We will travel by campervan in 1 month through 4 states: California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada respectively.
Starting our big tour in Los Angeles, we will finally end up in San Francisco. We will visit these big cities but are also very much interested in all of the National Parks we are going to explore like there is the Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Bryce Canyon and Yosemite National Park.
Finally the moment had arrived to leave and start our world tour.
Brothers, mothers, father and friends had come to see us off. The start wasn't that good since they immediately put us on an earlier flight leaving us with only fifteen minutes to say goodbye.
Maybe that was for the best since it got pretty emotional. After the one hour flight to London, the tears had finally dried up!
The earlier flight left us with a four hour gap before our connecting flight to LA. Finally after another delay of 2 1/2 hours the plane took off.
All this time it had been waiting on an engineer to sign off a minor?!?! repair to the plane. We checked into our hotel in LA at around 10 o'clock that night.
The next day we took a bus to visit Santa Monica Pier which was quite nice.
Monday the 6th of March we picked up our 'Cruise America' Campervan. First thing to do then was finding a supermarket and fill the fridge! Then made a quick tour through the suburbs of LA.
Tuesday we got up early since we planned to visit the Universal Studios, however when we learnt the entrance fee, we decided against it...
Instead we visited Hollywood. We had just missed the big Oscar night, which had been held two days before.
We checked out the walk of fame, looked at some nice estates and finally drove on sunset boulevard all the way to the coast.
Weather by the way is still quite nice, about 17 - 20 degr. and mostly sunny.
Wednesday we drove to Viva Las Vegas!, arriving there early afternoon. (prices for the RV park are also over the top since the Nascar races are taking place this month in Vegas, more than doubling the prices!)
It is really unlike any other city we have ever seen (check out the pics). It is a created city, completely over the top and fake, but actually quite amusing to see. It was also the first time we came across an internet cafe where we could upload the pics and work on the website.
Las Vegas by night is even nicer, it looks more real then.
Everywhere big video screens, flashing lights and music coming out of the loudspeakers
all the way on the strip.
We watched the water fountains of the Bellagio hotel, which was spectacular.
The water actually danced to the music.
Thursday we left to visit the Hoover dam. It was big and really quite impressive.
Although the weather was
still nice, the reports on the radio indicated otherwise. They predicted snowstorms and low temperatures for the
coming days. At night the storm (hard winds) began and the next morning we woke up to a white world! It was really freezing cold.
We started to drive in the direction of the Grand Canyon but because of the heavy snowfall we drove to Flagstaff instead.
That night more than 30 cent. of snow had fallen.
We gave it another try the next day, but again the snowfall was to heavy to drive all the way to the Grand Canyon. We turned back and continued to drive in the direction of Lake Powell situated in the Glen Canyon. We stayed at the campsite overlooking the Lake and part of the Canyon.
Sunday, we headed back in the direction of the Grand Canyon, where we arrived the next day. The weather has been improving, only a bit of snow.
Monday the weather had definitely cleared up so we drove to the Grand Canyon National Park.
The way up was already beautiful but the first look-out was stunning.
As far as you can see, Canyons, pinnacles and massive red rocks.
Millions of years of geological history lay in front of us.
We drove through the Park checking out all the beautiful look out points,
before checking into the Grand Canyon Trailer park.
GC NP is really well organised with free buses driving to all the
interesting sights.
Tuesday the the 14th of March we did the Bright Angel Hike all the way up
to Plateau Point
overlooking the Colorado River.
It was a tough walk, taking us 7 hours to complete (3,5 hrs down - 3,5 hrs up).
We only found out when we got back that it had been a 20 km walk!
We definitely payed the price the next day...
At night we also looked at a beautiful sunset.
Wednesday we left the GC and arrived at Bryce Canyon on Thursday.
Drove through Bryce the next day.
The scenery is really amazing and spectacular.
In any case, nothing like we ever saw before (check out the pics).
Unfortunately it got significantly colder that day, so we didn't do
a hike in Bryce.
Instead we headed in the direction of Zion, arriving
end of that same day.
We stayed at a really nice campground in the National Park.
Since it wasn't that cold anymore we could finally eat outside and enjoy
a really nice campfire.
Saturday we did a nice hike to the Emerald Pools in the National Park.
Since the weather was again playing tricks on us (it had started to rain and then to snow),
we decided to look for warmer places heading back to Las Vegas.
Since we only spent one day in Vegas last time, we now spent another day on the strip.
We went into a number of hotels (= casino's), like there is New York New York,
Excalibur, Circus Circus, MGM Grand and the Bellagio. The Roller Coasters going
through some hotels are spectacular to watch.
Spent 1$ on a beer in a casino and saw a midget pouring free shots standing
on the bar. What a funny place, Vegas!
We walked the strip all day and the beginning of the evening, leaving us
exhausted.
After this day we could hear another bell of a slot machine! So, time to move on.
Monday the twentieth of March we arrived in Death Valley.
Drove to Dantes Peak, which gave us a spectacular view on the Valley.
We stayed at Stove Pipe Wells "Village" for only 12$ but spent 10$ on 2 great pints of Amber beer in the Saloon.
Tuesday we spent the day visiting and walking through some of the Valleys interesting places.
We went to the sand dunes which were beautiful. The weather is good, finally
above the 20 degr.C.! Then walked on a nice boardwalk in Salt Creek. Only 1 type of fish,the Pupfish, survived the transition of one big fresh water lake being Death Valley to tiny salt water streams, which is now the only water remaining in the valley.
We also walked around a really impressive crater, the Ubehebe crater.
That day we stopped with driving and walking quite early to enjoy the
sun, a cold beer and the quiet campground.
At night we heard the coyotes haul. Looking at the sky, we realised that we
had never seen so many stars before!
On Wednesday we visited Scotty's castle which was built(Spanish style) in the early 1900's by Scott and Johnson. It didn't quite fit in the natural surroundings but was nice to look at anyway.
This had again been a warm, pleasant and relaxing day.
We left Death Valley on Thursday to heading for Sequoia National Park. Arrived at the visitors centre Saturday the 25th of March.
There we learnt that due to heavy snowfall practically all roads leading to and in Kings Canyon and Sequoia Nat.Park were closed. We got as far as the museum and were able to see some of the giant Sequoia trees.
From that point on chains were mandatory, but these are not allowed on our RV. On our way back out of the park we saw some deers by the side of the road. That was a really exciting site!
The 26th we drove to Yosemite National Park arriving in the afternoon. This Park is as well organised as Grand Canyon National Park with all sorts of lodging and free bus rides available.
Driving through the Park we already saw some awesome waterfalls. Also lots and lots of different kinds of trees , green meadows and impressive rock-formations (Domes). There supposed to be a lot of wildlife like the black bear (who tends to break into cars to get food, probably not RV's), coyotes, deer and squirrels. We spotted only the latter.
On Monday we walked the Misty Trail to two big waterfalls, the Vernal and the Nevada Falls. Weather is nice and sunny, the higher parts of the Park are still covered in snow.
The signs on the trail all showed that it was closed and also the entrance gate was locked. But the track looked fine to us, so we decided to follow it anyway.
About halfway up the mountain we found out the reasons why it was closed.
Almost half a meter of snow covered the track. We only knew where to go because we could follow the footsteps of some other idiots who went up before us!
We went up using hands and knees as well, and when we made a wrong step we sometimes were in the snow up to our thighs.
The final sight on the falls made us (almost) forget our frightening way up.
Because we had been walking through the snow almost the whole day, our shoes and socks were soaking wet. At some point Rolf was even scared of his toes falling off due to frostbite!
We finally completed the walk after 5 hours, walking more than 11 km.
Fortunately we ran into the valley bus at the end of the track, taking us to our campsite where two nice cold beers were waiting for us.
Although this is bear country we still haven't seen one, unfortunately.
Even considered placing an apple on the campground table (of our neighbours of course!)
Unfortunately it rained all day, the next day, so we didn't do much. In the afternoon we drove to the north of the park.
Halfway the rain turned into snow. When we arrived at the Hodgdon Meadows campground, we found it completely deserted.
At that time it was snowing heavily. A bit scary actually also with all the bear warnings placed on the site!
Wednesday the 29th, we woke up to a white, white world! Really beautiful (look at the pics).
It took some time to get back on the road again, since the roads of the campground were not cleared. (they probably did not expect that someone would go camping in those conditions)
The rest of the roads were fortunately cleared though.
If all the roads and walking tracks in the park are open, you can easily spend your whole holiday there, since it is really a beautiful park.
Since the weather was still that bad, we decided to leave Yosemite and drive to San Francisco.
We ended up near SF in a National Recreation Area, Chabbot Park. Stayed there for two days also doing some walking.
The 31st of March we went into SF with our RV (in case you were wondering, yes it is possible to drive through such a hilly city). We saw the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf and the well known, often filmed SF hills.
Since it rained heavily (nice for a change), we then went to the campground, relatively close to downtown SF.
Sunday the 2nd of April, we took the campground shuttle into town (almost missed it because we had forgotten about daylight saving time!).
We have finally found an internet cafe with actual computers including USB ports, so we could update our photo album! Hopefully we won't have so much difficulties at our next destinations.
Today, Tuesday the 4th of April, has been our last full day in San Francisco and in the United States. Tomorrow we fly to Mexico - Cancun, where we will start our Maya Trip on Friday in Vallodalid.
We have been looking around SF the last few days, but not as much as we wanted to, because it rained most of the time.
Sunday, we ended up in a bar called Jack at Fisherman's Wharf where they sold 85 draft beers on tap. Ever heard of; Anderson Valley Boot Amber or Fat Tire Amber? Or what about El Toro IPA? Unfortunately we will not have the time or the money to try them all...
We were lucky enough to see (all of) the Golden Gate Bridge yesterday, so without the well known fog. Also visited the John Muir Redwood forest on the North side of the bridge.
We had to leave our home of four weeks behind this morning and checked into a motel.
We will now go the Fisherman's Wharf to try some more beers and maybe try their famous Clam chowder.
Thanks for all the nice messages we received during our USA trip, and look forward to keeping in touch during the rest of our trip. See you in Mexico!
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