Chapter II: Road Trip with Emilien

The next three weeks I’ll be traveling with Emilien. We spent a good time in McDonald Ranch and we decide to rent a car and travel together from Oct. 25 to Nov. 12. Our route starts in Los Angeles, we will take the Route 66 to the Mohave Desert and after to Las Vegas. Then we cross the Hoover Dam and we drive again in the Route 66 to Grand Canyon and we go north to Lake Powell and Zion. After Zion we have to drive a long road until Gran Teton and Yelowstone. Then we go east to Lake Tahoe and south to Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. And the end of the trip is to go to the coast ant drive the Highway 1 from Monterrey to Los Angeles again.

Now we are going to San Francisco to spend the weekend and in Monday we are going to Los Angeles to pick up the rental car. We arrive in San Francisco and we walk 20 minutes from the bus stop to the hostel. The hostel owners are two brothers from India or Thailand, I don’t remember the name of the hostel, but there is a TV!!!! With signal!!! We can watch the Giants winning the World Series and all San Francisco celebrating the victory!! And we can watch movies with commercials (Now I prefer the dvd’s from McDonald Ranch). There are 10 times of commercial advertisings in the movie, its crazy! But we can watch two very good movies, Gladiator and Braveheart.

Lombard Street

We arrive Friday afternoon and we go to walk in downtown, the city is really beautiful and there are a lot of interesting things to see, but is late and we are tired, and we eat a burrito in a Mexican taqueria and we come back to the hostel. We are sharing the room with other 3 or 4 guys, nobody say anything in the room and two guys are in the laptop all the day.

Saturday and Sunday we explore San Francisco, but the weather is not friendly, it’s raining… Anyway, we buy a public transport passport and we go to Market Street and Fisherman’s Wharf, there are a lot of people, mostly tourists. In the piers we can see elephant seals sleeping under the sun. The rain doesn’t stop and we go to the Golden Gate, nice bridge, but it isn’t the most beautiful place in San Francisco. We take some pictures and we get wet and after we take a bus to anywhere, we just want to stay in the bus!

In Sunday the rain stops in the morning and we take the historic cable car to the Lombard Street. After that we walk around North Beach and we come back to the hostel.

Los Angeles

Yatch Harbour in Santa Monica

It’s around 8 o’clock in the morning in Tuesday. We wake up in the car in a summer parking in Santa Monica, beside the Yatch Harbour. We put the shoes on and we go to run 1 hour and to de some exercises in the gym-on-the-beach! It’s a really nice morning, and we finish swimming in the cold Pacific Ocean! Santa Monica is cool! The most beautiful urban beach I have seen. At the end of the morning we drive to Beverly Hills and Hollywood and we do a typical tourist tour looking for the houses of the famous and walking the Hollywood Boulevard. In the afternoon we drive away, far away from the big city and all the people, the Road Trip starts!

On the Road

In these three weeks we drive thousands miles, around 4200, and we sleep in the car every day, with no shower and trying to park in dark places for to sleep better. The mornings are cold and we eat always the same: cookies, bread with jam, juice and fruit for breakfast, and sandwiches and chips for lunch and dinner, but sometimes we stop in a taqueria to eat a burrito or in an Italian restaurant for a pizza or pasta. It looks hard but it’s not too bad, and we bought a mattress in the Goodwill and we can sleep pretty well. When we look for a place to sleep, the priority is to find a shower, but it is not easy. In Santa Monica we can have a shower in the public showers on the beach; in Grand Canyon we can have another shower paying 2 dollars for 8 minutes, and after that we don’t find another shower until Yosemite. More than one week with no shower, that’s hard!

Me hitchhiking in Route 66

Driving in the US roads we have amazing views. The roads are straights very longs. From LA to Las Vegas we have amazing views in the Mohave Desert driving the Route 66, and we cross a lot of small towns in the desert, towns of one or two houses and they are in the map!

When the sun comes down we stop in the road for to see the sunset and to take a good picture, it’s not easy to find a good place, the bests sunsets are in the desert from the Route 66 and in the beach from the Highway 1.

Sin City Las Vegas

In the middle of nothing, in the Nevada deserts, suddenly appears a fantasy city. It’s like a Lego City, everything is like big toys and all the buildings are casinos or they have something were to waste your money. Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas!

