all, for just 20 bucks each. After the hostel crew squeezed nearly 20 people in two vans, we drove out for 90 minutes to escape the air pollution of Vegas. Sitting next to me, a car sick Japanese girl, who updated me on her feeling sick status by writing on her phone. So that added a nice twist to the drive. Without vomit on me or in the van, we finally arrived at the beach, where some people went cliff diving and others just relaxed and enjoyed the shooting star show. The place itself wasn’t that bad, however some people were pretty annoying. The undisputed winner was a Danish lad who, referring to himself, jumps out of planes and opens businesses on a regular basis. He also had really helpful tips, how to get over my fear of jumping down cliffs by night – not! Flo and I isolated ourselves after a while and shared the same, pleasant feeling of being totally fine with the fact, that we both don’t like and neither need this sort of hostel adventure. The next night, we went out on the main strip of Vegas. The pokies didn’t favor us that night, but we still had a great time exploring the turmoil of people, shops, casinos and lights. I even found a phone case, that contained beside an iPhone, two credit cards, which I returned for a 20 dollar finders-fee to the rightful owner, who was kind of ungrateful.

No money - no nuthin!

Fire!

Even though it was quite an experience to visit Vegas, I was happy to leave the city and this hostel after two nights. Don’t get me wrong, Hostels can be a good thing, especially if you stay there for more than a week. But if you are just passing through, and don’t really feel the need to be motivated by the staff, it can be somehow annoying. Next stop, Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon:

Having our Yosemite experience in mind, we both didn’t really knew what to expect when we reached the maybe, most touristic place in America. Nonetheless, we were both amazed by the scenic landscape. We spend our time, visiting various viewpoints, climbing every rock there was and absorbing the truly amazing feeling of getting lost in the depth of the valleys. After we watched the sunset at the amazing lipan view point, it was time to leave this unique place, which is definitely worth a visit.

Picture for my mum

Cooking session

Heading north, we passed a beautiful scenic drive, were we took a freezing cold dip in the Colorado River and played an epic game of boule.

Bouled that smile of his face!

It is interesting how places like the Grand Canyon immediately set a new bar for what you deem worthy of photographing or even stopping for. They leave lasting impressions, which you automatically compare with the following ones. The night at the eureka dunes did that to the meteor shower with the horde of apes and now, there is a pretty high bar for mountain ranges as well as scenic viewpoints. Thanks Canyon the Grand!

On our way to the Zion National Park, which Flo was eager to visit, we stayed at an outstanding camping spot close to Kanab, where we met a French family, which is traveling the world for a total of four years. Also I totally forgot to mention, that in America it is allowed to camp for free in the National Forrest`s as well as in the National Monuments, which we have been mostly doing in the last week. It is pretty easy to find amazing spots, when you follow random off road tracks, which are as frequent as Germans roaming through New Zealand.   

Zion National Park:

At Zions National Park we decided to hike a popular track, the angels landing. We started the hike at midday and I really enjoyed the possibility for a decent workout (örkoute). On the main track itself were a lot of pedestrians, which nonetheless didn’t affect the outstanding experience. Arriving on top of the mountain, you could overlook the whole valley. It was truly amazing, being on top and having such a clear view. It reminded me of a climbing track I did almost a year ago, when I was traveling the west of Norway with my brother and a friend of mine. That Scandinavian-track was definitely way more exciting and even a bit dangerous, but didn’t finish in such a breathtaking overlook. In total this was one of the best hikes I ever did.

Leaving the Zion, we made a quick stop in Cedar City, where I bought my first camera ever. So there will be better pictures from now on. Thanks to the superb zoom, even pretty decent close ups!

The next day we made our way up to the Bryce Canyon, where we did a quick, impressive hike and left within the same day. Summarizing the last days, made me realize that we literally did nothing else within the last week than spending our time traveling through National Parks, which definitely entailed some amazing experiences.

When we left the Bryce Canyon we stayed the night in the Grand Staircase-Escalane National Monument. Just another ravishing nightspot along the way, where I got the chance to fully test my new camera.

Spot for the night

Alda Vadda

At this moment we are on our way to the oldest National Park of the United States of America, the Yellowstone National Park. It is quite a drive up there, so we spend the last day driving up to a suburb of Salt Lake City, made a quick stop to recharge our laptops, and are probably arriving at our desired destination in a couple of hours. After the Yellowstone, we have nearly a week to make our way up to Reno, where we will prepare for the Burning Man festival, which starts at the 28^th of August. So I will definitely get back to writing on our way to Nevada.

Greets Vince

Murrrriccccaaaa!