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Sightseeing
Apr. 18th, 2014 11:50 pmI'm on a trip through Southwest with some friends and these are the things we are planning to see: Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, Monument Valley, Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend, Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Sequoia, Yosemite, Mono Lake and, of course, Las Vegas which is where we are flying to and from.
This post will be locked while I'm gone. Mostly because you shouldn't tell the whole internets you are leaving but also because some of my last posts where written in advance and I don't have time to finish this one (there were some explosions that turned out to be too mush gas pressure in a factory but caused a police lockdown as they sounded like gun shots on the night before we are leaving). This will also let me update this with the places we actually did see so I can compare with the plan (and also that noone would read this weeks old post).
EDIT:
So this is were we actually went:
In Utah - Zion which was very warm and green; Bryce Canyon (favourite of all of us I think) which was much colder and felt almost like going back months to previous season; Arches; Canyonlands which I, to my surprise, liked more than Arches; Monument Valley - we just drove the road and took a lot of pictures on it (and stayed in Gouldings) and saw Valley of the Gods pass by.
In Arizona - Horseshoe Bend and met some other Poles there; Antelope Canyon - Lower was much more fun than the Upper as they don't rush you through so fast you only know what you saw after you watch the photos and Grand Canyon which is even bigger than you think and has a deeper, smaller Canyon on the bottom of the very wide one. I also saw a sunset and a sunrise over the Grand Canyon and a lot of stars (and tripped pretty badly as there is very little light pollution there). There is also 800 years old ruin in the park and it was nice to see some actually old building along the way - it doesn't really feel like sightseeing trip without it.
In California - this is were the weather started to fall apart so Death Valley was gorgeous (all the colours of the rocks are amazing - especially Zabriskie Point and Artist's Palette) but extremely windy (samums and a wind that was pushing the car in a scary way). Then by the mountains it started raining and got cold so we never got to Sequoia (14 cm of snow and -4oC during the day) but Yosemite was open and so pretty with snow on the peaks in the Valley and than we got to walk around the sequoias in snow in the Yosemite's Mariposa Grove. Since we couldn't cross the mountains because the snow closed all the roads we didn't see Mono Lake but we drove back south the same way (and retrieved my Muppet pyjamas I left in one of the hotels) and saw Joshua Trees on Mojave Desert. Even on the deserts California was cold - my friend was disappointed but I was happy - it's much better to go sightseeing on a desert with during little below 20 oC weather than over 30. Also we both agreed that rural parts of Northern California look a lot like rural Poland (landscape wise). Very pretty that is.
Las Vegas was exactly as tacky and sad as I expected. My friend called it amusement park for adults but I rather have rollercoasters than fliers for sex shows littering all the streets and overperfumed insides of the hotels (trying to mask the cigarette smoke smell) that didn't agree with my asthma. But we saw the Hoover Dam sow that was nice.
Just like the beginning the end has it problems - like constant fire alarm on the Las Vegas airport terminal that everyone in our security check ignored but it caused all the plane crews from other checkpoints to push in front of us (Korean Air stewardesses are very tall and thin and all look like models and make you feel inadequate in their perfectly fitting uniforms). Than they changed our gate. Than we took forever to taxi on Logan and had only 15 minutes to switch planes on Logan so we made it but the luggage didn't. I still don't have any of my dirty clothes because we had one for the two of us and they delivered it to my friend.
Besides the flying, I loved the whole trip - it was completely awesome and we saw so much (and drove 5000 km - 3000 mile) it seems like I was there longer then 2 weeks. My favourite parts were Bryce, Lower Antelope, Grand Canyon, Death Valley and Yosemite. Bryce and Yosemite are among the most beautiful places I ever saw.
This post will be locked while I'm gone. Mostly because you shouldn't tell the whole internets you are leaving but also because some of my last posts where written in advance and I don't have time to finish this one (there were some explosions that turned out to be too mush gas pressure in a factory but caused a police lockdown as they sounded like gun shots on the night before we are leaving). This will also let me update this with the places we actually did see so I can compare with the plan (and also that noone would read this weeks old post).
EDIT:
So this is were we actually went:
In Utah - Zion which was very warm and green; Bryce Canyon (favourite of all of us I think) which was much colder and felt almost like going back months to previous season; Arches; Canyonlands which I, to my surprise, liked more than Arches; Monument Valley - we just drove the road and took a lot of pictures on it (and stayed in Gouldings) and saw Valley of the Gods pass by.
In Arizona - Horseshoe Bend and met some other Poles there; Antelope Canyon - Lower was much more fun than the Upper as they don't rush you through so fast you only know what you saw after you watch the photos and Grand Canyon which is even bigger than you think and has a deeper, smaller Canyon on the bottom of the very wide one. I also saw a sunset and a sunrise over the Grand Canyon and a lot of stars (and tripped pretty badly as there is very little light pollution there). There is also 800 years old ruin in the park and it was nice to see some actually old building along the way - it doesn't really feel like sightseeing trip without it.
In California - this is were the weather started to fall apart so Death Valley was gorgeous (all the colours of the rocks are amazing - especially Zabriskie Point and Artist's Palette) but extremely windy (samums and a wind that was pushing the car in a scary way). Then by the mountains it started raining and got cold so we never got to Sequoia (14 cm of snow and -4oC during the day) but Yosemite was open and so pretty with snow on the peaks in the Valley and than we got to walk around the sequoias in snow in the Yosemite's Mariposa Grove. Since we couldn't cross the mountains because the snow closed all the roads we didn't see Mono Lake but we drove back south the same way (and retrieved my Muppet pyjamas I left in one of the hotels) and saw Joshua Trees on Mojave Desert. Even on the deserts California was cold - my friend was disappointed but I was happy - it's much better to go sightseeing on a desert with during little below 20 oC weather than over 30. Also we both agreed that rural parts of Northern California look a lot like rural Poland (landscape wise). Very pretty that is.
Las Vegas was exactly as tacky and sad as I expected. My friend called it amusement park for adults but I rather have rollercoasters than fliers for sex shows littering all the streets and overperfumed insides of the hotels (trying to mask the cigarette smoke smell) that didn't agree with my asthma. But we saw the Hoover Dam sow that was nice.
Just like the beginning the end has it problems - like constant fire alarm on the Las Vegas airport terminal that everyone in our security check ignored but it caused all the plane crews from other checkpoints to push in front of us (Korean Air stewardesses are very tall and thin and all look like models and make you feel inadequate in their perfectly fitting uniforms). Than they changed our gate. Than we took forever to taxi on Logan and had only 15 minutes to switch planes on Logan so we made it but the luggage didn't. I still don't have any of my dirty clothes because we had one for the two of us and they delivered it to my friend.
Besides the flying, I loved the whole trip - it was completely awesome and we saw so much (and drove 5000 km - 3000 mile) it seems like I was there longer then 2 weeks. My favourite parts were Bryce, Lower Antelope, Grand Canyon, Death Valley and Yosemite. Bryce and Yosemite are among the most beautiful places I ever saw.
