Killarney NP

Ballybunnion

Some pictures from the beatiful Ballybunnion beach. Unfortunately it was way too cold for swimming.The rest of Ballybunnion Castle. There is just one wall left which makes it possible to let it look intact on pictures but that would have been boring.

USA 13: Florida

After almost 4 weeks travelling through the rockies our journey was coming to an end. Also the original purpose of the journey, the SMTA conference was approaching. But as we were already in Florida we spent a few days in the Keys and the Everglades.
I do not have many pictures of the Keys. On the first day we went snorkling and on the other days tropical storm Fay was approaching and a few days after we left all tourists had to evacuate the Keys.
There floats your handbag...
Gotcha!

USA 12: Arches National Park

Arches National Park contains a lot of natural arches that like canyons are formed by erosion of sandstone. In a first step the erosion leaves so called fins standing out from the ground and some of these are washed out leaving just an arch.


The intrinsic geomagnetic forces inside the arch pull up all mass to the center of the arch, allowing for some cool stunts. It is only sometimes a problem to get out of that field again...
...but we managed and kept going to the double arch wich was only a few hundred meters apart.
Landscape arch is one of the longest archest in the world with a length of over 90 meters. It looks very fragile.

USA 11: Monument Valley

On the way to Monument Valley we first passed the famous horseshoe bend of the Colorado river near Page, Arizona. This is another one of these spots that make their way through calendars and posters.


Also known from calendars, but really famous due to numerous western movies is Monument Valley. Unfortunately I have to add that it looks more impressive on pictures than in reality. The actual valley is way smaller than you would expect. Still it is an impressive sight and worth visiting if you are around anyway.

USA 10: Antelope Canyons

The Antelope Canyons are located on Navajo land in Arizona. One has to mention that the entrance to the canyons is quite expensive adding up to about 50$ per person for both. I suggest deciding on just one of the two parts. We started in the morning at the lower Antelope Canyon. Because we were among the first people to get in there was very little traffic inside and we could spend some time on taking pictures.

The Upper Antelope Canyon can only be entered with a guided tour. Before the tour every group is brought to the entrance by Jeep. This ride could also be offered as a rollercoaster replacement due to the terrain and the drivers driving style. The Canyon itself is a bit darker than the lower counterpart, but way less quiet as there are several groups going through at the same time.

USA 9: Grand Canyon

As we were already in southern Utah the Grand Canyon north rim was only a short drive away. The northern side is not as touristic as the southern rim which is in close proximity to Las Vegas.On that day the weather was hot but there were some showers. On the upper left of the next picture you can see some rain.

The most distinctive feature of the Grand Canyon is as the name suggests its unbelievable size. Looking down the walls is comparable to looking out of a plane window. The problem with it is that there was not much to do there. The hike down to the bottom would have to be split into 2 days and is very demanding, so we procrastinated it to the next vacation (sounds PHD style).

USA 8: Bryce Canyon National Park

A totally different experience is Bryce Canyon, even though it is only about 80km from Zion NP. Despite of it being called a canyon it is more a natural amphitheater. It is full of sandstone pillars that are called hoodoos and were formed by erosion.

We also took a day hike through the amphitheater which was a quite impressive walk between the hoodoos. Can you spot the angry stone golem?

USA 7: Zion NP2: Angels landing

Angels landing is the name of a very impressive sandstone platform in the middle of the Zion Canyon. The top can be reached by hiking a 5mile roundtrip way with about 500 meter rise in altitude. The last part of the way goes along the brink of steep walls on either side going down a few hundred meters. The view from the top is just magnificient both to the north...
... and to the south.
Even though the pictures suffered a bit from the cloudy skies the lack of sunshine made the hike much easier.

USA 6: Zion NP 1: The Narrows

Zion National Park is located in the southwest of Utah. We drove down from Yellowstone with stops for rafting on the snake river and some sleep in Salt Lake City. We skipped SLC as the travel guide did not have to say anything interesting about it.The first day in Zion we did a hike along the Narrows. It goes along the bottom of a canyon. That bottom is occupied wall to wall by the Virgin river creating the risk of flash-floods.

Because of the river it is inevitable to get wet shoes.The river is mostly quite shallow...
...except for some deeper holes. "Let's just walk over there for a nice picture!"

USA 5: Yellowstone 3: Geyser Basins

Old Faithful is definitely the most popular geyser in Yellostone, if not in the world. It erupts quite reliable about every 90 minutes. It is located close to the parking lot and all important facilities such as restrooms, restaurants and gift shops. This results in a lot of people waiting to see its eruption as you can see on the next picture. I won't put up any pictures of the geyser itself as it is rather unspectacular compared to the others in the park. A cool thing is that for all the predictable geysirs there are estimates shown in the visitor center.The Castle Geysir is only about 15 minutes walking distance from Old Faithful and there is only a fraction of the people there.

Another cool thing are the hot pools. In there live different microorganisms that are specialized on certain temperature regions. So the colour of the pool can be interpreted as a thermometer, only the scale is different than we are used to. The cooler (or rather less hot) regions are red and the hotter, almost boiling regions are blue.
Grand Geyser is the tallest predictible geyser on earth. The eruptions reach about 60meter (200ft) which is an impressive fountain.

USA 4: Yellowstone 2: Mammoth hot springs

Located at the northern end of the Yellowstone park are the Mammoth hot spring terraces. These are the result of years and years of water flowing down, cooling and depositing calcium carbonate. The fascinating formations and the wonderful location make it a highly interesting attraction. Did I already mention that these volcanic features smell pretty bad?

After visiting the hot springs we drove a bit further north to the border of Montana. There is a very nice river that is fed by a stream of almost cooking volcanic water. At the junction is a fantastic place to hop into the water, pick a spot with the right temperature and enjoy the view. In our case the sight was rounded up by a stag on the other side of the river.