In Las Vegas we went first to the visitor center and parked the car there. The man of the visitor center give us a map from Las Vegas, a lot of information about Grand Canyon, a lot of postcards, posters and playing cards. We didn’t need the map from Las Vegas because all the casinos and resorts are concentrated in The Strip, Las Vegas Boulevard. We walked and visit some casinos, everything was very quiet and not too much crazy, but when the night comes the city change. A lot of lights, a lot of people selling ‘hot girls private party’, Elvis in the street, Jack Sparrow and Superman, all the casinos full, etc.

We went to a bar to drink some beers watching a baseball match of the Giants and the waiter invited us to a chupito of tequila. Later, a little bit drunk, we went to eat a pizza and after to a casino. Playing in the casino we had free drinks and~~~~……              ZzZzZz pip pip, pip pip (the alarm clock) time to wake up! Let’s go to the road again!

National Parks

Grand Canyon, Zion, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks!! Mohave National Preserve! Lake Powell and Lake Tahoe National Recreation Areas!

7 national parks and 10 amazing places. Driving in 6 States (California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho).

Only a small part of this great country, but a perfect trip, with a lot of different places, animals and views.

Emilien in Teutonia Peak

 In the deserts it’s all flat, with no trees, only a lot of small bushes and a dry air. In the Mohave National Preserve there is an impressive contrast, we find dunes like the African deserts in the middle of the American deserts and huge granite mountains with big holes like emental cheese because of the wind erosion. And the Joshua trees, a big forest of Joshua trees in the middle of the desert.

My friend Joshua The Tree

The canyons are beautiful, with giant cliffs and gorgeous rivers down the canyon. In Zion the falls and the emerald pools are awesome! The Lake Powell is spectacular, a big lake in the middle of the desert, with beautiful rocks in the edges and the Navajo mountains at the end of the view. In Grand Teton it’s all different, in the north of the country is colder, with snow and big mountains, beautiful lakes and forests, moose, bison, elks and dears.

And Yellowstone is amazing, the main park! Snow, fog, rivers canyons, waterfalls, geysers and thermal areas. A lot of animals, thousands of bison, elks, a lot of birds and bears!

In Yosemite there are big fantastic mountains with more waterfalls and perfect places for climbing. And in Kings Canyon and Sequoia we saw the biggest sequoias of the world, until 12 meters of diameter and around 100 meters of high. A lot of different places and environments, with a lot of different things to see, all gorgeous and spectacular.

Hiking

You can park in the village of the park and see a lot of beautiful places closed to the car, but the best experiences are lived in the trails, hiking inside the parks and exploring the Mother Nature. And that is what we did.

The first trail was in Mohave, it was a short trail of 3 miles to the Teutonia Peak, crossing the Joshua tree forest and climbing the last part. From the top of the peak we can see the desert, a lot of granite hills and the dunes.

 In Grand Canyon we made a trail in the top of the canyon the first day. The firsts 15 minutes are impressive, the canyon is really big and beautiful, and after that the view is always the same. But the second day we made a big trail in the south rim, we started at 6:30 am hiking in the Kaibab trail and we arrived around 8:30 to the river, the place is beautiful and you can see the big walls of the canyon from down the river. We arrived down very early and we decided to go up following the Bright Angel trail, a longer trail that goes following a creek and it’s beautiful, with a lot of vegetation and gorgeous views of the canyon. The last part of the trail is very strenuous; it’s 4 or 5 miles going up in ziga-zaga. We arrived to the village at noon, it was around 15 miles in five hours. We were very tired and we went to the lodge to eat a big pizza and a fresh beer watching a college football match!

Colorado River in Grand Canyon

Me going to the narrows in Zion

In Zion we made two trails. The first was in the emerald pools, the place is beautiful, with waterfalls and natural pools. The other trail was going up to the Angels Landing, a mountain in the middle of the canyon with spectacular views from the peak. We had lunch in the top with some friends, the squirrels, who came asking food. After this trail we went down to the river and we walked into the cold water to the narrows, but the water was too cold and we didn’t go too far.

Grand Teton Mountains and Jackson Lake

The Gran Teton N.P. was almost closed and was very cold, but we made another trail into the forest until the Jackson Lake and we found footprints of a bear in the snow. When we were leaving, we met a group of bison crossing the road and more ahead some moose beside the road, was exciting.

