Arches Park and Monument Valley

We drive, we drive and cross a lot of states! We arrive almost at 10’000km on the road since the beginning of our trip. We crossed: British Colombia, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah !! We even didn’t realize that we changed of time zone once in Utah!

Pfffouaa, even in Arches it’s still pretty hot! With more than 35°C it’s hard to hike! But when you see the arches pictures you don’t have a choice! Steven takes his backpack full of bottles of water, Rogier his crutches and there we go! You want to see that with your own eyes. After a few hikes and tired legs we had to go to the van for sleeping… Unfortunately, even at night it’s more than 25°C not easy to find the sleep and the morning at 7 the sun slaps your face: no choice we had to wake up and enjoy the landscapes.

When you have time and no idea where to drive it’s not that easy to make a decision which road to take: Right or left!?  We found the solution to make it easier; we play “heads or tails”!
“Heads” brought us to the Monument Valley!
To visit Monument Valley, it’s an unpaved road that you have to take and drive around the rocks. We were very scared, afraid our van couldn’t do it and follow the big US 4x4 trucks! The van survived, even if we took 2.5 hours to do the loop instead of 1.5 hours... As we wrote before, we have time and we enjoy even if it takes a bit longer.
“Heads” took us also through an Indian reserve. Real Navajos (native people), live still with horses, in the middle of the desert; make dream catchers which they try to sell next to the road!

 

Valley of fire, Zion National park, Brice Park

Back in nature! 
We drove through Valley of fire to discover the red rocks, and that was only the beginning of a couple beautiful national parks! Unfortunately, the American deserts and the heat round 120°F, 45°C is a way to warm for us and also for the van! We “Winter Boys” and Canadian Van sometimes need a rest to cool down! So we take the opportunity to take a nap, play American football or just enjoy the scenery for 30 min before taking the road again!  Afterword, we went for a quick check in a garage to be sure that nothing is wrong with the engine. The mechanic explained us that our beauty was just tired cause of the heat and that could happen with old vehicles. He told us also that we should change the brake pads!  That’s what we did because the people on the sidewalk started to look weird at us when we braked…

Unfortunately, in Zion national park, Steven had to discover the canyon by himself… Roger couldn’t follow him in the water with his crutches. But his wound healed quickly; in Bryce Canyon park he had to see the crazy rocks on a sketchy trails. The adrenaline to see those nice sceneries helped a lot and he went down the trail!

Both parks are really amazing and different. In Zion you can hike to reach the huge cliffs which dominate the valley and walk in the river through the canyon to discover how the water sculpted the rock! All those colours and huge cliffs made us realize that we are really small compared nature. In Bryce the park is smaller but the area is crazy. Like thousands small red towers in the slopes. Every single tower is geologically unique so when you walk through thousands of them the impression is really amazing.

On the way to Capitol Reef, our van was too excited to go over there… it drove a couple mile/h too fast… And yeah, a big grey truck passed us with blue and red lights! We stop judiciously next to the road… (the cop came next to our van…)

- Hey guys, how are you doing?
- Petty good, thanks! (more scary about the new)
- You know way I stop you ?
- Mmh, maybe because I drove a bit too fast trough the village…
- Yes Sir! You drove 40miles/h instead of 35miles/h!
- Possible, I’m sorry, I didn’t pay attention…
- Can I have you driving licence and the papers of the car?
- Here it is.
- (after the check) On the paper it’s written that your van is “blue”… It’s more white no!?
- I don’t know sir; the insurance gave it us like that… I mean it’s also a bit pink and green…
- Anyways, you know that the ticket is $115!?
- Poha, that’s a lot, that’s what I paid yesterday to fix my brakes!
- I’m not allowed to do that but, I will keep that ticket and give you a warning!
- Thank you very much!
- Where are you coming from?
- We started in Canada and wander through the USA!
- Nice! And you meet a lot of American girls hein!? haha (is he serious!?)
- haha, not really here in the area…
- No!? Go to the next gas station on the right! There is a nice blond chick behind the desk!
- Haha thanks for your advice sir!
- No worries guys have a nice trip and drive more slowly!
- We will, have a good day!
That’s what happened when a police man arrest us! Isn’t it that crazy !?

Finally we arrived in Capitol Reef, it’s a less famous park but also less crowded! We found some nice spots to hike and also discover an animal we have never seen, the “Prairie dog”!

Las Vegas $$ !

