USA National Parks

After having a much easier crossing back in the USA, we headed in the direction of Yellowstone National Park.  Once again we have been here before but as we were driving in that direction we had to give it another look.

We stayed in Gardiner for 3 nights and spent time travelling around Yellowstone, taking in the sights but mainly checking out the wildlife.  Here are a few snaps of some of the things:

Travertine terrace, Mammoth

Travertine terrace, Mammoth

A young grizzly checking us out

Frozen Yellowstone lake

A few pelicans and blue heron

A beautiful pronghorn

This baby bison was only about an hour old

A mama black bear, just chilling whilst.....

Her baby was up the tree!

When we were done in Yellowstone we stopped in Grand Teton National Park just for one night (slumming it in the car again).  The main draw here for us (apart from the Grand Teton mountains) were moose.  We always manage to spot at least one and we managed a couple this time along the Gros Ventre river.  The weather was a bit rubbish when we were in Grand Teton so we started to head south where we heard the sun was shining.  That said, we did get lucky and had a nice sunset on the night we were there.

Arches National Park in Utah was next.  This park was all about rock formations and yep you guessed it, in the shape of arches!  It was quite a small park but there was plenty to see and the weather was gorgeous so we managed to get a little bit of a tan.  We had quite a relaxing time in Moab (the place we stayed) as there wasn't much else to do except visit the national park.  The day we left Moab we paid a visit to Canyonlands National Park which didn't have too many things to see and to be honest was very similar to Arches - frankly we were a bit arched out by that point, so we didn't stay for long.  Also managed to have a "heated debate" with some Germans as to whether I should be allowed to have a driving licence (how rude!) - Rob gave them the bird for good measure, so I think they got the message!

Rob is there, somewhere!

North window

Sunset at delicate arch

Mesa arch, Canyonlands National Park

Next we crossed the state border into Arizona and stayed in a place called Page.  Like pretty much every tourist that comes here, we were here for 2 main reasons - to visit Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend.  We booked ourselves onto a photography tour for Antelope Canyon which meant that we got 2 hours in the upper canyon at the time of day when the beams of light shine through to the canyon floor.  It was actually a really good experience, like nothing we had seen before and the tour guide did a grand job of keeping people out of our photos.  We got chatting to a Russian couple who were also on the tour and they recommended the lower canyon to us as well so we decided to do that the next day.  I (Lisa) didn't actually take the lower canyon tour as I didn't feel too great that day :-( but Rob did the 2 hour photography tour where he got to wander about on his own taking photos - obviously he hated it!

A beam of light in Upper Antelope Canyon

Upper Antelope Canyon

Lower Antelope Canyon

As for Horseshoe Bend, it is basically a great viewpoint over a horseshoe shaped meander of the Colorado River.  After a short walk we arrived at the viewpoint where we were met with a sheer drop to the floor of the canyon with no guard rails (scary!).  The view was pretty spectacular though.

The next park was Bryce Canyon.  Now we had read really good things about this place but were actually quite disappointed as it was a tad dull.  There were loads of people around but the sights weren't too spectacular, maybe because we have seen so many beautiful sights so far and this one didn't really measure up.  There were a couple of main viewpoints to see, Bryce Point and Sunset Point and once you had seen these you've pretty much seen all of the park, as every viewpoint was pretty much the same.  We were here for 2 days and that was plenty enough.  The next place we were heading to was Zion National Park and so many people had told us that this one is amazing and how much we will love it here, we'll see.

Bryce Point

We arrived in Hurricane which one of the closest towns to Zion and made our way into the national park each day.  Now this park was quite small and you had to get a shuttle bus to see the main sights - a bit annoying.  This park reminded me of Yosemite National Park, there were mountains, water and lots of people.  We took in the popular sights within the park which were pleasant enough but we wouldn't rave about it.

So after leaving Hurricane we decided to have another night in Vegas, as the accommodation was really cheap.  It was also good to go to the hotel buffet and have a roast dinner - so much better than the tins and pasta we have been living on over the last few days!  As we had already done most of the popular things in Vegas we just stopped by the famous sign to take some snaps and couldn't resist becoming a slot jockey (again) just for a few hours!  

Yosemite National Park in California was the last park on the list.  We did come here a few years ago and to be honest we remembered it being better than it actually was, maybe a second visit wasn't the best thing to do.  Anyway we cruised around and took in some of the main sights, spotted a few bits of wildlife and took in a nice sunset at Glacier Point which was really good.  Rob also tried some night time photography as he only had to stand outside the car to do it!  

Yosemite falls

Sunset at Glacier Point - the rock is known as half dome

So really that was pretty much it for the national parks.  The best thing we did was antelope canyon and that wasn't even a national park!  Now we are heading for Los Angeles, our last destination before we get our flight home on the 10th June - I cannot believe 11 months has gone by so quickly!  We have heard mixed reviews about LA so will check it out for ourselves….