The Grand Canyon

So yes it was very grand, quite cool seeing snow on the canyon, and just as impressive as we expected... unfortunately, I was still sick (still blaming the smoking inside policy THANKS NEVADA) so we didn't get to do any walks, but we managed to see a spectacular sunset and build our last snowman for a while...

Zion

We stayed the night in Las Vegas, which was everything we expected it to be... Sam had heard about this hotel called the Stratosphere, which was basically like Centrepoint Tower, but with a couple of rides on the top (ahem scary rides like over the edge of the 108 stories screaming rides)... so it was fun for the night, bit of a lame casino, like hanging out in a Bowling Club, but back in the days where you were allowed to smoke everywhere... so I was coughing my lungs up basically the whole time... There was a really yummy Italian restaurant, but it was like all of Las Vegas- lame, over the top and hilarious, with spanish speaking waitstaff and painted murals of 'Italian' streetscapes...the hotel was kind of out of the way, so we didn't even walk down the strip, but drove through it the next morning, where it looked even more bizarre without the flashing night lights and craziness that you see in movies... we drove to Zion in Utah... and stopped for Maccas in what must be a Mormon community... the poor girl who served us had about 2 teeth... but as always in USA everyone was so friendly, and interested in hearing about Australia...

Zion national park was incredibly breathtaking, and definitely my highlight of the national parks that we saw (including Grand Canyon)... I would love to go back there and do some walks in warmer weather- there was still snow on the ground and a chill in the air... we stayed the night in Tuba City which is in the Navajo nation.  I didn't realise you could drive onto reservations in the states, unlike in Australia where you sometimes need permission from the owners... anyway here are some photos of Zion and the drive through the Navajo lands...

Death Valley Part 2- Guaranteed to make geologists salivate! (this means you rach,rennie and lachie)

So i don't know much about rocks, but after travelling in New Zealand and South America, I have a feeling that Death Valley is pornography for Geologists... mostly because my sister Rach and friend Rennie deem to be quite jealous about certain parts of my travels... And for the rest of us, they're pretty amazing rocks!!!

Death Valley...

So for this stage of our journey, we had NOTHING planned, nothing booked, and just an idea that we wanted to drive around the USA and do something of a roadtrip... at this stage of our holiday, we were very low on funds, having both of us decided we desperately needed new ski/snowboard boots while we were in Whistler, along with goggles and gloves etc etc etc! So our budget for the roadtrip was as small as we could make it... as there are no hostels in small towns in America (or even very many in the cities), we pretty much used every website possible to get accommodation under $60 a night... and with the exception of a very few places (Salem Oregon, and Las Vegas, Arizona) this did not get a very high standard of motel... in fact a couple could have been right out of creepy horror movies... we were actually excited when we got a room with a microwave, because it meant we could heat up tinned soup.. woooohoo!

Death Valley itself was mindblowing... I didn't really know what to expect, as I had only seen it used on docos (Brian Cox...) to show how uninhabitable the terrain is, with average summer temperatures of round 47 degrees celcius, maximum recorded temp around 54 degrees... but lucky for us we were there in winter so we had nothing to complain about!

This was touted as an amazing waterfall...
well... it's not like we're jaded travellers or anything, but as we were walking out, a guy came hiking in with his super zoom lens, and I had to warn him that he was probably going to need it to see the waterfall....

...Who's that knocking at your chamber door? ...

...I know, I know, we should have been overwhelmed- what are these magnificent sand dunes doing in Death Valley?
But.... we live in Newcastle, Sam surfs at Birubi and we'd recently been to Huachacina...
we've seen more impressive sand dunes!!!!

OK- so we loved this teeny little town... Beatty, Nevada, was our first real experience of Americana...
It was a blink and you'll miss it town, and we stayed there only because we didn't want to cough up $200 a night to stay in Death Valley National Park- but I think it is one of our most memorable nights in the States.The lady at the front desk of the hotel we stayed at (across the street) recommended the Happy Burro for its Chilli- unfortunately as a vegetarian, I wasn't able to eat there, but we had a couple of jars of the local brew and chatted to a couple of local guys about Australia, America, the army, Vietnam and Burros (wild donkeys) . Then we headed on next door to the Sourdough Saloon which is where all the locals seemed to hang out.  Sam got chatting to a  guy (21- only just legal drinking age in USA) who explained how he was a recovered meth addict, and wanted to get into the army just to see some of the world and also to get a job.  I think staying here really reinforced how lucky we are as Australians to have real options for learning and careers, and as well how we really did avoid the GFC a few years ago.

...This seemed quite an ironic free parking sign... Beatty has a population of about 1000!!