ATAAHUA ORA

Right, so I guess we left you in San Francisco, about to set off along the coast towards Los Angeles. Here’s the rest of the story.

First stop was in Santa Cruz to check out the famous boardwalk - a lunapark right on the beach. We didn’t expect too much from the rides, them being quite “retro” but couldn’t resist trying out a few at only 75 cents each. Let’s just say they were well worth the price and we left Santa Cruz high on adrenaline.

Santa Cruz Boardwalk

Next was Monterey Aquarium, highly recommended to us by friends. We loved the kelp forest exhibit, the sharks and most of all the jelly fish. They are just so graceful, so other-worldly. The aquarium is really well done and very interesting, so if you’re ever down that way, make sure you check it out.

Kelp Forest in Monterey Aquarium

Jelly Fish in Monterey Aquarium

Now we couldn’t wait to get to the beach, which was beginning to stretch in front of us as we headed further south along the California coast. Big Sur was not that big, but the beach was awesomely wild, just like in New Zealand. The temperature of the water wasn’t quite the same, though, so we didn’t swim, leaving the waters to the elephant seals (check out their noses in the photos!). Every night on the coast we witnessed thick fog rolling in from the sea and engulfing everything, covering us in a thick, soundproof blanket. Freaky.

Big Sur Coast

Elephant Seal on California Coast - no, it’s not dead!

Fog rolling in onto Big Sur Coast

We also visited a couple of the old California Missions - one in San Luis Obispo and another one, the “Queen of Missions”, in Santa Barbara. Fascinating architecture and history, even if told only from the viewpoint of the missionaries. I bet the Indians would have a slightly different story to tell. Santa Barbara was just like in the movies: white, Mediterranean style mansions peppering the hills covered in green palm trees.

Santa Barbara Mission

Lalaland was next, we decided to only spend one night in LA and check out Malibu, Santa Monica and Venice Beach. Santa Monica was where we stayed for the night, in the crustiest and most horrible hotel ever, paying through the nose for the privilege. It was right next to Third Street Promenade, but we didn’t stay out “Until the sun comes up over Santa Monica Boulevard”. Venice Beach the next day was all that we expected and more. They rightly call it “The Freakshow” and we enjoyed strolling down the promenade, checking out the stalls selling everything from jewellery and sun glasses to hand made arts and crafts, stopping to watch the buskers perform their own little freak shows and laughing at the t-shirts with Arnie proclaiming “My governor can kick your governor’s ass - THE GOVERNATOR”.

Venice Beach Freak Show

The Governator

Having had our share of city life, we headed next to the desert. We decided to visit Mojave National Preserve, because it promised us the biggest and densest Joshua Tree Forest, huge sand dunes that “sing” when shifting and camping in the middle of it all. Sand dunes we saw from a distance because hiking in 120-degree Fahrenheit (about 50 Celsius) heat was not a good idea (although Lukas did try it), the Joshua trees really were impressive - very prickly. But the highlight was our night tenting in the desert. The campground was empty, it was just us and two other couples, the sky was filled with bright stars, the air was dry, calm and warm, and we could hear the coyotes far away in the distance. We didn’t put up the fly for our tent so we could lie there watching the stars until we fell asleep. Unfortunately, the heat came right back in the morning, so we were forced to go hiking inside the canyon just after dawn, returning to camp around 8 am for breakfast, after which the heat forced us to evacuate to Boulder City and an air-conditioned motel.

Kelso Dunes

Dawn over our camp in Mojave

A very impressive Joshua tree

We couldn’t skip seeing the “marvel of engineering” that is Hoover Dam, we even paid for a tour to go see the generators. But what struck us the most was how low the level of water was in the Lake Mead Reservoir. You can see the “bath rings” on the surrounding mountains. The predictions are that if the current water usage trends continue (think Las Vegas fountains and swimming pools), Lake Mead will be dry by 2030. Scary. But for now we enjoyed a dip in the 87F (30C) water.

