Another World – Mono Lake

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Just a bit outside of the “Yosemite National Park” lies the Mono Lake. This is quite a bit a special place. As the lake only features incoming, but no outgoing water streams – the water evaporates about at the same rate as new water drips in – the lake is accumulating minerals. So in fact, the Mono Lake is an inland salt lake, which has a concentration of approximately 2.5 times the salt concentration as found in the oceans. This environment is not very well Read More +

Back at Riverside Inn

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When I looked for a hotel in or around “Yosemite National Park” on hotels.com, I decided to stay at the “Riverside Inn” as it looked quite ok. When I finally arrived there in full darkness – surprise – the place looked very familiar. When I was visiting Yosemite for the first time some 6 years ago, I struggled to find a place to stay and finally found that small motel a bit outside the park. Now intuition or was it actually my background memory, which Read More +

Area 51

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Today a big move towards the west coast – and a bit north – was on the schedule. I continued, what I started a day before and tried to get a quite a bit closer to San Francisco. Of course the way is the goal, so I have chosen a route, where I will pass another nice place, the Yosemite National Park. On the way, a bit outside of Las Vegas – “a bit” in american terms, I passed “Area 51”, the famous, non exiting, Read More +

Disney Land at Las Vegas – Le Paris

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Well, it is kind of common know ledge, that Las Vegas is a Disney Land for adults. Seeing it, is though a bit special anyway. However, also in this place there are definitively to many people to really enjoy it. The only thing you had not to queue was at the slot machines and game tables in the casinos. For eating or getting a ticket for one of the shows, queues built up quite easily. For me this was anyway only a short rest on Read More +

Dinosaur Tracks at St. George

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On the way from “Zion National Park” to the west – after all, I have to move another 800 miles or so to get to the airport, on the highway to Las Vegas, I noticed a tourist sign, that advertised dinosaur tracks. After I have already spent quite some time enjoying fossilized dinosaur bones, that sounded like an interesting place. While preparing the land to build something on it, these dinosaur tracks where discovered. All in all, there are several layers of tracks from different Read More +

Disney Land at Zion

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While the “Zion National Park” itself is quite nice of offers spectacular views and hiking routes within the 300 meter or higher sandstone cliffs, there are so many people, that the main valey can only be reached by a shuttle bus. That shuttle bus by itself is nothing bad. On the opposite, its probably much more convenient that way with that many people, but still it gives the place a bit the charm of Disney Land. After enjoying the view a bit and doing a Read More +

Sunset at Bryce

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The usual sunset pictures at “Bryce Canyon National Park” probably all involved somehow the beautiful cliff. So its about time to turn around the lenses by 180 decrees and show the sky too.

Bryce Canyon NP

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As the park ranger, who gave speech about the geology of the “Bryce Canyon National Park” correctly remembered, this place is not about a canyon. The its more like a ridge, which erodes – more in the east than in the west. The water sources here at around 9000 feet / 2700 meters, is mostly rainfall. What makes this place so special compared to the neighboring mountains, which partially are built from the same sediments, but don’t show the same type of erosion, is that Read More +

Moosy Cave

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Close to the “Bryce Canyon National Park”, and therefore build from similar stone and by similar processes, the “Moosy Cave” provides a great view for a short rest. I actually ended up there for lunchtime. The place, which gives this short hike its name, the “Moosy Cave”, really is just that a moosy cave. Ground water eroded that cave and at the same time provides the necessary environment for moose to grow in that desert like environment. The cave is so secluded, that ice might Read More +

Petrified Wood

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On the way from the “Capitol Reef National Park” to the “Bryce Canyon National Park”, a rough 110 mile drive, the state park at Escalante is a place to see some petrified wood. This once was real wood, which under special circumstances became petrified. Like in all petrification processes, the organic material is gradually replaced by minerals, before the organic material can be decomposed. Similar to exhibits of dinosaur bones in plain nature, also this petrified forest is presented under the open sky, the way Read More +