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.

USA part 3: Yellowstone 1: Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Oh, now we are even getting down to the second sub-level of headlines. Anyway, after Grand Teton we drove up to Yellowstone where we stayed for 5 days. On the way in we had the first encounters with wildlife and saw some geothermal features. This picture shows a Buffalo hanging around at a mud pool. It is somewhat ironic that buffalo beef patties can be bought at the shops throughout the parks. Yes, it tastes actually pretty good.
Our first Campground was close to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. We explored it on a full day hike. The hike goes past a few parking lots which is funny, as these are the only places where one meets other people.
One of the first things we bought in the park was anti-bear pepper spray. Fortunately we did not need it.
The canyon itself.

USA part 2: Grand Teton NP

Before entering Yellowstone we came through the southern neighbour, Grand Teton national park. The peaks reach up to almost 4200 meters and were covered with snow even in late July.


Event though there is snow on the peaks, it was quite warm at Jackson lake, so we could not resist and jumped in.
Definitely one of the most impressive places I have ever taken a swim.

USA part 1: The Beginning

Hi,
I am finally back from my long conjoined vacation/work stay in the US. As I have way too many pictures for one entry I am going to split the work and post them in different entries over the next few weeks. The start of my journey with Claudia was Denver. From there we first went up Mt Evans, which is a 4350 meter high mountain. The peak can be reached american-style by car.


From the parking lot to the very peak there is a short walk. This walk can be surprisingly demanding as the body has had no time to get used to the thinner air.


From the top of the peak we flew back down...


... and went up north towards Wyoming, "The Cowboy State". There we have been to Yellowstone and Grand Teton, which I am going to post soon.