Day 8 - Lake Havasu to Los Angeles

Some of the crazy rock structures in the Harvey Desert, just before Joshua Tree National Park

Jose posing on the rocks

Looking back down towards the car park

Me and a Joshua Tree

On the way to the skull

So todays been our last day together...now everyone has gone there separate ways...which is rather sad. The only bad thing about these trips is that they come to an end aye :(. But anyways back to this morning. Jose and I were up nice and early to have a shower (once again its soooo amazing to feel clean!!) before Craig and I made pancakes for breakfast this morning. They were pretty good if I may say so myself. By 7am the sun was up and it was getting hotter by the minute. We broke camp and were ready to leave by 8:30am. I dont think you would want to stay there for much longer, unless you planned on spending all day  in the lake. After picking up some lunch stuff and bottles of water we headed to the Joshua Tree National Park. If you know the U2 album Joshua Tree this is the place that it is named after. It is hard out crazy aye. So many groves of Joshua Trees, the majority of them being between 45-175 years old, although they can get up to just over 200. We stopped at a campground just before the park to get out and explore a bit. There were really impressive rock structures that were fun and rather challenging to scramble up. We walked for about 15mins to the Giant Skull rock formation before heading back to the van. We would have only been out for about 30-40 minutes but that was definitely enough! It was soo hot, but once again I enjoyed seeing so much life in the desert. We were still in the Harvey desert, more so today than yesterday. Jose and I saw a Kangaroo Rat which was pretty sweet. We then drove for another 30 mins or so until we came to our lunch spot. Once again we all piled out of the van and while Mike found a lunchspot for us we headed down a trail to do a nature loop through the park, a mile in total. Well the rest of the group did that, I found a couple of impresive rock structures to climb and so chose to do that instead...had some great views from the top! Could have carried on but I was climbing by myself and so didnt want to risk it. I also saw a snake down in one of the crags (far enough away that I had to take a photo just to make sure it was a snake) and so decided that that was enough adventure for one day!!! After lunch we did a strait shoot to L.A before saying our goodbyes. So heres the thing, if your wanting to see just the cities in America and nothing more then this Suntrek Trip is not for you. However if you want to see the real America, the beauty and awe inspiring peaks of Yosemite, the craziness of Death Valley and Mono Lake, the breath taking crazy scenery of Grand Canyon and an oasis in the Harvey desert then this trip is definitely for you!!! I had such an awesome trip! I am soo stoked that I got to do it and are definitely keen to do another sometime!

Oh and the last clueword is Grand Canyon :)

Day 7 - Grand Canyon to Lake Havasu

Our epic soccer game!

The tarantula!!!

Lake Havasu

Deer in our campsite

London Brindge

It was hot!!! About 40 degrees celcius!!!!

