Ghost Towns, Death Valley, and Independence Oh My!

So leaving Las Vegas to get to Death Valley in California we got to drive by Area 51 which really fascinates me. Probably because it’s infamous and every exit says No Services! Like HEY DO NOT STOP HERE!

We drove by so many ghosts towns before we got to California one of Rhyolite which was from the movie The Island. Finally we crossed over the border right into Death Valley and it was 5pm but it was 122 degrees in the sun and 115 in the shade. Death Valley was amazing and it was like another planet or something. There were white sand dunes everywhere which I have never seen in my life. I really wish had a four drive vehicle to go out and see the crater and moving rocks but the road to that stuff looked ridiculous and even said four wheel drive vehicles. Lame…

white sand dunes!

near area 51 ha

i kept trying to pinpoint Yucca Mts.

this truck actually said KRPY NEWS...aliens?

Then we got to drive through the Sierra Nevada’s it was so beautiful. We stayed in Independence, Cali. at the Winnedumah Hotel where old west movies were filmed. It was the cutest hotel ever and the owner made breakfast for everyone in the morning. It one of the nicest towns we went to the whole entire time, all the people there were great.

Vegas Baby!

Jeanette is so anti places like New Orleans and Las Vegas but somehow I talked her into to both. Which was like one of the best places we went in my opinion and I totally hate that we were only there a day dang!

 

The hotel we should was cheap but awesome like the best hotel I have ever stayed in and after camping it was so nice to take a shower. It was called Palace Station by the way…

Jeanette and I walked up and down the strip and went in the hotels, we hardly gambled at all maybe like five dollars. What I really wanted to see was the fountains in front of the Bellagio and they were amazing! Plus getting to take photographic evidence of Jeanette in Sin City is priceless…

Ohh I would totally go back and I will someday…

The Grand Canyon...Yep Grand I Say

So, I wasn’t very interested in going to the Grand Canyon because I really don’t care for expensive touristy places. Well it was amazing we stayed on the South Rim and it was touristy, we basically had no money to do a freaking thing. I actually had planned on going to Sedona, Arizona but we ended up not having enough boo! The IMAX movie at the Grand Canyon was $14, frick…So, we didn’t go but camping at the Canyon was ridiculous and expensive and because people feed the animals we had ravens carrying away whole bags of chips (I am not even joking). Oh and as soon as we arrived at the campground there were elk fighting. I was not happy and people were walking right up to them! This place was the most dangerous place we went we had to worry about lightening strikes, wildfires, and monsoons (no shit). So, FYI do not go to the Grand Canyon in August and if you do ever go just stay in the resorts, seriously. 

best shirt ever

killer ravens

holy frack grand canyon gas

HAHA

The Canyon itself is amazing and it doesn’t look real at all! Both days we were there it was clear, woot! We spent the majority of our time going to the talks and just taking the shuttle from point to point. The one geological talk I wanted to see got cancelled, this is my luck the whole trip. But Jeanette got to see her Native American dances which were pretty awesome. 

We did dine at a really awesome resort restaurant El Tourvo? I think, anyways it was amazing. I really recommend taking the train there which we couldn’t do but seriously it looks rad. So, bottom line this is a must do but take like four days and more money.

Arches National Park FAIL

I was really excited about Arches National Park because I love weird geology. However, this was one of my least favorite places we went but still a very odd and interesting time. The park is located close to Moab, Utah which was an amazing town. Awesome food and people. We stayed at the Lazy Lizard Hostel which was pretty great.

awesome lavender room

such a good photo

You can basically drive all of Arches in three hours which we did and I enjoyed this but the hiking to the arches was terrible. Long and boring ugh I hate hiking to begin with. To hike like three miles for one arch is lame and there was no information on anything. It was the least informational park ever. I still don’t know how anything was formed.

Anyways, when I said about first days in high altitude, yeah. Well nobody told me that I had to get acclimated to this change. Here I am hiking around and I got so sick like loopy out of my mind sick. Yeah fun times, I was ready to leave Utah.

Oh and because of this I missed the sunset and stars there FRACK! Which was probably really awesome from looking at Jeanette’s photos.