National parks

Monday, 2.Oktober

“Chevy Schüssel”

• We arrive at Las Vegas airport and off we go to the car rental agency.
• The service employee tells us: “Just choose a car from row 7”, so we have look at the cars in row 7 (all SUVs, of course) and finally decide – after some back and forth (boot too small – what’s wrong with SUVs?, up to Julian’s mobile phone can’t be connected to the navigation system) for a Chevrolet (which can deal very good with mountain roads but neither accelerates nor brakes well on normal ones, which we only find out later of course) – “Chevy Schüssel” Julian calls it affectionately.
• Off to Las Vegas – check in at the Hilton, where three of us have a suite, which does not prevent Julian from having to put the sheets on his sofa bed himself.
• We decide to take an Uber to the Strip, where one hotel and casino is lined up next to the other for about 7 miles.
• To be precise, we drive to the Bellagio, a huge hotel that is famous for the huge fountain in front of it, with a fountain show synchronized to music (which we admire, of course, together with about 500 other tourists).

• Inside the hotel there is a huge garden exhibition, which reminds me of the Dutch flower corsos
• We go out again onto the strip, which is overwhelming in every way: bright and flashing lights are everywhere, loud music comes from speakers mixing with the noise of the cars. Here and there you have to cross the multi-lane road – and for this purpose fancy bridges have been built for pedestrians
• We are amazed by how fast the lifts go up here (which is good considering our hotel has more than 30 floors, but feels strange if you only go up two floors for example), on the Strip we use a lift which is super slow, but to be fair also only has to go up to the 2nd floor, Matthäus: “It seems you grow with your tasks”, Julian: “Seems I didn’t have many tasks in life”, Marie: “Cheers”
• We organise beer in a supermarket before strolling into the Hotel Paris, where everything is held in the theme “France”: accordingly, there is “Le Casino”, the famous Eiffel Tower (remember “Despicable me”) and a bakery, “Le Croissant”, where Julian gets a crazy expensive quiche (not that the prices are better elsewhere and also, to quote Julian, “Yolo”)

• yet again, immediately upon arrival the visitor is drawn into a surreal, but also a bit fairytale-like world in which time seems to stand still, and at the same time the impression are overwhelming
• we take a look at some other casinos/hotels, where huge gambling halls cover the entire ground floor – all equipped with a huge number of slot machines and rows of blackjack and poker tables in between – our mathematical genes prevent us from trying our “luck”, but Julian is tempted and wants to try out a slot machine: surprisingly, the undertaking turns out to be more complicated than expected and we don’t see through how to get coins etc. with which to play. I would really have thought they would make it easier for us to spend our money.
• We also pay a visit to the infamous and perhaps biggest, but definitely most famous hotel here on the Strip, Caesars Palace, where everything is kept in the style of ancient Rome and which obviously also has a Colosseum inside, where regular shows and concerts take place

• Following a wild impulse, we test whether you can only get to the higher floors by using a card or passing a security guy, or whether you can just walk in – it turns out: you can just walk in.
• so we look around a bit on the 13th floor, which is huge in itself – as we google later, the hotel has 4000 rooms spread over 6 towers
• We notice an advertisement for the “best pizza in the world”, which all in all doesn’t look very appetizing and is proper Chicago style Pizza
• Nevertheless, Matthäus and I are hungry and get a pizza slice (in Caesars Palace of course – not the “best pizza in the world” though) before we head back to the hotel

Tuesday, 3.Oktober

Crossing four time zones

• In the morning the first thing we discover is a shock: the coffee in the fancy Hilton Suite is dubious – to say the least- Julian lets it run through, then looks slightly disgustedly into the mug and says: “Marie, that is something, but definitely not coffee” and after I have carefully (thank God!) tried a sip, I mournfully agree.
• We have breakfast at Denny’s – a breakfast with a calorie intake that will last for the entire week.
• Nevertheless, we escalate like crazy at Walmart shortly afterwards: we buy cans and cans of beer, because we are afraid we won’t be able to get any in Utah (Utah is known for its strict alcohol regulations – you are not allowed to have open bottles of beer in your car, for example)