Today has been a hard out crazy day! I was awake at 4:50am, to get dressed and be ready to walk down to the bus stop. I was a bit worried that we might miss it at one point but no worries. We were going to bus all the way to Bright Angel Point but instead got off at Yavapai Point as the sun was already starting to raise. It was amazing! Like no words to explain how beautiful it was. Such a golden colour in the sky but it also threw golden colours onto the rocky walls. I took a couple of photos but they didnt even come close to capturing the beauty. It was the first time in ages, prehaps ever, that I have watched the sunrise properly, from complete darkness to light. As soon as the sun was up a bit it warmed up incredibly aye, like almost instantly. We came back for breaky and to break camp before jumping into the van and heading towards Lake Havasu. Once again we went along the famous, or prehaps infamous, Route 66. The majority of the route to Lake Havasu is through the Harvey Desert which is the second largest desert in the world and the largest in North America. Once again I was surprised at how much life is in the desert and totally enjoyed seeing it all aye. We stopped at Kingman for lunch, once again really nice sandwhiches. The loos (bathrooms) there were a bit interesting...lets just say that Im glad they werent unisex as there were no doors....but hey when you have got to go you’ve got to go. We stopped briefly at the London Bridge to take some photos. The London Bridge was brought by a millionair on the 18th April 1968, thinking he was buying the Tower Bridge. It was shipped across brick by brick for 7.1 million dollars. Which is hard out crazy but makes a great photo stop haha. It was really hot though, 39 degrees celcius so just over 100 fereignheight. We werent out for long, I think everyone was feeling the heat and keen to get to Lake Havasu to set up camp and jump into the water. Which is exactly what we did! Some other campers offered as the use of their inflatable canoe type boat so we had some fun paddling that around as well. It was a pretty laxed out late afternoon, swimming, playing volleyball, canoeing and sun-bathing. The boys started up a game of soccer with a french suntrek tour group which Jose and I decided to join in...it was a pretty epic game with everyone getting really into it. By this time the light was fading but it was still really really hot. Dinner tonight was BBQ pork chops, steak, salad and corn..really really good aye. Actually we have had real sweet meals while been away, like they’ve tasted real good and not at all been what I expected aye...far far far better. After dinner and dishes were done we played cards for quite a while while cooking banana’s and chocolate in foil over the bbq coals. The french group next to us found a black and white snake in the rocks beside their tent that they wanted Mike to check out to see if it was poisnous. So of course a group of us had to go see it too, its not everyday that you see a snake in the wild. Thankfully it wasn’t poisnous at all, in fact it was tiny! I cant believe they spotted it, if someone hadn’t pointed it out to me there is no way I ever would have seen it! Later that night a tarantula walked right past our table. I spotted it first and was like oh my goodness there’s a huge spider!!! Everyone was kind of like yeah right, huge for a girl kinda thing, until they saw it. It was impressively massive, like the size of my hand maybe. Once again it was Mike to the rescue as he moved it away from our campsite and tents. I think everyone made sure there tents were zipped up properly after that!!! So welcome to the desert! At least we haven’t seen any scorpians yet. But honestly it’s been such a lovely last night, snakes, spiders and all. I so dont want to leave tomorrow, we’ve had such a sweet group, everyone’s got along so well and we have all become really good friends. Im soo going to miss Jose aye. It’s definitely a warm night, no one has the flies up over the tents and I think everyone is simply going to sleep on their sleeping bags instead of in them but it’s not so hot that its uncomfortable. Tomorrow we are leaving at 8am again so another earlish morning so its time to sign off and get some sleep aye.

Day Six - One of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World

Where we stopped for lunch on Route 66, also where the Pixar movie Cars is based

Me at the Grand Canyon at Sunset

Helping prepare dinner that night

Kaibab National Forest in fall colours as seen from the helicopter

Colorado River running through the Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon

