From Death Valley to Sin City

It has now been over three months since we came back to Finland and as the weather outside is cold and wintery, it is great to look back on the trip and remember all of the amazing things that we did. We haven't updated our blog as often as we would have liked because of all the distractions of the real life but we'll, read I'll since Liisa's been a lot more active than I have, try to be more active from now on.

Day 32 / 10/04/2012 / Yermo, CA - [Death Valley: Badwater - Artist's Drive - Artist's Palette - Furnace Creek - Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes - Mosaic Canyon - Zabriskie Point] - Las Vegas, NV

On Thursday we headed to Death Valley. It was a couple hour drive from the camp site and it would have been good to start the day early but as the previous day was a long day, we didn't manage to hit the road until noon. We entered Death Valley from the south and our first stop was Badwater, the lowest place in North America. Unlike the other national parks we visited, Death Valley didn't have any gates where you could pay for entrance. Instead you had to go to a visitor center and nobody seemed to monitor it either.













After Badwater our next stop was Artist's Palette which showed some cool colors that nature had "painted" on the rock. Before the palette we stopped by and climbed a big hill, which wasn't too easy in the scorching desert, and enjoyed some amazing views.







We tried to fight of the heat by eating some ice cream from a general store at Furnace Creek. We also bought the last ingredients that I needed for my vision. I had been thinking of how to remember my boss and my colleagues who were in Helsinki enjoying the rainiest month in a hundred years. I decided to send them a picture from Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes which you can see below.







From the dunes we hurried forward as the sun was getting dangerously close to the horizon. A friend of mine had recommended Mosaic Canyon, which is a dry waterfall. It was a very nice place and well worth the visit even though we had to use a very questionable road to get there. Liisa had to get out of the car several time to move huge rocks out of the way.







When we got out of the canyon, the sun was almost down so it was time to head for Las Vegas. There is a lot of attractions in the northern part of Death Valley which would have certainly been worth visiting. When we got to Las Vegas, Markku had already checked in to our hotel room, which was a really cool mini suite in MGM Grand. If you are driving to Las Vegas we strongly recommend that you arrive there after nightfall because it is something amazing to suddenly see a sea of light appearing from the darkness.




After getting our luggage to the room and eating a little something, it was time to hit the casino. We had a lot of fun gambling and going around the resort and didn't make it to our room until 5 am.

Day 33 / 10/05/2012 / Las Vegas, NV

After our first night in Vegas we decided it was better to stay on the Strip instead of staying for a couple of nights in a hotel near the airport, so we extended our stay at MGM after considering a couple of other options. We decided to go for a lunch to Diego's, a mexican restaurant at MGM. We went there because we got a $75 gift voucher from the hotel. The food was good but the service was really slow even though there weren't that many customers.




After lunch we went for a walk on the Strip. Our first stop was the M&M's store which was an interesting stop. They have build a whole a whole world around the brand, with little slot machines, poker chips, pens, movies, clothes, and games, the candies are almost irrelevant. After continuing our stroll on the Strip we encountered a lot of people selling tickets to all kinds of shows and plays. If we would have had about $400 extra each, we could have taken a helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon. Something worth considering on the next trip.




We started to feel like gambling so we began our casino tour that lasted for the rest of the day and night. We walked around the Strip and played for a while in every casino that seemed interesting.

Day 34 / 10/06/2012 / Las Vegas, NV [Stratosphere Tower & Circue du Soleil KÀ]

After changing our room in the morning to a smaller one for the last two nights, it was time to continue exploring the Strip and all of the casinos. First we stopped at the Coca-Cola store to enjoy some sodas from around the world. We can recommend the plate of sodas there, you get small cups of different sodas from everywhere in the world. There are some delicious ones as well as some that we don't understand how people can drink them.




From the Coca-Cola store we went for a very healthy lunch to Fatburger and continued from there to once again gamble in a few casinos before taking the Monorail to the Stratosphere where we went to the Stratosphere Tower to enjoy the view. The Monorail is a very convenient way to move from one end of the Strip to the other end.










The main event for the day was a Cirque Du Soleil show KÀ which was amazing. It mixed martial arts with acrobatics and the performers were incredibly talented. I definitely will go and see another Cirque Du Soleil performance. The evening continued as the previous ones, meaning gambling. Liisa tried Blackjack for the first time and managed to win about $75 and I sat down to a Texas hold'em table which wasn't a proper one but a casino version where you played against the house like in Blackjack.

Day 35 / 10/07/2012 / Las Vegas, NV

Our third day in Vegas included eating crepes at the Paris casino, watching the fountain show in front of the Bellagio and of course more gambling. It was also Markku's last day in the States and he decided to go see one more show, Penn and Teller. Me and Liisa decided to go to Hooters casino to get some hot wings. We were too late for the wings but I managed to find a real Texas hold'em table and was able to double my money after gambling for a couple of hours.













