Forest giants

So there is something about the Pacific coast of north America that makes it uniquely suited to conifers it seems. Anywhere you go on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevadas, there are conifers... and lots of conifers... and gigantic conifers.

Nowhere is this more apparent than at Sequoia National Park where one can walk between Giant Redwoods, the largest trees on earth. The redwood, however, is but one species that grows in a forest of giants and there are some gargantuan Sugar Pines, Red Firs and Ponderosa Pines to name some.

It's a wonderland in which to walk around and the constant smell of Firs, Pines, Spruces and specifically Incence Cedars is delightful. Eventually though, your visit will culminate in a view of the General Sherman tree, a singular behemoth in the middle of the Giant Forest. This tree towers 84m above the forest floor but, more impressively, boasts a trunk diameter of 7.7m. Such a height multiplied by such a cross section makes it the largest known tree, and indeed, the largest known living organism on the planet.

I've tried photographing it from the base, I've tried photographing it from some distance away along the slope. I've tried panoramic composites but no picture really captures the colossal size of this tree.

Enjoying some fusion cuisine in San Francisco with Becky

Once we had our fill and washed the grime of Las Vegas out of our hair with some wholesome foresty goodness, we headed back to San Francisco to close the loop. We arrived here yesterday afternoon and managed to meet up with Becky, a good friend of ours who used to live in San Francisco and happens to be here now for a friend's wedding. Excellent timing! She took us around the streets of her old neighbourhood and we had some great food which we would never have known to order if we were alone. What a splendid way to close the loop and bring the trip to a close.

Right now we're busy packing our bags and getting everything airline-proof so I really shouldn't be sitting here writing up blog entries.

Signing off for now.

What happens in Vegas...

OK, short blog entry because, well, Las Vegas sucks! I bet you don't often read blog posts or reviews starting with that phrase but it's true, it sucks.

I've been to Las Vegas before and it sucked then and somehow we decided that it seemed like a logical stopover en route from Arizona back to San Francisco but, you guessed it, it still sucks.

Sure, the glitz and glamour do dazzle you for a while but it doesn't take very long before the true character of Vegas shines glaringly though; The city caters for three types of people:
1. Those with an interest in gambling
2. Those with an interest in drinking themselves into a stupor
3. Those with an interest in strip shows / prostitutes

Of course, many of the revellers of the city have an interest in a combination of the above but, truthfully, we don't have an interest in any of it and are glad that we can move on today. Let's hope the next blog entry, on Sequoia National Park, is more enjoyable.

Leaving Arizona

Getting our kicks on Route 66

Route 66 was once a famous US highway, running all the way from Chicago to Los Angeles but has since been rendered redundant by much more convenient interstate highways. It lives on only in the sentimental memories of song writers and in small sections of it that still remains such as at Williams, AZ. Sadly, along with the demise of Route 66 also came the demise of many towns that were located on it and relied on the through traffic for survival. Some of these towns fell off the map entirely while others, such as Williams, still ekes out a living by selling fridge magnets and coffee mugs.

It is also conveniently located for exploring the Grand Canyon and that is where we based ourselves. But once the Grand Canyon was explored  and photographed, we got back in the car and made our way to Las Vegas. I'll leave Las Vegas for a next blog entry because it's getting late and we need to get out of this hotel room and paint the town.

En route here, we did make a slight detour though to first pass through Sedona. I remember Sedona from earlier visits to Arizona as a quaint little town, nestled between gorgeous Mesas and Buttes in the red rocks of the Verde Valley. When we got there this time I quickly realised that it's nothing as small as I remember it but it still is as quaint as I remember it and the stunning landscape has not gone anywhere.

As stunning as the setting of this town is, as weird its people are; They all seem to be crystal obsessed, earth worshipping, dreamy hippies. But I'll tell you this, these hippies can make a mean sandwich and after we bought a lovely vegetarian sandwich with every dressing known to the Vegan world, we were off west and eventually crossed the Hoover dam to find ourselves in Nevada and reach Las Vegas in time to hit up the night scene.

360° Panorama of the Sedona landscape

Grand Canyon

Nothing prepares you for the Grand Canyon, not even having seen the canyon twice before. This epic gash in the face of the northern Arizona landscape takes your breath away every time you round a corner and see a new panorama.

And it is truly truly massive. You will drive a car between various parking lots along the rim of the canyon, you will take shuttle buses to take you between sections of the canyon and you will walk yourself silly but still you will not see a fraction of this enormous feature, 29 km across, 1.8 km deep and 450 km long.

There's been a lot of talk in recent years about "New Seven Wonders of the World" and the Capetonians feel very pleased with themselves that their mountain won a spot in this silly popularity contest but let me tell you, the Grand Canyon is a true Wonder of the World.

A major downside of having such a roaring time at such a magnificent place, is that you get to bed very late and your blog entries are short.

So I'll leave you with a panoramic picture, taken from Powell Point on the south rim.

