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The year's big holiday was a three week road trip in the wild west states
of the USA, taking in 4 states (California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada), 7
national parks, 3 national recreation areas, 1 national forest, 2 cities..
and 4 pizzas (all will be explained!). There were highs and lows.... literally,
with an elevation of nearly 10,000 feet above sea level at the northern
end of Bryce Canyon National Park (NP) being the highest and 200 feet
*below* sea level in Death Valley the lowest..... and of temperature too,
with the low being about 70 on our last day in LA and the high being 115
in Death Valley. We travelled 2,600 miles in our hired Ford Explorer 4WD
car, crossed several deserts and mountain ranges, saw lots of wild life
and.... had 79 instances of fun in an amazing part of the world. Aren't
numbers nice?
And so are lists. Take a look at our National
Park League Table for a nice list :-)
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| We started out in L.A., staying in a motel in Hollywood and spent a couple
of days in this big, somewhat polluted city. From there, we headed out into
the wilderness and the holiday "proper" began, first off camping
in the Mojave Desert in Joshua Tree NP. From there we travelled north-east
into Arizona, stopping overnight in a place called Williams and then from
there into Grand Canyon NP, where we camped for 2 days. After Grand Canyon,
we continued NE into Southern Utah, a stunningly beautiful part of the world,
camping first at Hite in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (NRA)
right next to Lake Powell and then at Capitol Reef NP, Bryce Canyon NP and
Zion NP. By this point in the holiday, Jack's 11th birthday was fast approaching
and we headed into Nevada, camping first by Lake Mead and visiting the Hoover
Dam. The next day we checked into a very nice hotel is Las Vegas, celebrating
Jack's birthday the day after. We left a relatively cool, overcast Vegas
with temperatures in the low eighties and soon found ourselves in temperatures
of 115 as we crossed the amazing Death Valley, heading west back towards
California. The last part of the trip took us first into the Sequoia National
Forest and then into the Sequoia NP itself, where we saw the worlds oldest
and largest trees. Finally we headed back towards LA, staying one night
in the Santa Monica Mountains NRA. That's the summary. For more detail and
a few of the best photos from amongst the thousand or so taken, follow the
trip through via the map and date navigators below. The map navigator tells
you what dates we spent where. Hover the mouse along the yellow line, which
indicates out route, and then dip into the pages of the holiday journal
using the date navigator. |
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