Day 36 / 10/08/2012 / Las Vegas, NV

After gambling for four nights, we were really tired and decided to extend our stay for one more night. We stayed in the hotel room just watching TV, sleeping, and eating junk food.

Day 37 / 10/09/2012 / Las Vegas, NV - Kingman, AZ - Seligman, AZ - Flagstaff, AZ

Before leaving Las Vegas we wanted to see the famous Las Vegas sign. We looked at the map and decided to walk there, not a good idea. It was surprisingly far and it was freaking hot. We didn't visit all the casinos that we would've wanted, like Luxor, Excalibur, and Mandalay Bay, which were located at the other end of the Strip. There is a train going between these casinos that you can use if you're moving around them.




We drove out of the city through the Strip which was a nice way to leave the city. At this point we had been traveling for 6000 miles and had about 4000 to go. We took the route 93 as we headed west and enjoyed the beautiful sceneries along the way. After checking the KOA campground in Kingman we decided to go all the way to Flagstaff. Although it wasn't much better, it made do and we slept once again on the front seats of our trusty Toyota Camry.













-Riku
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Driving across state lines - days 19-22

After two weeks of not updating our blog, it's time to get writing. I'm only two weeks behind our actual trip but here we again.

Day 19 / 9/21/2012 / West Yellowstone, MT - Pocatello, ID - Twin Falls, ID [Shoshone Falls] - Jerome, ID

After a night in a very comfortable bed, it was time to get back on the road. The wake-up wasn't as good as we would've hoped, as they started to vacuum the rooms 8 in the morning, it's just how they do it in West Yellowstone... We drove across the state border from Montana to Idaho and stopped at Pocatello where we had a really good steak lunch at Green T Bar and Grill. After finding out that Pocatello's old town wasn't as nice as we had hoped and after buying a camping mattress for me, we continued westward.




Our next campground was in Jerome, Idaho. Nearby is a really nice canyon and a couple of decent waterfalls to see called Shoshone Falls. Other than that we didn't use much time there and instead decided to have another movie night in the tent. What we noticed during our stay in Jerome is that there is a lot of flies, a lot. Since Jerome was our only stop in Idaho we got the feeling that Idaho is full of flies which I hope is not the case ;)










Day 20 / 9/22/2012 / Jerome, ID - South Lake Tahoe, CA

We wanted to drive as close as possible to our next big stop, San Francisco, so day 20 was driving day. We managed to drive about 500 miles mostly through desolate sceneries passing lonely towns while wondering what do the people there do because we couldn't even see stores in the towns and they are in the middle of nowhere. Still the area is beautiful and it was great to see it. Too bad the pictures won't do justice to the place. Also as an upside, I-80 is pretty fast to drive through.










We stopped at a larger city in Nevada called Winnemucca. It was clear that we had arrived to Nevada. There were casinos everywhere. We fought the urge to start gambling and instead just ate at Jack in the Box and did some shopping in Walmart. We kept driving and enjoyed another great sunset. The great thing about driving from east to west is the sunsets. The colors are great and you can enjoy them longer as you are driving towards them.




After dark we drove off the Interstate and had a pretty close call. In the middle of the road was standing a wild horse. There was a herd of maybe about 10 horses crossing the road. Most had gone over but one was standing on the road and one was behind it. Luckily we spotted the horse standing on the road early enough to break and it was great seeing them.

When we arrived to South Lake Tahoe, it was pretty late. We were also surprised of the whole place. We had been expecting a nice quiet place by the lake with a lot of cabins, instead we found a busy city with lots of hotels and even more young people partying. It's clearly a place where young people go to party when they want to go to a lake but doesn't want to rough it out without TVs, internet, comfortable beds, Starbucks, and other people.
We were disappointed on the tent sites in the KOA campground we had planned to go. We didn't want pay over $40 for them, which is a lot of money compared to other KOA campgrounds. Instead we went to Campground by the Lake which was only about $24 although after seeing the restroom we understood why it was so cheap.

Day 21 / 9/23/2012 / South Lake Tahoe, CA - Carson Valley, CA - Virginia City, NV - Carson City, NV - Minden, NV - Topaz Lake, NV

Since the restrooms in the campground were so bad we used our GPS to find a swimming hall where we could use the shower. We found one close by and went there. The area around South Lake Tahoe is filled with hills and curvy roads, after dark they are a challenge to drive but in sunlight it's pretty fun.
Virginia City on the Nevada side was the reason we had stayed in the area. It's an old wild west style town and is worth a stop. There are lots of nice historic buildings like old hotels and restaurants and an old saloon called Bucket of Blood which has been in service since 1876, too bad I was driving. There was also a biker meeting happening in the town called Street Vibrations so the town was probably more crowded than normal. On the positive side we saw some really nice bikes.
