Hoover Dam intake towers

Lake Mead and its bathtub rings

So now it was time to go and see where all this water is being used. Vegas, baby! We stayed in the MGM Grand, right on the Strip, opposite the Statue of Liberty and a couple of blocks away from the Eiffel Tower. The glitter, the glamour! The crowds, the grandness! Our room was a 20 minute walk away from our car parked in our hotel’s parking lot. It took that long to walk through the hotel, the casino and the strip with shops and restaurants before you got into the parking lot. We strolled on the Strip, watched the Bellagio Fountains, sipped cocktails and even gambled a bit. Our limit was $1 for the slots and Lukas even managed to win $10 once! Big rollers, I know. We also went to see Cirque du Soleil’s “O” at the Bellagio, which was amazing and very different to all the Cirque du Soleil shows we saw thus far. Another night we went to see the Old Vegas and check out Freemont St - such essential American tourist attraction! But we enjoyed it a lot, especially with Don McLean’s “American Pie” as the soundtrack. The rest of the night was spent clubbing and we even ran into Tara Reid and Rod Stewart at one of the clubs!

New York New York

Paris and Bellagio with its famous fountains

Freemont St Experience and Vince the Cowboy (world’s tallest neon sign) with Aggie the Cowgirl underneath

After 3 nights we were more than ready to leave Vegas with all its sparkle and glitz and headed to the Grand Canyon. On the way we had the unreal experience of finding an Internet hot spot at a local park in St George in Utah - free Internet surrounded by greenery - awesome! The views behind the car windows also changed from yellow desert to red rock by then, so we were getting excited to see the Grand Canyon. We went on a hike into the canyon in the morning (not all the way down, that would have been two days of hiking!), descending about 1000 feet (that’s around 270 metres) out of the available 1 mile (that’s 1600m!) and watching the walls grow around us with each step. Pretty amazing! By the time we got to our deepest point the weather has turned and we were slowly but surely getting soaked to the accompaniment of thunder. This did help clear the air for better views and it did help a lot with climbing out of the canyon by cooling both us and the rocks. Then we experienced lightning striking the parking lot next to our car and got freaked out. We survived this, though, and even made some friends at another viewpoint and had a beer with them, which made waiting for the sunset so much more enjoyable. The sunset didn’t happen, unfortunately, due to new clouds and thunderstorms rolling in.

Roaring Springs Canyon, which joins into the Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon

Because of the weather we skipped Zion and Bryce Canyons, where flash flood warnings were threatening our hiking. Instead we drove to the Red Canyon and climbed around on some cool rock formations. We got so into the climbing that at one point we couldn’t find a way down - always easier going up! But the views were worth it.

Red Canyon

Aggie in red rocks

After Red Canyon it was time to leave the red rocks behind and go to Salt Lake City, where we drove out to Wasatch Mountains and saw a natural volcanic “bubble” filled with warm mineral water. We wanted to go diving in it (which apparently is like diving in your bathtub, only you can go deeper and there are rock formations on the walls) but it was all booked out. Bad planning on our part. Instead we drove through the Olympic Village in Park City (winter Olympics in 2002 were held here) and crashed at my ex-boss’ place just south of Salt Lake. Thanks Rob & Shelley for putting up with us and cooking us dinner! In Salt Lake we took a free tour of the Temple Square and learned a bit about the Mormons, then we saw a presentation of the amazing acoustics at the Tabernacle, where a girl was ripping a sheet of newspaper and dropping pins at the front of the Tabernacle and we could hear it perfectly sitting in the last row of pews. We also visited a Mormon Village from the 1800’s, where we were treated to a private tour due to the late hour, end of the season and boredom of the docents in costumes. And we got to see 21 of Brigham Young’s wives in a single framed picture!

The Mormon Temple at the Temple Square in Salt Lake City

Lukas listening carefully about Mormon pharmaceuticals

I really wanted to go for a swim in the Great Salt Lake but unfortunately it didn’t happen. I blame our GPS, which insisted on guiding us through non-existent roads. After third instruction of “turn right” where there was only marshland to the right we asked a local and it turned out we came from the wrong side of the lake. So instead we went to check out the Bonneville Salt Flats, made famous by breaking records in speed on land and of course the movie “The World’s Fastest Indian”. The Flats really are salty and they really are flat. And we got to see real mirages, just like in the desert - the whole flat shimmered like water, the cars seemed to be suspended in mid-air, with their perfect reflections underneath them.

