Since all the passes in Yosemite were closed due to snow, we made a detour through Reno. Turned out to be a great decision; not only are the hotels pretty cheap, we could also freshen up our gambling skills and Reno was hosting the national roping finals.
The whole city was flooded with real cowboys wearing hats, shirts, jeans and cowboy boots. After nearly crashing a Mitt Romney event we finally found our way to the roping event and had a blast there. Among others we learned from an elderly gentleman, that all the people in Switzerland take drugs and that we are wimps for conserving the wildlife in winter! Aha!
On our way to Death Valley we stopped in Bishop and took a look at the world famous Buttermilks. Following a dusty road suddenly on both sides boulders start popping up and surprisingly many tents and vans camp out to take full advantage of this great boulder region. I am pretty positive that this was not our last visit.
Finally we reached Death Valley that was warm and windy. Despite its name, it seems all but death and has a huge variety of different landscapes. The warm weather made it an ideal place to camp and its remoteness a super spot to observe the sky and stars.
Totally opposite of Death Valley’s silence was buzzing Las Vegas. We allowed ourselves the luxury to stay in the Luxor. From outside the pyramid looks pretty small; you would never guess that it is actually a 21-story building. We did not only the typical Vegas stuff like gambling (no real luck though), walking through the casinos, watching Cirque du Solei (addicted fans now) and hanging at the pool, but also visiting the Atom Test museum and attending a survival class. Now we know that we always need to have a plan A, B and C and whatever happens: keep PMA (positive mind attitude).
Leaving the artificial world of Vegas we started our National Parks tour. Right next to Vegas is the Valley of Fire, actually a state park. Maybe it drowns sometimes in the crowd of parks but it is definitely worth a visit. The other parks on our itinerary were Bryce Canyon NP, Zion NP, Arches NP, Natural Bridges NM and Monument Valley. What can you say, stunning nature and it is always fun to watch the other hikers.
The tour through Monument Valley requires a 4WD, if you do not have one you can go on a tour with the Indians. They pimped their trucks so that the visitors have a good view but it looks like on a safari. We did not want to watch the monuments and tribes like going to a zoo. Well, less than 24hours later we sat in such a vehicle going to Antelope canyon.
In a travel report we discovered Antelope Canyon and put it on our itinerary. The canyon is located on Navajo land and you can only visit it with a guide. The pictures in the travel report showed the couple with their guide. Somehow they caught a better tour than we did, we were part of a 50 people group rushing with 200 other people through the canyon. Good thing about big groups, you always have plenty of people to look and sometimes laugh at.
The trip to Antelope Canyon starts in Page and we were once again lucky. We were there on the annually hot balloon festival. They fly during the day and in the evening they did a balloon parade, meaning all the balloons line up on the main street and every 5 minutes all of them fire. Nice add on for our trip!
No west coast trip without Grand Canyon. Again a little luxury for us… we went to take a look of the canyon from above and clearly understood why it is called Grand Canyon. It is not only huge, no wonder there are more than 2000 Anasazi ruins, it is also diverse. The southern part is really green and hosts tons of big animals whilst the northern part seems deserted.
LA is not beautiful but there are plenty of things to see and do. We could not resist and did a stars home tour, you actually do not see any stars but great villas and different neighborhoods. Thanks to recommendations from Julien, a former coworker now living in LA, we visited Santa Monica, Venice and a NBA game. Although LA inhabitants love when it rains, tourists don’t. The only good thing about rain in LA is that the Universal Studios are nearly empty. Apart from the attractions in the studios I was mostly fascinated about their pricing policy. The general admission is already expensive and they offer plenty of upgrade options. Intriguingly people actually go for it. When buying the tickets I seemed to be the only person just going for the standard admission, most of the people bought a fast pass to skip the lines (which lines in the rain??) which costs 60% more.
Now we rest in San Diego before flying to South America on November 25th. We can stay with Michi’s relatives in a beautiful big house outside the city and get ready for the next leg of our trip.
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