• Fully equipped, we set off by car towards the east – into the beautiful hilly landscape surrounding Las Vegas.
• from the highway we see “towns” or housing estates alternating with outlets, retail stores, restaurants and beautiful mountain ranges, or almost desert-like barren landscape – an overall crazy mix of landscape impressions

• Matthäus: “We’re in Utah now.” Julian: “Yes, I can already feel it, that’s right, Jesus appeared to Joseph … or whatever his name was!”
• We google it: Joseph Smith Jnr. had several apparitions of Jesus and even published a book about it #booksyoudefinitelyneedtoread
• Between Utah and Nevada runs the time zone border and we cross it three times today, which causes two things: First, weird time estimates pop up on the navigation system (a 2 hour drive becomes a 3 hour drive, becomes a 1 hour drive) and second, us being confused about what time it actually is
• First stop is Valley of Fire, a State Park (which makes it not a National Park and therefore costs extra entrance fee), but which is super impressive anyways.
• It looks and feels like a stone desert – it is hot, the sun beats down and there is no shade.

• Here there are petroglyphs made by indigenous people so high up on the rock that it makes Julian wonder: “How did they put them there?”
• To experience the park up close, we take a short hike that leads us through canyon-like rock structures and offers really beautiful views.
• While there, we see a family with a small child who is blond and doesn’t look suited for the sun at all (especially since it is not equipped with any sun gear whatsoever) and hear the parents politely ask their child, “Do you want to wear your sunglasses?” to which the child replies, “No”. Well, that explains the lack of sun gear at least. Julian just shakes his head in disbelieves and remarks: “Well, it is known that children always know what’s best for them.”
• We continue to Zion National Park, where we arrive so late in the afternoon that we wonder whether we can get in at all and whether we can even buy an entrance pass.
• There is an annual pass for all national parks in the USA that costs $80 and which, of course, is valid for a vehicle with up to 5 people in it
• We find a complicated description online of how this annual pass works, where to buy it and how to sign up for it, the whole description is -as it is often the case on American websites- very detailed and obscure
• In the end we drive to the entrance of Zion National Park, ask the lady at the counter for the pass; she takes our credit card with a nod and hands over the annual pass – it is that simple (“Wow, they put this very complicated description on their website and than we drive there and just get it”, Julian complains).
• It’s too late to go for a hike, so we drive along the Scenic Route instead, which leads through the park via a mountain road and offers very beautiful views

• In the light of the setting sun and with the evening atmosphere, the jagged and mountainous park looks very beautiful
• It is already getting dark and we head the place where we are staying tonight.
• I drive over an already dead (but small) animal and it’s making such a loud bump that both Julian and Matthäus jump
• Julian has found a really great place for us to stay tonight: It is a small hut with an outdoor area and a campfire site

• Of course, I am immediately at the fireplace armed with a match, newspaper and wood and try to get the thick logs to burn (I wish I had an axe to at least chop them up a bit) – unsuccessfully at first, but then we find the spiritus and with enough spiritus everything burns – as our neighbours find out as well.
• I tell Matthäus and Julian enthusiastically about getting a fire started, “Ha, I love fires, tell me what you want to see on fire and I’ll make it burn” – Julian: “Yeah well, after your arson I’ll go to the police: “I’ve got a hot tip”.
• We watch the moonrise, which thrills Julian to no end.

• By the way, this is one of the best places for stargazing in the USA, as the light pollution is very low – no wonder, we are surrounded by a rocky desert and national parks – there is no city far and wide.
• Accordingly, the stars in the sky look great – it’s an evening just the way I like it: Sitting around the campfire, chatting, looking at the stars and simply enjoying all of it.
• When Matthäus, our voice of reason, has already gone to bed, Julian and I – purely out of scientific interest – start a series of marshmallow experiments – we throw one marshmallow after the other into the fire and observe how the marshmallows puff up until they have reached about 4 times their size and then continue to glow black and charred before they disintegrate into ash (whatever the ingredients of the marshmallows, the burning behaviour is suspect).