Bonneville Salt Flats - mmmm, salty

Going to see the Salt Flats forced us to make a huge big detour, so we ended up in Idaho. We stayed a night in sun Valley, after trying to catch up with Bruce Willis in Hailey. Unfortunately, he was away that day, and neither Demi or Ashton were in town, so we had to make our own dinner arrangements. The next day we headed to Yellowstone, stopping in Craters of the Moon to compare them with the ones in Taupo - completely different. Idaho Craters of the Moon were a barren land of different types of lava, both flowing and sharp rocks and they were all very dark in colour. They were also pretty old, so there were already trees and shrubs growing from the lava. We went on a hike to peek into a couple of big craters and inside some cinder cones but we didn’t notice any current geothermal activity. Apparently, they do have the capacity to blow up again in the next 100,000 years or so.

Lava flows at Craters of the Moon

Biiiiiiig crater at Craters of the Moon

Yellowstone was next and boy, were we excited! The promise of all this wildlife, we just couldn’t wait. Our first encounter was with a bison parked right across our walking trail. He hadn’t seen us yet, so we took great care to make a huge big circle around him and not to disturb him - we were remembering the brochure handed to us at the gate to the park “Every year hundreds of people get gored by bison!” - only to see the next hiker walk up right next to the bison and continue on his merry way as if nothing has been blocking his path. We did feel a bit stupid then, overcautious New Zealanders… We also saw other bison, both solitary boys and big herds, moose, hundreds of elks and deer and even a single, very scared black bear. No grizzlies. The thermal activity was amazing, quite vigorous but also pretty ancient. Just like Rotorua, only multiplied. The smells did make us homesick a little. Sniff, sniff.

Frank the Bison completely ignoring Lukas

Lone Star Geyser erupting

Upper Terrace at Mammoth Springs

Glacier National Park was next and with the weather forecast promising highs of only 11C (and lows of -8C - yikes!), we stopped in Missoula to do some shopping for gloves and thermal underwear. Needless to say, we have stopped camping some while ago and resorted to staying in motels. Glacier National Park is absolutely stunningly beautiful. Unfortunately, by 2030 the park will need to change its name because there will be no more glaciers left and even now the ones that are still there were looking rather thin and miserable. In Glacier National Park we added mountain goats, bighorned sheep and finally a grizzly to our list of spotted wildlife. Both the sheep and the goats were habituated, so we got to see them pretty up close, but luckily the grizzly was hundreds of meters away and busy foraging, so we just took some photos and continued on our way towards the Iceberg Lake, which lived up to its name - there really were icebergs floating in the water! We hiked through some early snow to get there, so that thermal underwear and gloves we bought in Missoula came in really handy.

Habituated mountain goat and unhabituated Lukas

Late summer snow

Iceberg Lake

We were glad to be able to go back to camping in Spokane, Washington, and our last night in the States was spent on the southern shore of Lake Osoyoos, just a few miles off the Canadian border. The next day we entered Canada (without a hitch!) and ended our Big USA Road Trip. We still had a few hundred kilometers to travel to get to Vancouver, but the USA part was well and truly over. On the Canadian side we went for a swim in the lake, which is (apparently) the warmest in Canada (it’s not saying much, and all we really did was wade in until the water was about to our waists, quickly submerged and waded out of the water) and saw a very interesting presentation on rattlesnakes, complete with gruesome pictures of bitten body parts (do not tourniquet! Never tourniquet a rattlesnake bite!!!), a real live rattlesnake display and the opportunity to cuddle a gopher snake.

Habituated rattlesnake - but don’t try to pet him!

Camping on the shore of Lake Osoyoos

And after that we were on the home stretch to Vancouver, having spent 50 days on the road, travelled through 8 states, and driven just over 10,000km.