So I've been driving A LOT!

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I have been busy driving all over the country, enjoying the freedom of my own transport. My road trip started with collecting the rental car from the airport in San Francisco, and driving to Yosemite National Park. Nothing like getting use to a new car and driving on the wrong side of the road by taking a 5 hour drive! The drive its self was nice, I had some nice views of the sandy coloured hills and at one point I was driving along the road looked like it would continue on into the sky, when I reached the crest of the hill, I could see lovely bright blue water on both sides of the road bridge. I also got to see some busy traffic filled roads and some very twisty roads up a steep gradient. I arrived at my hostel just outside Yosemite NP late that evening. The driving was fine, I was slightly apprehensive in the beginning with getting used to the automatic car, and driving on the wrong side of the road, the only real issues I am having are with the turning on a red light and the four way stop, where no one knows who's turn it is. I tried googling but google just said it was the car who reached the stop first goes first. I miss roundabouts! So anyway back to my adventure!

The following morning I drove in the National Park. As I was heading to LA that evening, I explored the park by driving along the road 41, which was beautiful. The bright greens of the trees with the pale brown sandy colour of the soil, the huge mountains, my only slight disappointment was that the waterfalls are empty 😞 I was hoping to see the water rushing and crashing down at the bridal veil falls although that is more likely in the springtime, I was at least hoping to see some water, sadly I got a damp rock face.

Late that night I got to my hostel in LA, well I saw staying near Venice Beach, which is not very near to the centre of LA, but it was lovely to be close to the beach. I was staying in a place called Hermosa Beach (and I mean right be side, 15 steps had me on the beach) its more of a locals beach than Venice Beach is. I had great fun in the water as the waves were so strong and big, I didn't even need a bodyboard to get washed back to the shore. I watched some of the surfers, but wasn't tempted to rent a board. After playing on the beach all morning I went to see the canals at Venice Beach, which were nice to stroll around, however there was a distinct lack of shade, so after about 40mins I was ready for somewhere cooler. I headed to the Griffith Observatory, to get a good view of the Hollywood sign. Also the Observatory is an interesting place, I got to see live views of the sun spots on the sun, the Tesla Coil shooting purple arcs high into the air (which is always fun to watch) and then in the evening they brought out powerful telescopes and I got to see the planet Saturn, with its many rings and a close up of the moon, as well as a star, that looked just like a diamond. The sky was so clear that night, everyone was hopeful the following night would be just as clear as it was going to be a "red moon" disappointingly it was very very cloudy night the following night. I didn't make it to Hollywood, it was about a 3 hour bus ride from my hostel, or an hour and a half drive plus finding parking. So instead of battling the crowds and heat, I went to the science museum, where I got to see a real space craft, the Endeavor. That evening a bunch of us from the hostel, went to the pier to watch the sunset and see the red moon, but the clouds were to heavy and we didn't see much.

The morning after it was on to my next stop, Vegas! I arrived in Vegas at about 4pm. My first stop after finding my bed, was to explore the strip. The hostel was located in the middle of Las Vegas Boulevard, between the touristy flashy " the strip" and the more eclectic downtown Freemont area. Vegas was totally not what I was expecting. Everything was more, from the huge casino hotels, each with their own special attraction such as a replica of the Eifel Tower and the Statue of Liberty, to a volcano to the cupcake ATM. I loved the fountain outside the Bellagio and the Volcano at the Mirage. It was amazing how fast time passed just walking around looking at everything. The next morning I went to the Grand Canyon I was advised to go on a bus tour as it was about a 4hour drive each way. On the tour we stopped at Hoover Dam and at Seligman on Route 66. I found the Grand Canyon to be beautiful with the coloured and steep cliffs, however I found it hard to wrap my mind around the idea of just how big the canyon is. Maybe it was the view from where I was but it just seemed so much bigger than I could comprehend. I will have to comeback again and explore more of the Canyon. I enjoyed Vegas I even won $10 but then I lost it again, I was playing on the flashy colourful slot machines. I liked the idea of playing craps, but I didn't understand what they were doing at all. In Freemont I watched people flying along the street and found Heart Attack Grill, where if you weigh over 350lbs you eat free, they even had a huge industrial style weigh scale under the sign.

My next stop was Yellowstone National Park. In the park I met my first Bison, it was HUGE and right by my drivers side window, the herd was spread all over the road and the grass verge. Some other cars, tried to keep driving through the herd, some got through others got stuck in the middle of the herd. I was happy enough to wait until the roadway was clear again as I hadn't seen bison up close before. A few miles further down the road, I saw more cars all pulled off the road. In the field there was a herd of Elk, and a male (bull) elk with huge antlers, laying down a bit away from the females (cows). I didn't see any other animals during my time in Yellowstone. I did seem some amazing geysers. Of the many I saw, the one I liked best is the Dragons Mouth Spring, which roared and huffed and spat huge clouds of steam and great big waves of water from deep inside the cave belly. Old faithful did not disappoint either with its long buildup of puffing clouds of white steam and shots of boiling water before finally shooting huge quantities of boiling water high into the air with great clouds of steam. Once you get used to the sulphury rotten egg smell, its a lovely place. I also liked the Sapphire pool, the colour of the water changing with the depth, from light blue almost white at the edges to deep deep blue in the center. The water so clear you can see deep, deep into the earth, or at least it felt that way!. Some of the pools were not clear at all, like the green sulphur pool. It smelt as bad as its name suggests, the greeny yellow opaque colour hiding its true depth. I really enjoyed exploring the park, but then it was on to my next destination. This time the drive took me though lots of natural beauty, big tall trees and rocky canyons, huge towering mountains and steep twisty roads that first climbed high into the mountains hugging the rock faces as I climbed before twisting and steeply dropping back down.

After about 6 hours I arrived in Sheridan in Wyoming, from here I set out to explore the battlefield of Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand part of the Great Sioux War of 1876. The battlefield landscape its self has not changed much, its easy to picture the battle. Scattered over the field are lots of white gravestones making where a member of the 7th Calvary Regiment fell, and a few brown markers where a member of the Sioux nation fell. There is a memorial on Last Stand Hill for the fallen officers and soldiers of Custer's Regiment, looking over the graveyard where they were reinterred and the Indian Memorial is lower down on the hill, with the spirit gate of the memorial facing the memorial on Last Stand Hill, welcoming the spirits of the regiment's fallen soldiers to enter the Memorial and join the fallen warriors in friendship with the message of “peace through unity". The following day I drove to Mt Rushmore, to see the huge 60 foot faces carved into the mountain. The same Black Hills that the Lakota and other Sioux nations were promised before the Battle of Little Bighorn, but once gold was found in the Black Hills the federal government made the Sioux Nations relinquish their claim on the hills. Mt Rushmore was cool, and finding out how they drilled, hammered and blasted the faces onto the rock face, looking at the scaled models and realising that the workers who carved and blasted the rock face were dangling on a thin wire winch with heavy drills and such, way before health and safety, yet no one died during the creation of this masterpiece.

Currently I am in Colorado Springs, on my way towards Albuquerque, in New Mexico. I visited the "Garden of the Gods" and the "Seven Falls" today. The Garden of the Gods is a park full of natural rock formations, some such as "sleeping giant" I couldn't see, but others like "Kissing Camels" I could. After I explored the Garden of the Gods. I went to see the Seven Falls. They are 7 individual waterfalls that form a giant waterfall. I climbed 224 steep steps to the top of the Seven Falls and had a lovely view of the surrounding hills, and looking down on the water racing over the rocks before splashing down to the next waterfall.

Well that's all for now, Bye!

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