After this accident and lots of nights in the van or in a tent, we thought: let’s take a good hotel in Vegas to rest and enjoy: a good shower, air conditioning, swimming pool, SPA, clubs, casinos, restaurants, fitness center…! Direction the pyramid of Luxor! We had all what is necessary to rest but it was just impossible, this city is just crazy!

A last meeting with Arnaud and Fiona allowed us to drive on the strip with a convertible mustang! Looks more fancy/gangsta than our van!

Rogier tried one evening to walk form one casino to the other one with those “US under arms crutches” but it was impossible! I thought, now that we are in Vegas, let’s do it lux: “let’s rent a wheelchair!” It was way easier to drink a beer and go from one slot machine to the other one! (Thanks to Steven who was agree to push me on Las Vegas blvd, freemont str, Casinos…)

Lights everywhere, night clubs and bars open all the nights, thousands of tourists you never rest you in Vegas. Just crossing the road you can have a beer for 1$ or 10$. We tried to gamble but when people saw our maximum bet was 1$ and they were at least at 20$ we understood we were not at the same level… we brought our cash and visited the bars.

Now we can leave Vegas and we are both happy to leave the craziness and going to the national parks for a couple of weeks more quiet.

Mammoth Mountain and the dangerous Death Valley!

Mammoth mountain without snow, is like if you are in Las Vegas without money! That doesn’t fit. So we decided to stay there for a short time. But we saw a few mysterious things! The evening we arrived there, we jumped into a hot spring in the middle of nowhere! We had the information where it was from a dude and it was kind of: “go on the highway, after a green church turn left, pass a couple cow crossings and you should find it.” And we found it! It was beautiful to sit in that natural warm water until the sunset. The next day, we went hiking to see a cliff which is formed only with natural hexagons! Devil’s postpile, that how it’s called!

Before driving through the dangerous Death Valley, we decided to go first to a ghost town and sleep a night at the entrance of the park so that we can leave the next morning very early to escape the heat with our truck without air conditioning!
“Bodie”, they called the town after the name of the guy who discovered the gold mine… Unfortunately he died alone in the blizzard before he had time to find gold. After the gold rush the town passed from 10’000 to 0 inhabitants. Now, just the tourists, meters of snow, lot of wind and mouses are living in the town. Crazy to see the houses left deserted like they were 50 years ago. Beers in the saloon, child draws on the walls, rotten mattresses, nothing moved like if people had to leave their houses because of a war.

Alarm at 5.30am, we were ready to drive through Death Valley. Gallons of water in the trunk, we were ready for our fight against the heat. The landscapes were really crazy… no vegetation, wild donkeys (burritos), mountains and valley. While we were driving hours in the middle of the desert, we thought: “come at least we go hike 5min and feel the heat in the sand dunes!”
And BIIIM ! There in the dunes, Rogier stepped on a piece of glass or a sharp rock buried under the sand! We drove as fast as possible to the first ranger station and we hoped that they could put a few stitches in it but: No! We had to drive 50miles until the next Medical Clinic out of the park to put 12 stitches in my 7.5cm cut.
Fortunately we didn’t die there in the middle of nowhere, and next stop is Las Vegas!

Yosemite

After a long time on the coast, now we want to discover the inside of the country. Big highway direction Yosemite! Big trucks, 8 lines highway, 98°F,39°C, desert and no air conditioning, that was how we started our trip in the countryside.

After a long drive, we realised that all the campgrounds in the park were full and sleeping in the car is totally illegal… The one with vacancy was only for tents. We knew that the previous owner of the van let a bag in the trunk of the van which looked as a tent bag and we kept it (we thought: you never know…). That was the moment to try it! We stayed there 3 nights sleeping on the ground, and that was enough. The van with its 20cm mattress is way more comfy!
Except that, Yosemite Park is beautiful. We hiked every day during a few hours to see: Cliffs, waterfalls, rivers, wildness, snow and even once we walk up at 5.30 for a 25km (17ml) hike to the top of “Half Dome”.
Half Dome hike is 1’400m elevation gain and you need to book a permit to go up. It’s a lottery, but we lost… So we decided to stay at the bottom and ask all the hikers with our big sign if they hadn’t two extra tickets! And that was the way we could go on the top!
Fortunately we did it, it was very hard and so hot (45°C, 120°F) but gorgeous! The worst part was the last part when we had to climb on the rocks with cable because of the steepness. But the scenery on the top was just amazing!