In Yellowstone, the first morning was very foggy and cold and we didn’t see the sun until the afternoon. In the morning we saw a lot of geysers and thermal pools and we find a giant geyser, where we were waiting 2 hours for an eruption but the Great Fountain Geyser didn’t erupt! L But later we could see the eruption of the Old Faithful in the visitor center. In the afternoon we made one of the top 3 trails of the trip. We hiked in the south rim of the Yellowstone River and we saw two gorgeous and hug waterfalls. We continued thru the forest and we find some small lakes, one of them was frozen and I run in the ice, carefully! After, we arrived to a big plain and we found a bear about 60 meters ahead.

Our friend the Black Bear watching us

Imperial Geyser

At the first moment, we stopped and came back to the forest, but then we approached to the bear and the bear saw us, stand in two feet watching us and after he run away and we run following him for to get a good picture, but he escaped!! It was an awesome experience!!! After the bear, we met some bison in the trail but we didn’t run! When we arrived to the parking we met a French couple and we went together to a campground and we have dinner together and we were talking about our travels and drinking wine that Emilien shared for the occasion. They are traveling from Alaska to Argentina! It’s a very long and interesting travel.

The hot spring terraces

The second day in Yellowstone we went to the terraces, it’s like a spring hill with a lot of boiling pools with a lot of colors and it’s really gorgeous. After that, we made another trail to see the Fairy falls and the Imperial Geyser. The Geyser was erupting when we arrived and was very impressive!!

Me on the top of the Yosemite Falls

In Yosemite we made other two great trails! The first day we hike until the top of the Yosemite Falls, the falls were spectacular and the view from the Yosemite point was amazing.

The Half Dome view from Yosemite Falls

The second day we waked up early and we tried to go to the top of the Half Dome, the most emblematic dome from Yosemite. But when we arrived to the dome was raining and after snowing, ant the lasts 100 meters to the top it’s an almost vertical wall with a cable. The cable was frozen and the rock was very sliding and we didn’t arrive to the top, we tried to climb but we had to go down because was very dangerous. Going down we saw more waterfalls and beautiful rivers.

Me and the General Sherman Tree

In Kings Canyon we made a little trail for to see the third most voluminous sequoia of the world and the largest one. And in Sequoia N.P. we made saw more giant sequoias, the most voluminous one of the word, the General Sherman Tree and other spectacular trees.

  

 Highway 1

The end of this road trip is coming, but don’t before to drive in the highway one. When we were in McDonald Ranch went to Redwoods N.P. driving in the north coast in the Highway 1 and now we are driving the central coast, from Monterrey until LA. We spent the previous night to drive the highway in Salinas, in a parking beside the road. When we were going to sleep a police agent came and said that the parking is propriety of the church, and we thought the worst, but after he said if we were going to sleep there, he just wanted to be sure that we were all right! Wuau! The next day we start the drive in the Highway 1 or Pacific Coast Highway after 1 hour of running in the coast of Monterrey. We stopped in Carmel by-the-sea for to take a picture and touch the sand in the beach. The next 3 hours were a long drive with a lot of turns with cliffs and a beautiful ocean view at the right. We arrived to a beach where there were a lot of elephant seals sleeping in the sand and some of them were fighting. It was exciting. In San Luis Obispo we stopped for to take a picture of the sunset and in Guadalupe we went to the library for to use Internet. We slept in a rest area in the highway. The second day in the Highway 1 we arrive in Santa Barbara in the morning and we went to run in the beach again. In the afternoon we went to library and to a big shop, Macy’s, for to buy some cheap clothes, and later we went to the theater to watch a movie. We spent the night in a RV parking in the road, and at the morning one man came and tell us that we need to pay for to sleep there, but if we were leaving immediately it was okay, and we left immediately.

It’s the last day of the road trip, Nov 11, we arrived in Malibu early in the morning and we stopped for to eat something and see the beach. Then we went to LA and spent the day in Hollywood, we packed our stuff and cleaned the car. We ate the last burrito and at the afternoon we went to a theater to watch a great movie about a true story in the Glen Canyon, where is the Lake Powell.

Around 9:00 pm Emilien drive me to the Greyhound station for to take my bus to San Francisco again. Is the end of this great trip and it’s time to say goodbye! Nice to meet you Emilien and thanks for this 3 weeks! See you in Europe! Sure!

Emilien is going back to France and I am going to McDonald Ranch again for one week more. {SPOILER, do not continue reading if your don’t want to know about chapter III and IV} And after the next week, I am going to a new place as a volunteer in the 50^th state until my visa expire in Dec.22. Then, the next adventure will be in a cold territory called Canada.