Wednesday, 4.Oktober

Moderately strenuous hike

• We set off in the morning (around 9am), the coffee machine works =), Julian has the great idea of filling our thermos flask with extra coffee and off we go.
• Marie: “Tonight I’ll write the blog and finally put it online”, Julian: “Yeah, 2027, when your blog goes live…”.
• Zion National Park is a bit overcrowded (a subtle understatement)- it has about 5 million visitors a year and we are obviously a bit late, because in contrast to yesterday we are standing in a very long car queue at the entrance – at least we still have the Hungry Man Sandwich, which serves the three of us as breakfast and a way to pass the waiting time
• Car parks are of course overcrowded – after a round tour of all (three) car parks we realise that parking in the park is not going to work – the good thing is that Julian has found out that you can park outside, either in $40 car parks or using the parking facilities of the town of Springdale (which means parking next to the road), which then costs only $20 – this is of course the option we vote for and find a parking space immediately
• Our parking is conveniently located right across the Visitor Centre, from where the free shuttle buses enter the park.
• They leave every 5 minutes, so we catch one right away and head for the Scenic Driveway, which leads into the canyon and is only accessible by shuttle bus.

• It really is a very beautiful route and even the bus ride is an experience – high, almost vertical rock faces rise up on both sides, glowing in all kinds of colours in the sun.
• The bus itself is an older model and almost nostalgic, or as Julian says: “It looks like a bus that was sold from the DDR to Romania”.
• After much deliberation and after Matthäus has consulted the guidebook in detail, we decide to do the Angels Landing hiking trail, which can also be done without a permit.
• The second option would have been the “Narrows”, a narrow gorge at the end of the canyon, which is partly so narrow that you even have to walk through the river – for this you can get extra equipment at the park entrance, like water-suitable shoes, some kind of fishing trousers and waterproof backpacks, which we see several people carry in the bus.
• You can’t miss our bus station, as most people get off here – it’s just as easy to find the access to the hiking trail; you just have to follow the crowd – I call this the “sheep move”, to which Julian says: “Yes, we Austrians are good at that”.
• After reading thousands of warnings that the trail is very steep, impassable and only suitable for hikers who are not afraid of heights, to our surprise we find a kind of hiking highway – the trail is paved and concreted/asphalted everywhere
• Probably not such a bad idea, considering how many people use it every day – even now that it’s no longer high season, you’re not alone on any part of the trail
• After climbing up the canyon -including spectacular views of the cliffs left and right- we reach the highest point you can go to without an Angels Landing Permit (which someone is actually checking – the first thing Julian and I notice when we reach the top)

• We take a break and have a snack at the view point and are pestered by a lot of American chipmunks, which are as abundant here as the “Ziesel” at the Gerasdorf lake, but unlike them the chipmunks are less shy and more aggressive.
• In this respect they seem to have cat genes, because while they immediately approach me and I’m thinking about hitting one of them over the head with a bottle as a lesson (a thought I abandon after all, because Matthäus mentions it wouldn’t look good if I accidentally killed a chipmunk in the midst of a National park), Julian finds them totally adorable, but of course none approach him.
• We hike back down the same way we came up, which doesn’t matter as the views are different but just as spectacular as those on the way up

• We take the bus back to the entrance, where we get our car and find out that the poor guy behind us has been ticketed for parking a bit (only 10cm or so) next to the markings.
• We stock up on coffee and smoothies at a nearby café:
• Julian orders peppermint coffee and is surprised that it tastes horrible, but at least he tells himself it tastes fine and says (more to convince himself than to convince us I think) after a while: “You get used to the peppermint”.
• Julian comments on Matthäus’ smoothie: “Ah, the strawberry thing smells almost natural”, Matthäus: “It is supposed to be lemon”.
• We ask ourselves what the difference is between queen and king size beds. Julian says: “I think the queen size is 1.6m and the king size 1.8m or in the units used here, 5 cubits and 3 frogs”.
• On the way we see some Mormon churches, small towns spread out over a large area and farms sitting all alone in the area.
• We google again and find out: Utah is more than 3 times the size of Austria – crazy!
• We see a rock fall right next to the road and a little later some deer chilling next to the road – Julian is horrified: “Na servas, I haven’t had that in 10 years of driving and now I see both in one day!” – he obviously hasn’t driven a car very often in Waldviertel…
• We reach Bryce Canyon National Park in the afternoon, early enough to do a short hike down into the canyon – once again offering special and new perspectives on the rock formations and the beautiful landscape.