Oh man I cant believe its Day Six already!! Its hard out sad! Im having way too much of a good trip for it to end aye. Well last night was our last night in Vegas and I know what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas so lets just say that no one came back married or hangover this morning so we must have all behaved ourselves :). We were in the van and leaving just before 8:30 for our ride to the Grand Canyon. I wasnt feeling very well at all (touch of a stomach bug of some sorts) so spent most of the day sleeping. We stopped at Seligman for lunch, a really awesome town on Route 66. Route 66 was the first highway as such that went from Chicargo to Los Angeles, so pretty much from one coast to the other. Seligman is also the basis for the Pixar movie Cars so theres heaps of cool character cars there amongst other things. The majority of the group had German or American hot dogs but with my stomach being very quesy Mike suggested a flat soda. Honeslty not feeling great today has kind of sucked but everyone’s been soo sweet, the girls have definitely mothered me a bit but thats always nice when your off colour. Its so awesome the way our group has gelled together...such an awesome group to travel with! I fell asleep once again after lunch so cant say too much about the scenery. In fact I think the majority of the group slept, Los Vegas was awesome but some late nights so I think everyone was pretty tired. Four of us had signed up for a helicopter ride at the Grand Canyon so once we arrived Mike dropped us off at the hangers and made sure we were sorted. I almost didnt do it - simply because I wasnt feeling very well - but now Im soooo glad that I did. The views are utterly amazing!Its definitely the best way to see so much of the canyon in a short period of time. We also flew over the Kaibab Forrest which is the largest one of its kind in North America. I think my favourite part was as we first came to the Canyon, all of a sudden the Forrest and ground gave way as such and there it was! Honeslty its stunning. I can definitley see why its one of the 7 great natural wonders of the world aye. The colours, fascinating rock structures caused by erosion and the shear size of it is amazing. Scientist believe it to be around 1680 million years old, based on carbon dating. There are really distinctive layers of rock which differ in colour from reds to yelows, creams and greys. Its honeslty stunning aye. The helicopter ride that we did took 50minutes and was soo worth every penny that was spent. Mike had dropped the rest of our group off just off the South Rim before picking us up to join them to watch the sunset. It was really different to what I expected the sun set to be like, with no clouds in the sky there weren’t any of the pink/red clouds that typify a sunset but the shadows and the highlights on the rocks were amaizng. I must admit I’ve been rather trigger happy on the camera today but no worries. The group had been soo sweet and already set up camp, including our tents, so that when we got back all that had to be done was cook dinner. It was the boys night on cooking - Chicken Fajitas - but with everyone pitching in it didnt take long. In fact I think it was the earliest we have eaten dinner (apart from Vegas) while on this trip. I ate a bit and was able to keep it down so the cooking must have been pretty good. Nah it was delicious and I dont think there was much left at all by the time all had finished. Rob, Rachel and I went and did the dishes at the sink before coming back to play cards...the boys had got the fire cranking (it was massive! so so so much heat coming off it) which was good as it was pretty cold there. Its still pretty early but Im going to head to bed and have an early night even though I have literally slept the enitre day from Vegas to Grand Canyon. 8 out of the 10 of us are going to get up and leave at 5am to watch the sunrise tomorrow...so it will be an early start and I need by beauty sleep!!! 

Day 5 - Las Vegas

Hoover Dam...still cant see the bottom of it!

Las Vegas!!!

Lake Meads

Colorado River, towards Lake Meads

Me copying the Statue of Liberty (made out of jelly beans) in the New York New York Casino

So todays been our full day in Vegas...which after a rather late, or should I say early morning last night we were all pretty keen to start off with a sleep in. After a rather laxed out start to the day 5 of us rented a car and drove to Hoover Dam. It was built from 1931-1935 on the Colorado River and has created the desert of the southwest into the productive basin it is today. It is pegged as being one of the greatest enginering feats of the 20th century and also created one of the biggest, if not the biggest, man made lake - Lake Meads. Honestly I know it kind of sounds boring, afterall it is just a dam, but it is massive! And so so so impressive. We paid $11 each for a tour of the dam as well as admission to the visitors centre, so a pretty sweet deal. The tour was really interesting and ended on an observation deck looking back down onto the dam and the Colorado River. Ok if anyone has seen "A Walk to Remember" you will know where I got this from....I straddled the state line between Navada and Arizona today...so can officially say I have been in two places at once :). We headed back towards Boulder (small city very near to the Hoover Dam) to grab some lunch. By this time it was about 4pm so I was absolutely starving. I think the guys were too actually. We were back at the hotel just after 5:30pm so had 20mins to shower, dress, put makeup on and head down to the van. It was a very rushed getting ready period but all good. Mike took us to a hotel for dinner that had an awesome buffet. So so so so much food aye. And a really good price. It was nice to sit down and catch up with the rest of the group and hear about their days and just chill out together over a meal. I must admit that I am looking forward to going back to camping again - as much as I have enjoyed Las Vegas. After dinner we walked to the MRM to buy tickets for the "Ka" show put on by Cirque du Soleil. It was amazing! Like I honestly dont think I will ever be able to explain just how incredible it was. It mixes acrobatics with ballet, drama (kind of reminded me of Shakespare's 12th Knight aye) and special effects. Completely blew me away. So so so worth every dollar of the ticket and a must see! And seeing it in Vegas was soo sweet. After the show Jose, Alex, Maria and I checked out New York New York Casino before heading to the Venitian Casino. Both are hard out crazy! In a good way. I definitely love that the casinos in Vegas have so much more to offer than simply gambling aye. And I cant help but wonder if gambling would simply distract you from all the sweet sightseeing that is to be done. Well its now just gone 1:00am and it will be an early start tomorrow so I better sign off and get some beauty sleep! Its on to the Grand Canyon tomorrow. Going to be soooo sweet!!

