Grand Canyon

DAY 14:

Today is Saturday and we’re leaving Las Vegas. I don’t think we’ve seen all of Vegas yet, but there is so much to see and do, you’d need at least a week to explore it all. We decided on going to the Grand Canyon tomorrow, so today we’re heading for the Zion National Park. This is 100 miles north of the Grand Canyon. When we arrived at the National Park we parked the car and took a shuttle into the park. It was a narrated shuttle and they explained the things we were seeing at certain stops. We got out of the shuttle at the last stop to look around. Lots of high mountains, real pretty, kind of hard to explain what it looked like. There were even people climbing these giant mountains.



After the Zion NP we headed to Glendale. This is were our next campground would be. We found it to be in the middle of canyons and it was really windy up here. We had to hold the tent down firmly trying to set it up. Tomorrow our destination would be the Grand Canyon. We have not had a signal on the phone for about a day now. Not that I expected there to be some kind of cell phone satellite dish to be out in the middle of nowhere, but it’s kind of handy to be able to use the phone.

DAY 15:

We left Glendale early in the morning. Today we’re going to the Grand Canyon and will also return to Las Vegas after this. So it’s going to be a long day driving around. When we got to the Grand Canyon we parked the car and went down a long path that went to this giant rock you could climb to oversee the Canyon. I didn’t dare climbing up there really. I just stuck the normal path and took a couple of pictures. :)



The Canyon is sooooo big. You can look as far as you can left or right and you wouldn’t see anything but canyons. Looking down makes you realize you’re so up high. We were at 8,000 feet.



After filling up our bottles with water again (can’t believe how much water we drink), we left the Grand Canyon NP and headed to Vegas again. It was a 4-hour drive and this time we stopped at Circus Circus to see if they still had some rooms available. This hotel/casino is on the opposite site of ‘the Strip’ of where we were a couple of days before. After standing in line for about 30 minutes the lady at the desk told us she did indeed have a room available for one night. We stayed in the ‘Sky rise Tower’. As we took our luggage and walked through the hotel, we came passed a small themepark in the middle of the hotel. Yes, INSIDE of the hotel. With a little rollercoaster, and a number of other attractions.



After bringing our stuff to the room and going to the hotel’s Buffet for dinner, we went to have a look at this side of the Strip. With the Stratosphere Tower, the Sahara Hotel and the number of little shops. I was looking for something ‘Heineken’-related for Tim to bring home to add to his collection. I found a ‘can’. Not much else Heineken related here besides besides the obvious bottles.

We found a wifi-hotspot at the Stratosphere hotel, which is where we would go the following morning to upload the previous web log entry.

DAY 16:

Today it’s Monday. We took the laptop to the Stratosphere hotel to upload a journal I had ready for a couple of days now.
Today’s destination would be Death Valley National Park. Just before we entered the park, we went to see a ghost town called Rhyolite. Apparently this was a town that housed 10,000 people in the early 1900’s. Several buildings were still there. A railway station, a jail, redlight district etc. And several signs stating ‘caution, rattle snakes’. Hmmmm.
We continued our trip and entered the national park. This must be the only park where there is nobody occupying the park’s entrance and makes sure you pay the fees. Guess why that is and why they call it Death Valley? Exactly, it’s soooooo hot here nobody wants to go and sit in one of those booths. :)
There were a number of signs by the side of the road stating you had better turn the air-conditioning of your car off, otherwise you’d overheat your engine.
We stopped at a place called Stovepipe Wells, but read that the campsite was closed. Looking around this place, made me realize I didn’t really want to spend a night here anyway, the heat would get to me too much. We filled up our water bottles and drove on. We saw beautiful san dunes and canyons. By the time we got out of the park it was almost 5.30PM and we wanted to go to a campground in Bakersfield. The navigator told us that would mean we had to drive for another 5 hours. Pfffffffffffffffff.
We stopped at a gasstation and filled up the tank. Yesterday we saw someone driving reaaaaaaal slow on the Highway pulling into a gasstation. My guess was he was running out of it. I’m not surprised. Some of the roads here seem so long, and seem to go without gasstations for miles on end. Whenever the tank would be half full and I saw a gasstation, I would just fill it up again.
We finally arrived in Bakersfield around 9.30PM and of course the office to the campground was closed already. We filled in a night registration form and choose a tentsite to stay at. We made dinner (yes at 10.30PM), cup of noodles sounded good. :)

DAY 17:

Today it’s Tuesday. I went to the campsite’s office to register for another night. I want to take it easy today. Must admit I kind of had enough of driving so many hours a day. We slept in today and headed to the shops to find a hotspot.

Tomorrow’s destinations will be Sequioa National Park and King’s Canyon. Maybe even Yosemite National Park. Will write again soon…