• Bryce Canyon is known for its stalagmite-like rock formations, which protrude from the earth like spikes and give the whole national park its characteristic appearance.
• The rocks are mostly red, sometimes intercepted with white, which looks very beautiful, especially in the slowly lowering sun.
• Of course, someone has come up with ideas what some of the formations look like and so there is, for example, a Queen Rock and a Queens Castle Formation.

• We drive – now in the light of the setting sun – through the park, along the upper rim of the canyon, from where there are great views on the parks and its- almost equally impressive- surroundings.

• Finally off we go on the still quite long drive towards Antelope Canyon!

Thursday, 5.10.

Crazy horse, cool camel, dancing donkey and furious frog

• We wake up at 6am, because we have to be at the Navajo reservation at 7am for our Antelope Canyon tour, which we booked spontaneously yesterday.
• The Navajo are the largest Native Nation in America, with a reservation of 27000 square miles, which is – let’s look it up – about 67,000 square kilometres (an area similar in size to Bavaria).
• On their land is also the Antelope Canyon, which can be visited since 1997 in the course of guided tours by 5 providers, all Navajo owned.
• Businesslike Indians it seems – our guidebook from 2013 still says a guided tour costs 25$, we pay 100$ per tour.
• When we arrive, there are Halloween decorations all over the car park. In response to my comment “The Navajo Nation has been invaded by the Halloween craziness”, Matthäus says dryly: “I think the Navajo Nation has been sufficiently invaded by everything that is the USA”.
• Sherry, our Navajo tour guide, tells us that the Navajo call themselves “Dine” – Navajo is the name given to them by the Spanish.
• Antelope Canyon is very unimpressive from the outside, but all the more impressive from the inside – no wonder it attracts so many visitors, one tour follows the other and many celebrities and artists have made use of its impressive structures, like some famous photographers and Britney Spears in her music video of “I’m not a girl, not yet a woman”.

• Thanks to the early hour we are lucky and are only in a small group of 5 (the next groups that come consist of at least 12 people).
• With a pick-up truck, on which two benches are mounted at the back, we drive over “super bumpy roads” (they have obviously never been to Uganda) to the canyon.
• Sherry tells us that the Navajo have octagonal houses with the entrance facing east and that you have to move through those houses in a clockwise direction – she also tells us how her grandmother used to tell her this when she was a child, and when she asked why, she told her “I’ll explain it to you when you’re older”, which is interesting, as the explanation is simply that you shouldn’t go north because it is considered dark and home to bad spirits and such.
• The canyon itself is very narrow and barely visible from the outside but really impressive on the inside, especially as the light illuminates the curved walls from all sorts of angles so that the red sandstone is partly in darkness and partly glowing red – it’s perfect for photos and Sherry is a super photographer and shows us things with the phones that we’ve all never heard of

• Apart from that, she tells interesting stories, but the information we get is a bit random- which doesn’t matter so much, since we are all distracted by the impressive views the Canyon offers.
• Apropos – the pleasure is not without danger: in 1997 a storm tide killed 11 tourists – floods indeed can be sudden and treacherous, because they can be caused by storms that are miles away and are hard to predict – by the way, in the same year 2 hikers died in the Grand Canyon in Phanton Creek during a storm tide
• We are “channeled” through the canyon, because the next group is already coming up behind us and the previous group is still in front of us – nevertheless we have enough time to look around and take photos
• The canyon has a kind of V-shape, so it is wider at first and becomes narrower, which makes the walls come even closer together in an impressive way.

• We reach the exit, where a new (in COVID times) stairway has been built to make the ascent easier for the tourists and at the same time makes it easier to keep everyone together.
• We return to the canyon entrance, where three other fleets of cars have arrived, consisting of all kinds of bus- or van-like vehicles, of which ours are the most adventurous – so we are happy to have booked the tour that we booked (to be fair, it was the last one available).