Late afternoon view over a section of the Grand Canyon with Battleship Rock visible in foreground

The road to Arizona

The main attraction on today's programme was Zion National Park, our final attempt to get a feel for southern Utah before we head into Arizona.

The Three Patriarchs at Zion National PArk

A recurring theme on this road trip, and an unavoidable frustration if you're trying to cover this much distance, is that we never really get to spend as much time in one location as we would have liked to. Nowhere would this be more true than at Zion National Park where we basically had half a day to do what other people do in a long weekend. The main reason one would go to Zion National Park is to hike the numerous trails that criss-cross the canyon and we only got to hike one of these.

But let it be noted for the record that Zion is truly a sight to behold. Where, at places like Bryce or Grand Canyon, you stand on the rim of the canyon looking down, at Zion you stand at the bottom of the canyon looking up. Seeing as we still had a fair amount of distance to cover we had to cut our oohing and aahing short and head further south.

Shortly after crossing over the Arizona state line, once again adjusting our watches, we found the landscape changing to a more western movie kind of landscape. Just outside of the northern city of Page, AZ, we found the trailhead for a short walk that takes you to Horseshoe Bend. I've always seen postcards of this dramatic feature in the Colorado river but never had the opportunity to see it for myself. So naturally we made a stop, did the hike and enjoyed the magnificent sight of the beginnings of the Grand Canyon, our target location for tomorrow.

Horseshoe Bend in the Colorado River

Bryce Canyon National Park

So Salt Lake City was a conveniently placed stopover for our southward journey through Utah. If we had more time we would probably have liked to see some of the sights and the nearby great salt lake. If we happened to be there on a Thursday we would certainly have liked to attend a rehearsal of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

The city is quite a sight where it sits nestled between the Wasatch and Oquirrh mountains but as far as we're concerned the greatest feature of Salt Lake City was the great Peruvian restaurant that we found not too far from our motel.

Hoodoos in Bryce Canyon National Park

Our schedule didn't allow for any more though and early this morning we hit the road for southern Utah.

Southern Utah is known for it's variety of parks with a variety of weird landscapes. Bryce Canyon must surely rank fairly high on that weirdness scale. It is not so much a canyon as the name would suggest but more a natural amphitheatre formed through a process called "headward erosion". The erosion revealed thousands of geological structures called hoodoos which are probably the key feature of Bryce Canyon.

But let's not get into the technicalities of geological shaping of the Paunsagunt Plateau. Suffice it to say that the vistas you are confronted with when standing at the rim are pretty awesome.

The route to Bryce Canyon took us through the rather oddball town of Panguitch where the people seem to have a bizarre obsession with quilts. Quilts are draped from antique farm implements on every street corner. The decrepitude of the farm implements is overshadowed only by the horrific quilts. And I dread to think what it would be like in two weeks time when they have their annual quilt festival which the whole town seems to be getting ready for.

So tonight we're sleeping over in Cedar City, Utah, and tomorrow morning we're headed to Zion National Park and Arizona, possibly my favourite state of the ones I've had the privilege to see.

Panoramic view of Bryce Canyon

Wyoming

So today was spent mostly just gunning it through eastern Wyoming and northern Utah to get from Yellowstone National Park to Salt Lake City. The journey would take us through the Grand Teton National Park and my only real aim for this stretch was to ogle out the Tetons and maybe get a decent picture of it.

In fact, I had mentioned before that the picture by Ansel Adams that has for so long inspired me might have been a factor in the deciding of a route for the road trip. So through the Grand Teton National Park it was but what a disappointment. No, it's not that the Tetons and the Snake river aren't as magnificent as the books claim and no, it's not that Ansel Adams fudged his photo to make it look like something it wasn't.

I don't know, maybe it's the fact that the skies were pregnant with snow clouds, to the extent that virtually none of the mountains were visible. Maybe it's the fact that the trees has grown quite significantly since Messr Adams took his picture in 1942. Maybe it's the fact that I am not half the photographer that he was. Or maybe it's a generous serving of all the above. Here follows his picture with mine directly beneath it. I'll let you decide which is the better one :-)

The Tetons and the Snake River (1942) Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
Ansel Adams

The Tetons and the Snake River (2012) Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
Déwald Swanepoel

Oh well, we enjoyed what could be seen of the lovely scenery. At least the mountains aren't the only scenic elements of the area and we had seen the Tetons earlier, but from the other side as we drove through Idaho. We passed through the delightful town of Jackson, Wyoming. A pity we couldn't sleep over a night as it really is a charming little spot.

Smoot, WY

The rest of the day was spent driving through eastern Wyoming, encountering all sorts of tiny little towns like Smoot, Wyoming, with its population of 100 and total area of 1.7 square miles. Don't bother looking for it on Google Earth, it's probably hidden under a tree.

Wyoming, very much a mountain state, is a quite a pleasant state to drive through and, while the scenery changed rather abrubtly as we left Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, it remained very scenic throughout.

We're now in Salt Lake City, UT. We hadn't planned on spending any real time here and will head off towards Bryce Canyon National Park and Cedar City tomorrow.