After visiting Yellowstone, we had decided to also go to Yosemite. The problem was that there had been recent cases of hantavirus in the park, a couple of people had even died. So instead of camping in Yosemite and waking up there we decided to just spend time in Carson Valley and Carson City gambling a little and driving through the night along the Nevada/California border, and arriving in Yosemite in the morning. This way we could have the whole day in Yosemite and we could minimize the risk of ruining the rest of our trip.

It was a good decision and we had a lot of fun gambling and driving to the next casino to gamble some more. The drive went well and thanks to some energy drinks we made it to Topaz Lake, right next to the California border and not far from Yosemite. There we had to sleep for a few hours.

Day 22 / 9/24/2012 / Topaz Lake, NV - [Yosemite, CA] - West Sacramento, CA







After a well rested night, well at least after the night, we started driving the road from Topaz Lake to Yosemite, 395. The view is great just after Topaz Lake and I don't know if we could have picked a better route to enter Yosemite. Also we had the happiest park ranger selling the entrance ticket. You just couldn't be sad after talking to that guy.







Yosemite is somehow grander compared to Yellowstone with its great mountains and vertical differences. But still we both liked Yellowstone better as it was somehow more unique. Yosemite didn't have as well organized parking places and stops to admire the views. Of course the mountain roads are more challenging to build but the problem was everywhere, even on flat ground. There clearly wasn't enough parking places to the trails starting from next to the roads. Still I liked Yosemite a lot even though Yellowstone was clearly better. I got the feeling that I might have liked Yosemite much more if I could have spent more time on the trails.







We spent most of the day in the park, going to the valley and seeing maybe the biggest thing in Yosemite: the Tunnel View. El Capitan does look great and all the mountains made me wish that I was a climber.




Afterwards we started driving the road 120, another great road with a lot to see although it was a little hard to concentrate on those things after a short night and a day in Yosemite. Still I had fun driving a very, very curvy road downhill. Liisa didn't have so much fun as she got a little car sick with my downhill driving but it was the first time on the trip.
-Riku

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Scotts Bluff, Grand Teton, and Yellowstone - days 15-17

Day 15 / 9/17/2012 / North Platte, NE [Buffalo Bill's Scout's Rest Ranch] - Gering, NE

After our night on the North Platte Walmart parking lot we started our day by eating a "healthy" breakfast at Burger King. After breakfast we went to Buffalo Bill's Ranch, the reason we had stayed in North Platte. The ranch was totally different from what we had expected, it wasn't so much a ranch as it was a manor with a big stable next to it. Still it was an interesting place and worth a visit if you're in the neighborhood.




From North Platte we drove to Gering. We mostly used Route 26 which had great views on the surrounding areas and a lot of historical sites and small towns which, like the ones we had seen in the past few days, were behind us before we had time to really even notice them. The road was empty and we had time to drive slowly and enjoy the trip. We arrived to our destination of the day, Gering, early in the evening and decided to go eat something. We ended up going to a local restaurant that the receptionist recommended called Steel Grill. It had a good atmosphere and the food was good.










Driving through Iowa and especially Nebraska, it has been easy to see the affects of the abnormally hot and dry summer here. Unlike the summer in Finland which was, how should I put this, "lyhyt, mutta vähäluminen" cold and rainy, the summer here has been warmer than it has been in the past almost hundred years. Pretty much every creek we've crossed in these areas have been completely dry and even the big rivers are clearly very shallow, not to mention that the grass is yellow everywhere. When we crossed to Wyoming, the situation seemed to improve even though the drought is still present.

Day 16 / 9/18/2012 / Gering, NE [Scotts Bluff National Monument] - Dubois, WY

This was our first outdoors day of the trip. Liisa had found Scotts Bluff National Monument when doing her research for the trip and we decided to include it to our route and I'm very glad we did. This was by far our best stop on the trip so far. The monument is located next to the North Platte River on the great plains and was a landmark used on the Oregon Trail back in the 19th century. Now it gave us a great day exploring the steep hills.







We started our visit from the visitor center on the footsteps of the bluff and met some very helpful and great national park workers who were interested in our road trip, Finland, and Europe. After watching a short historical document on the bluff and the Oregon Trail, we drove up the monument and walked around the top admiring the views. Then we decided, as it was a beautiful day, to hike further down the hill. Liisa ended up walking all the way down back to the visitor center and I turned around halfway down the hill to get the car.







Scotts Bluff National Monument is a great place to stop and admire the nature and the beautiful scenery with a lot more bluffs and the great open space around it. On a clear day you can see tens of miles from the top but unfortunately there was a lot of smoke or fog in the air and we couldn't see quite so long. We have experienced a lot of that fog from Scotts Bluff all the way to the Nevada/California border and still haven't figured out what causes it, is it the elevation here or the temperature or what.