• At the car park, the next fleets of cars are already being loaded, to which Matthäus says: “It has a bit the flair of loading cattle trucks”.
• Off we go to Denny’s for a filling breakfast and I discover the “Healthy Soap” in the toilet and wonder what that is supposed to be – “But that’s the only healthy thing in here”, is Matthäus’ comment on it.
• We talk about Julian’s Mum having been here in the 80s and I ask if she has been to Antelope Canyon, to which Julian replies: “Well, it didn’t even exist then, it was only opened in 1997”, Matthäus: “I’m quite sure it did exist then”, well, good point, to which I reply: “Well, a fissure opened up in the earth”, Julian: “A circular saw fell from the sky and cut a fissure…”.
• The next item on our very dense programme today is the very nearby Horseshoe Bend (or “Horseshoe Band” as Matthäus’ mobile’s autocorrect tells me) – a meandering bend of the Colorado River that is particularly photogenic and the viewpoint attracts countless tourists, including us.
• It turns out that the area is a “City Park”, not a National Park, which means that our National Park card is not valid and we have to pay the City Park fee – an excellent business model.
• On site, we hike to the viewpoint two kilometres away, where we take the obligatory photos before we continue our journey.

• We go to Monument Valley, which Julian’s mum considers a MUST see point, but which only has a rating of 4.7 on Google – Julian: “Well, we’re not going there”, me: “I’m not going to anything that has a rating below 4.8”, we are curious why the rating is so low and look it up: Some people write things like “full of tourist rip-offs, the gift shop is way too expensive”, or “you can’t ski”.
• On the way there, we see a truck with an airplane loaded in the back (?!?!), now nothing surprises us anymore.
• Julian talks to his mum on the phone and she asks if we have enough to drink when we go to such a remote region, Julian assures her: “Yes mum, we have 8 litres of water and 6 litres of beer in the car, we’ll survive”.
• We drive through the Navajo reservation and fill up at a -super cheap, thanks to low taxes- petrol station on the way, which Julian affectionately calls “Indian petrol station”.
• I fall asleep in the back seat and when I wake up, Monument Valley stretches out in front of me – and let me tell you, you don’t wake up to a view like this every day.

• Our guidebook writes: “When Monument Valley comes into view above the desert, it seems strangely familiar. The brick-red rock pillars, towering mesas and rock towers are the stars of countless films and advertisements on TV and in magazines”- and that describes the feeling of seeing Monument Valley for the first time quite well.
• We are standing in line to pay (it is the Navajo reservation, after all, so of course there is an extra entrance fee) at the entrance, when an apparently local shoots by unperturbed in his pick-up truck through the sand on the outside of the road – Julian: “Does he have a Navajo plate or what?!” Matthäus: “He knows the security guy, I think he just waved at him”, Julian: “Ah, crazy horse, cool camel, yeah, it’s OK- go ahead”.
• Fun fact: Sherry told us that when two Navajo people meet and introduce themselves to each other, they tell each other the names of their grandparents instead of their own names – this way they can find out if they are somehow distantly related
• Monument Valley is everything it promises – a place ready for a film set, rock formations that stand out glowing red against the sand of the surrounding desert and look unreal, almost alien.

• Many rock formations have been given names by the Navajo, for example the “Raingod Mesa”, the “Camel Biati”, the “Three Sisters” or the “Elephant Biati” – by the way, mesas are elongated rocks, while biatis are free-standing individual rocks.

• We visit Monument Valley like everyone else, driving along a dirt road – there is no other way, because you are not allowed to hike or climb – it is Navajo territory after all.
• In between there are parking spots to stop and take photos, which present you with the views together with the feeling of being in a lonely desert, which makes the whole setting even more impressive
• Fascinating, I think, how lonely the landscape seems, although we are moving through the park together with thousands of other tourists in cars
• To be fair, the feeling of loneliness is not always present, as in the moment when we get stuck behind a car that is driving particularly slowly along the gravel road – “Well, there are three American women in it, that’s why”, Julian says and when I ask how he knows they are Americans, he says “you can tell” – but when we join them at the car park to enjoy the view, we notice that, contrary to what we thought, they are French.
• Others are not so easily intimidated and simply drive their super low-slung Ford Mustangs over the already very uneven road full of potholes.
• One thing is certain, for all of us the visit to the park is a unique experience with lasting memories.

• The day is far from over, but you’ll find out what happens next in the next blog entry about the Grand Canyon.