Day Four : Death Valley

Ready for Vegas Baby!!!

Looking back down over Death Valley

The cliffs - blue, white and red...

Crystalised salt - golf ball??

The salt incrusted pool at the Devil's Golf Course

Sand Dunes

Mt Whitney - highest peak in North America (excluding Alaska)

So right now Im writing this while we drive through death valley. We have such an awesome night planned in Vegas (well Mike has an awesome night planned, the rest of us are in for a surprise) that I decided to utalise the time we have in the van. I got up at 6am this morning, after a great night sleep, to have a shower (its amazing to feel clean!!!) before eating breakie and packing up our campsite. We headed out just before 8:30. The first part of our drive went through the Sierra Nevada’s on our right and another smaller mountain range to our left. It became desert land pretty quickly and honeslty it was nothing like what I expected. I guess in my naivity I had been thinking of a desert like Sahara Desert in Africa or the cracked mud like desert of Australia. This is soo different, like you come over and through mountain ranges of bear rock, some a golden colour, others your typical grey but also have reds in there to. Definitely lots to look at. We saw some Joshua Tree’s just before and then strait after entering Death Valley which I was stoked about, really want to get a good photo of one sometime  but havent seen any for a while. Mike’s promised that there will be another opportunity after leaving Vegas again so no worries. The closest thing that there has been to my imagined desert landscape was the sand-dunes, about 45mins into the park from the eastern side. We stopped there to use the rest-rooms and explore a bit. Got some great photos, even saw some scorpian and snake tracks which was a bit scary but didnt see either one of those desert dwellers. Can’t say that I was sad about that!! We dropped the trailor at the Death Valley Museum so that we could go off the beaten track a bit. FIrst off was the Death Vally Golf Course. Its really fascinating. When Mike drove up I was kind of like, all that is is a whole lot of grey jaggered rocks with white lines what on earth could be so interesting about that!! But its crystalised salt and even the jaggered rocks are fascinating. We all piled out and then followed our fearless leader across these rocks. It was soo windy!! A really hot wind, but strong as. There were a couple of times that I was almost blown right over, or at least right off the rock that I had been standing on. But it was all worth it. We came to a “pool” as such, I have no idea the geological name for it or how it was formed but it was amazing. Alot of death valley used to be a lake X number of years ago but still to see water there was quite surprising. It had crystalised salt encrusted around it and was salt water. From there it was on to another lookout point, this time over mountain walls that had minerals within the rocks giving some a white, pink or blue colour. There was a canyon of sorts between the lookout and the mountain which is used by snow run off come winter. Something else that surprises me about the desert is how not barren it is. Don’t get me wrong, I would hate to be stuck out here overnight (I think id die haha) but there is soo much life. And Im not just talking about cactuses (dont think ive seen a single one) or thorn bushes (seen plenty of those). But there are some really delicate, intracate bushes out here. One has a small, almost snow like flower, another is tiny but a purply wine colour, and then of course you have your grasses. Yeah it really surprised me at how much delicate beauty survives in this harsh environment. Its an oxymoron if there ever was one. We headed back to the Museum to pick up our trailor, have a quick lunch (sandwhiches again - which we ate under the only shade, sharing it with a road runner and chipmunks), use the restrooms and refill our water before carrying on our way. A little way later we once again ditched the trailor and drove to the top of a range for a lookout over the eastern death valley (where we had just come through). It was amazing!! So stoked we were able to get up there aye. Absolutely incredible. Had another group photo there which was sweet. Now its on to Vegas baby. So can not wait for tonight!! I cant wait to see Planet Hollywood, Ceaser Palace, Hard Rock Cafe and of course the Casinos!!!!

Day Three: Yosemite to Bishop

Mono Lake's Tofu

The group at our lookout spot just before lunch

The lake that we had lunch at

Rob setting up camp

Going on our bear hunt - the meadow

The sequoia tree tunnel

Today has been hard out awesome!! After an interesting night sleep - It was flippin freezing!! But I think we all slept more than we felt we had as we havent totally crashed today - we were all up around 6:30am. Honestly though it was so cold, I cant believe that during the California Gold Rush people slept in tents all year round, including winter with the snow. I can definitely understand how people who didnt have the right equipment died aye. After a quick breaky (cereal and bagels with a cup of tea of course) we went on a bear hunt. Anyone know the children’s story? “We’re going on a bear hunt, We’re going to find a big one, I’m not scared...” well that was running around in my head the entire time we were walking. It wasnt quite a bear hunt but there was a meadow about 5 minutes away which apparently is a great spot for bears and they are quite often sighted there. Its funny how all of a sudden every sound could be a bear and you take a double glance at some tree stumps. I dont know which was stronger, my desire to see a bear or my fear that they could be soo close! We didnt see any bears but did see some fresh bear excretion so they were definitely around. America has such beautiful meadows though aye, you walk out of a line of trees into a meadow that has absolutey no trees whatsoever - I so havent seen anything like it before. After stopping for water we piled into the van to head to a Sequoia Grove with heaps of huge Sequoia trees. They are impressively massive!! Like hard out crazily so. The walk around was pretty easy and the views impressive. We were able to actually walk, no crawl, through an old tree before climbing on top of it. Its crazy to think about how old these trees actually are; like the majority of them being over 1000 years old. There was a tunnel carved through one too which we got a group photo in which is awesome. By now it was pretty warm, warm enough for shorts and t-shirts but not burning hot. It was then back into the van to drive through Yosemite National Park on our way to Mono Lake. But before hand we stopped at a great lookout place; looking over a valley carved out by the glacier, then towards Half Dome. It was a 10 minute leg stretch and photo break before jumping back in the van to drive for about 10 mins to our lunch spot. It was such a gorgeous drive as we approached a lake from above and then dropped down to the shores to eat. Lunch was a pretty laxed out affair, had really good sandwhiches before going to the “beach” to take photos and play volleyball or lax out and sun-bathed. The drive down to Mono Lake was amazing, we dropped down from about 10’000 feet to just over 6’000 very quickly and had some beautiful views of lakes on the way down. Mono Lake itself is awesome!! It is fed by springs going down the mountain side bringing down heaps of minerals but as it has no outlet the only way water leaves is by evapouration. Because of this it has a really high mineral content, i think from memory 10%. The water itself feels different aye, i want to say slimy feeling but the general concensus is more of an oily feeling. There is heaps of birdlife around, being an oasis in the desert I guess thats to be expected but it still blew me away a bit. There are also these really awesome structures called Tofu, which are stalegmites, that grow up around the lake, giving it quite an enchanted feeling. We spent around about an hour there before conitnuing on towards Bishop. Its crazy how quickly the landscape changes, like from being in the Sierra Nevada’s to in a desert and then back to green landscape again. About half an hour before we arrived at Bishop we crossed over the San Andrais Fault Line.  After arriving at our campsite we quickly unloaded and then started to set up camp. I think everyone was hungry as Rob offered to put up my tent so I could start cooking dinner (my groups turn tonight). We cooked Chicken Alfredo with Pene pasta - which i was surprised at how good it turned out. Not half bad for just making it up as we went along and buying what looked like it could work at our half hour grocery stop. Dinner took a bit longer to cook than expected so strait afterwards we headed to a hot spring about 15mins away from the campsite. Thanks to Mike and his local knowledge!!! It was amazing!! Well everything but the weed that is. Which was absolutely disgusting!!!! Everyone figured it out pretty quickly that I wasnt a fan of the weed at all, like it kind of freaked me out. So to the guys delight Im pretty sure i offered them free entertainment. But it was awesome floating in warm water on your back, looking up at the Milky Way and occasionally a shooting star or two. Honestly absolutely amazing! Came back and had a shower to wash my hair and be nice and clean for the first time in two days! It cost a dollar for a 7 minute shower but honestly its the best dollar Ive spent since coming here haha. Well at least on the trip :). We’ve now just finished cooking smores and bananas with chocolate and marshmellows. Mike and some of our group have already crashed for the night which is a smart idea as we have a big day tomorrow going through the Death Valley...so im also going to sign off for the night.

Day Two: Yosemite National Park

Me with the San Francisco Bridge in the Background

Road through Yosemite

The waterfall!!!

So we are now camping at Yosemite National Park and have absolutely no signal whatsoever so this will have to be posted tomorrow but unless I write it today I am going to forget details!! Jose and I were up bright eyed and brushy tailed this morning, up, showered, dressed and breakfasted before meeting up with the rest of the group at 8am. Our groups awesome!! So diverse! There are 6 guys and 4 girls - from all over the world, NZ, Australia, Sweeden, Germany, Greece and a couple of British as well as our awesome guide Mike. After joining up we headed out of San Francisco. Note to those keen on doing this trip - come a couple of days early to discover San Fran, like the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and of course Fisherman’s Warf. We headed out over the Bay Bridge before stopping off at Treasure Island half way through to take photos of the Golden Gate Bridge as well as Coit Tower and Alcatraz and then carried on. We stopped at a Farmer’s Market to pick up fresh fruit and then again for groceries and lunch before carrying on to Yosemite National Park. We are staying at Hargen Camping Ground just in the park’s boundries. We set up our tents - after a demonstration from Mike. Us girls were beating the boys hands down for the first like 5 mins before one of our poles refused to go in properly and we didnt have enough brute force so from there the guys took over and whipped us through and through. But hey we all have tents to sleep in tonight so thats the main point haha. Once again we all jumped into the van to explore further into Yosemite. Which is drop dead gorgeous by the way!! Like there is noo way that I would want to drive myself into the park; just the road coming in is so steep and windy but it is sooo a must see! We drove up to a lookout of Nevada Falls, Half Dome and El Capa Ton (best rock climbing in North America) and took photos before driving to the base of the Falls. We left the van there and carried on on foot. There were definitely some steep parts, and its a good challange for all levels of fitness but the views are totally worth it!! We almost saw a bear (black bear), were about 2 minutes too late, which is kind of guttering but knowing that they are definitely around means we will all be keeping our eyes peeled. I must admit my legs were shaking a bit by the time we had our first break at the lookout before deciding to carry on to the top of the falls. We all made it!! Which is quite impressive when you see how steep the track is, and how much some of us were puffing at the end of the first climb. But totally worth it aye, and the fact that everyone made it definitely proves that its doable! The view from the top was incredible; not only back down the valley (carved out by a glacier ages ago) but also looking towards Half Dome and the Sierra Nevada peaks. After lots of photo stops on the way down (which took half as much time going up) we jumped back in the van to come back to our campsite. Driving back was sweet as, we saw a couple of deers right beside the road as well as the ever present squirrals and chipmunks. No bears but we still have tomorrow to see them, fingers crossed aye. Its now just gone 8:30pm and its pitch black, not quite a full moon but pretty close to it. I must admit that Im stoked to be able to see stars again with no city lights or smog to block the view. And the smell of pine trees - well its beautiful in every way.  Paul’s in charge of cooking dinner tonight, which will be Vegeterian Curry - smells good. Soo cant wait to eat!! Yup im hungry!! I spied s’more making ingredients in the van before so hoping they’re for tonight...but if not something to look forward!!!  

The hike up to the top of the waterfall, this was not the steepest part....

Me with Half Dome in background, this one of the many valleys created by a glacier