Even though I could have spend the whole day hiking in the area we had to move on as we were headed to another outdoor location, Yellowstone. On our drive from Scotts Bluff we encountered another great view of nature, a natural bridge, where we spent some time admiring the bridge. After a long day we arrived to another KOA campground at night and went to bed quickly so we would be ready for one of my top three stops on the trip.




Day 17 / 9/19/2012 / Dubois, WY - [Grand Teton National Park: Jenny Lake - Moose - Jackson Lake Lodge] - [Yellowstone: Grant Village]

In addition to going to Yellowstone, we had decided to also go to Grand Teton National Park located just south of Yellowstone. We decided to do this after a sales person in an outdoor store in Cape Cod recommended the stop there as she had just visited there herself. Grand Teton is a place definitely worth going to. With $25 you can travel around both Grand Teton and Yellowstone for seven days. Definitely the best place in Grand Teton is Jenny Lake. From there you can see the mountains reflecting from the lake's surface.




We ended up spending more time in the Grand Teton National Park than we had anticipated and we weren't in Yellowstone until early evening. After putting up the tent in the Grant Village, we went to the nearby visitors center. There we got our first glimpse of the wildlife in Yellowstone, a deer was eating behind the visitor center, just 20 meters from the porch. After the visitors center we went for a short drive to see the neighborhood and saw our first geysers. Yellowstone has a lot of thermal areas spread throughout the park and there are a lot of signs everywhere to warn about these areas. Also early on our drive we learnt how to best spot animals in the park, just drive around the park and when you see lots of cars parked to the side of the road, join them and look at where they are looking, works every time.







Day 18 / 9/20/2012 / [Yellowstone: Grant Village - Old Faithful - Biscuit Basin - Morning Glory - Firehole Lake - Grand Prismatic Spring - Canyon Village - Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone - Firehole Canyon] - West Yellowstone, MT

It was easy to wake up early to our main Yellowstone day. Of course it helped that my cheap air mattress that I bought started leaking and I pretty much had to sleep on the ground, oh and it was freezing cold, I felt the cold coming from the ground. Nevertheless I was eager to start the day.




Our first stop was at Old Faithful. The geyser erupts every 91 minutes, give or take 10 minutes. We had calculated when it would happen and had a great timing, we were there just few minutes before the erupture, just enough time to practise our poses. The event was pretty cool although it wasn't the highlight of the day.




From Old Faithful we drove not too far to Biscuit Basin. On the basin there were several colourful hot springs. From there we decided to hike to Morning Glory, one of the most famous hot springs. Nowadays the once perhaps the most beautiful coloured hot spring in Yellowstone has lost a lot of its colours due to people throwing coins, rocks, and even carbage in the spring. The excess material clogs the springs "pipes" which causes the pool to cool and cooler water means less pretty colors.




On our way to Morning Glory we saw a lot of very impressive hot springs.










When we returned to our car in Biscuit Basin, we saw our first buffalos using the already proven method, we saw a bunch of people staring at something and when we joined them, we saw a small group of buffalos. They are very impressive animals when you see them.




Our next stop was another hike. We wanted to go to the biggest hot spring: Grand Prismatic Spring. We hadn't studied the map as closely as we should've because when we had hiked for a while we realized that the road wasn't leading to the spring. I climbed to the nearby hill and saw that the road in fact wasn't leading to the spring but there was a parking lot right next to it a couple miles down the road where we had driven. Still the view from the hill was amazing and the hike wasn't a waste at all.




After visiting Grand Prismatic Spring we drove to Firehole Lake and, after stopping to eat, to Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The canyon was very impressive and I think a nice warm up to the actual Grand Canyon which we are going to see in a few weeks. On our way to the canyon we had a real close encounter with a buffalo. A lonely buffalo had decided to try and find some company by running in the middle of the road between cars. It came so close to our car and my window that I could have touched it. A few miles down the road, another buffalo was waiting for us.







After the canyon the day was almost over and we were wondering whether to just head out or still do something in the park. Luckily we decided to try and find some more wildlife. We managed to see a lonely wolf and hundreds of buffalos. We drove around in Hayden Valley where you are sure to see buffalos. They live in big herds and move calmly around the valley. On our way back from the other side of the valley we saw just how calmly. A big herd was crossing the road and walking among cars and people, who seemed willing to risk their lives just to get good pictures.




All in all the day in Yellowstone was just amazing and it overthrowned the Scotts Bluff day as the best day for me so far.




We had planned to stay at a campground outside the park in West Yellowstone but as my sleeping pad was broken and we were tired and didn't want to be cold during the night, we decided to treat ourselves with a night in a hotel. It was a great decision as the bed was really comfortable and we even enjoyed the hotel's hot tub.
-Riku

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad