Road Trip 2008: All Posts

It's a bit embarrassing that it took me two years to finally finish all posts from my 2008 road trip with Agnieszka. In my defense, I am super-busy... And I prefer to live life rather than write about it :)

Anyway, here is a list of all posts from my 2008 "Grand Circle" trip:

1. Valley of Fire SP
   
2. Zion NP
   
3. Grand Canyon NP - North Rim
   
4. Antelope Canyon
   
5. Powell Lake & Glen Canyon Dam
   
6. Betatakin Ruins
   
7. Canyon de Chelly NM
   
8. Monument Valley
   
9. Mexican Hat
   
10. Moki Dugway
    
11. Natural Bridges NM
    
12. Mesa Verde NP
    
13. Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railway
    
14. Arches NP
    
15. Delicate Arch in Arches NP
    
16. Devils Garden Primitive Loop in Arches NP
    
17. Dead Horse SP
    
18. Canyonlands NP
    
19. Capitol Reef NP
    
20. Scenic Byway No 12
    
21. Bryce NP
    
22. Peek-A-Boo Trail in Bryce NP
23. Cedar Breaks NM
    
24. Las Vegas
    
25. Red Rock Canyon, NV
    
26. Lizards of Canyons and Deserts
    
27. A Step Back in Time

Honeymoon Road Trip

I'm very happy and proud to report that I finally managed to finish all posts describing our honeymoon adventures!

Below they are listed in the chronological order:

1. Honeymoon
   
2. Honeymoon Overview
   
3. Death Valley NP - Darwin Falls Hike
   
4. Death Valley NP - Mosaic Canyon Hike
   
5. Death Valley NP - Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes
   
6. Death Valley NP - Devil's Golfcourse
   
7. Death Valley NP - Zabriskie Point
   
8. Death Valley NP - Dante's View
   
9. Death Valley NP - Artist's Drive and Palette
   
10. Death Valley NP - Badwater Basin
    
11. Snow in Death Valley
    
12. Grand Canyon NP - Grandview Trail
    
13. "For the record, I am dying..." - Hiking on the Grandview Trail in Grand Canyon
    
14. Grand Canyon NP - Viewpoints
    
15. Petrified Forrest NP - Giant Logs Trail
    
16. Petrified Forrest NP - Crystal Forest
    
17. Petrified Forrest NP - Newspaper Rock
    
18. Petrified Forrest NP - Painted Desert
    
19. Route 66
    
20. On the Way to Chaco Canyon NM
    
21. Rio Grande Overlook
    
22. Bandalier NM
    
23. Los Alamos - Bradbury Science Museum
    
24. Kasha-Katuwe NM
    
25. Great Sand Dunes NP - The High Dune Hike
    
26. Great Sand Dunes NP - Dunes Overlook + Medano Creek Hike
    
27. Great Sand Dunes NP - Sunset
    
28. Zapata Falls
    
29. City of Taos and Taos Pueblo
    
30. Santa Fe
    
31. El Santuario de Chimayo
    
32. Roswell - Extraterrestrial Hwy 285 and the City
    
33. Roswell - International UFO Museum and Research Center
    
34. Carlsbad Caverns NP - The Natural Entrance and the Big Room
    
35. Carlsbad Caverns NP - King's Palace
    
36. Carlsbad Caverns NP - Bat Flight Program
    
37. Carlsbad Caverns NP - Desert
    
38. Guadalupe Mountains NP - McKittrick Canyon Hike
    
39. Change of Plans
    
40. Alamogordo - Museum of Space History
    
41. White Sand Dunes
    
42. Lower Antelope Canyon
    
43. Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Dam
    
44. Bryce - Fairyland Trail
    
45. Bryce - Queen's Garden & Navajo Trail Loop
    
46. Bryce NP - Viewpoints
    
47. Mojave Desert
    
48. Joshua Tree - Lost Palm Oasis Hike
    
49. Joshua Tree - Cholla Garden
    
50. Joshua Tree - Skull Rock Hike
    
51. Joshua Tree - Arch Rock Hike
    
52. Joshua Tree - Keys View
    
53. Joshua Tree - Indian Cove Nature Walk
    
54. Joshua Tree - 49 Palm Oasis Hike
    
55. Santa Monica
    
56. Santa Barbara
    

Mt Rose

We planed to hike to the top of Mt Rose which, at 10,776 feet (3'284m) above sea level, is the third highest peak in the Tahoe basin. Unfortunately, two days of heavy rain- and snowfalls forced us to change our plan.

We did not mind hiking in the snow, but we were worried that it might be too dangerous to drive in our small car on the steep and windy mountainous roads that surely would have became icy by the time we would have been coming back from the hike. Therefore, we decided to turn around and instead go hiking in the slightly lower mountains near Truckee.

Before we did that, we went for a short walk in the forest along the Mt Rose Highway, near the place we turned around:

Reno

The sole reason we went to Reno was that one of Anil's cousins gave us a free voucher for two nights at one of the hotels there. The hotel was called "Atlantis" and as most (if not all) hotels in Reno it doubles as a casino.

Compared to Las Vegas, Reno looks pretty sad. The hotels/casinos there are much smaller and less lavish, there are much less people on the streets, less live shows, and less nightlife in general. It also seems that Reno is not popular with younger people, as the vast majority of people we saw there looked 60+.

We did not mind any of that, as we were using Reno only as a base to explore nearby mountains.

Reno, the biggest little city in the world:


Our hotel:


Reno as seen from a funky elevator at our hotel:

Road Trip 2008: Red Rock Canyon, NV

As our flight back to San Francisco was late in the evening and we did not want to spend a whole day in Las Vegas, we drove to the nearby Red Rock Canyon NCA. After spending past two weeks visiting major national parks of the Southwest US, we were not that impressed with this particular park. It was definitely a nice alternative to spending a day in Las Vegas, but I am not sure if I would recommend it as a destination in itself.

In the park, we stopped at several vista points along its 13-mile scenic drive and we also went for one short (around 2h long) hike. We decided to hike into Ice Box Canyon, as both its name and trail description promised a bit of shade. That was true, the further we went, the colder it got. It was not a spectacular hike, but we liked it. It was very different than everything else we did till then as it involved a fair bit of boulder hopping and rock scrambling.

Agnieszka and I outside the visitors center:


Red Rock canyon owns its name to the beautiful red color of rocks forming it:






On the Ice Box Canyon trail:


To get to the end of the trail we needed to do fair bit of bouldering:


Aga at the the end of the Ice Box Canyon:

Road Trip 2008: night in Las Vegas

Las Vegas was the first and the last stop during our trip. As, luckily, Agnieszka is also not a party girl, we agreed to spend there as little time as possible. Nonetheless, we planned on spending there one evening that Agnieszka could find out for herself what all the fuss is about. She agreed with my opinion (based on my previous experience from Las Vegas) that it is totally artificial city and that it has nothing to offer for people who are not interested in gambling and partying. Still, it was fun to stroll along Las Vegas Strip with Agnieszka. You can imagine that we attracted a lot of attention from guys and I really liked the way Agnieszka handled them. Whenever somebody tried to start conversation with us saying how beautiful we were, Aga looked at him as he were an idiot and said: We know! We have a mirror! ;)

Harley Davidson should pay me a fortune for the rights to use this photo to advertise their bikes:


Me in one of the malls:


Paris casino:


Venetian casino:


When we were going to bed, the city only started to wake up: