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Published: December 6th 2011
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We hopped in the car and made our way out into the desert. A lot of the US had been amazing; however, for the most part they were environments that weren’t too far removed from the ones you could find back in the UK, this however was completely different. As far as you could see in every direction was desert, dry shrubs and stark cliffs. Our plan for the day was to get as close to the Grand Canyon as we could so we could set off to get there early the next morning. Just a short drive from Vegas, our first port of call was the Hoover Dam. It was a very impressive sight to see as were the drops either side of the dam! Even though it was mid-October it was still almost unbearably hot at the dam with the valleys and lack of cover adding even further to the heat. After the dam we continued are journey onwards towards our final destination for the day, Flagstaff. On the way there we saw signs saying: ‘Last gas for 200 miles’ and we even learnt the hard way when we passed no food outlets for a couple of hours around
lunch time. We found a motel in the evening and settled in for a good night’s sleep ahead of a busy day tomorrow.
We awoke early and continued our journey towards the Grand Canyon. The journey there was just flat desert stretching out in all directions; it was hard to believe that a huge canyon lay just beyond us. We arrived in the late morning and headed out to the first viewing point – It was absolutely spectacular! There are really not enough adjectives to explain just how amazing the Grand Canyon is. It comes out of nowhere and stretches as far as the eye can see, the bottom of the canyon is so far away that it becomes hazy. We walked around the edge of the canyon for an hour or so attempting to find the beginning of our selected hike. When we eventually found the start we stocked up on water and began our hike down the canyon. The views were spectacular, however, in the raging heat it was pretty hard going. After an hour hike into the Canyon we arrived at a beautiful spot called ‘Ooh Aah’ point and from this vantage point we
had even more breath-taking views of the canyon. After the uphill journey back out of the canyon we got in the car and headed onward with our journey towards Monument Valley. We stopped along the way for some lunch at a Navajo Native American restaurant and got some seriously unhealthy food – Which included something called Navajo Fry Bread, which was basically fried donut batter! Ew! It was now the early afternoon and we had about 4 hours to Monument Valley; we were now under pressure as to whether we would make it to Monument Valley before sundown. James put his foot down and we raced onwards. The roads are all ridiculously straight, so driving all these hours made it hard work on James. Luckily we made it to Monument Valley just as the sun was going down! It was really imposing, seeing the long shadows of these giant monoliths as the sun set was definitely a highlight of the trip. The journey continued through this stunning landscape to a motel in a small town called Blanding.
Being the cheap group of travellers we are we didn’t spring out for a sat nav for the car and
were instead navigating this entire this with a series of maps. I know, we’re so old school! For the next leg of our journey we plotted an awesome route taking us from Blanding, through some very remote roads in Southern Utah and arriving in the late afternoon at our national park of choice, Bryce Canyon. We set off early and deviated from our planned route to go to a national park called Natural Bridges. As it sounds, it was a collection of large rocks which formed some of the largest natural bridges in the world. Here we bought a year pass to all US national parks, which would save us money overall as most of Utah is a national park! We continued on our journey to Bryce through some remarkable landscapes, and even saw a river for the first time in a long time. A particular favourite was at a spot called Hite City, a lookout point in the middle of nowhere with views stretching over the river and across numerous valleys. A few hours further along the journey (I don’t want to keep saying through spectacular scenery, as it’ll get old fast, but it really was all just incredible)
through Glen Canyon, Capitol Reef, Dixie Forest and the Grand Staircase we arrived at Bryce Canyon. Unlike the Grand Canyon, Bryce isn’t really a proper canyon, but more a valley full of huge sandstone pillars. We saw it from a few viewpoints and even weaved our way a little way down into the valley. We got to a lookout called sunset point and (as the name would imply) watched a really beautiful sunset from it. We found a motel just outside the national park, grabbed some Mexican food from a nearby restaurant and hit the hay.
The next day was our final full day in the national parks of Utah and our final national park was Zion National Park. We got to Zion early; it looked like the opening sequence to Jurassic Park! We found a couple of hikes we wanted to do and got the shuttle bus out to them. The hikes took us along river edges, past waterfalls and ended at a spot called emerald pools. This was probably the most traditionally beautiful of all the canyons; and unlike both the Grand Canyon and Bryce, we were actually in the canyon surrounded by sheer cliffs
to all sides. We hiked throughout most of the day and by the time we went to bed that evening we were positively tired from our three days of hiking.
We awoke for our final few hours of our road trip and returned the car to Vegas international airport. The road trip around the national parks of Utah and Arizona was probably my favourite section of the trip so far; the freedom of the open road may sound like a bit of a cliché, but this was exactly what I imagined when I thought of this trip all those months before. We had a one day stopover in Vegas before our Greyhound to San Diego. For this day we checked into a hotel a little way down the strip called Stratosphere. It was a nicer hotel than the Imperial Palace, and we spent the entire day chilling around the pool, chatting and playing volleyball. The Stratosphere has an absolutely huge sky tower built into it, and in the evening me and James (Beth didn’t fancy another high building) went up and saw some amazing views of the Vegas strip. At the top of the tower there are
a couple of fairground rides which looked absolutely terrifying – including a rollercoaster which stopped at the very edge of the tower!
We awoke on the next morning and made our way to Vegas Greyhound station to board our bus to San Diego. California, here we come!
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