Moab + Arches + Jackson Hole + Yellowstone + Canada

Hi

We have been busy lately. After Goblin Valley we headed toward Moab which is the town adjacent to Arches National Park. We stayed in an Rv Park there which was ok. Arches was recommended to us as a cool place to check out so we had i bit of expectation but when we arrived we were somewhat underwelmed. It was alright but it was just hollow rocks and stuff and shitloads of people everywhere. Goblin Valley was much better.

After that the plan was to go through Colorado a bit and check it out, but we eventually decided against it as funds are starting to run low. so we decided to hoon up to Yellowstone which was the one place left on the west side of the USA that we really wanted to see.

We had a night stop over in Firey George which was really nice and we saw some wild horses and big horn sheep which was cool, the following day we drove into Jackson Hole which was turned out to be far from a hole. It was really cool little ski/cowboy town and we ended up getting a nice hotel there because the campground wanted $60 a night. We had a few drinks at this cool western bar that had saddles for barstools and heaps of good beers to choose from.

Next day we drove into Yellowstone. The place surely is magical, feels like your not supposed to be there. We didnt see any bears which sucked a bit but we saw heaps of other wildlife, the best being the herds of Bison. I have never seen Leah so excited to see an animal before, or to see anything before.We were only in Yellowstone for 2 days but it was plenty of time to see most of it.

After that we decided to get to Canada as quick as possible to sell our car and get to New York.
So we ended up driving through the whole state of Montana in a day which was pretty relaxing, there was pretty much nothing to see in Montana the whole way, a few small towns and horizon after horizon.

The customs guy gave us a bit of a hard time again, but he let us through.

We are in Calgary now and about to see if this guy wants to buy the car. we could be in New York in a day or two hopefully.

heres a video and some snaps

yellowstone2 from sam johnston on Vimeo.

BISON ARE BIG!!!

They dont really care about the cars, i think they now they will stop for them.

A herd, First wild herd of anything i have seen i think



Some of the other natural springs and geisers, they are everywhere. Thats is bubbling down there.

Old faithful doing its thing


We got this off a ranger when we entered the park

This is at Jackson, they are real elk Horns, there were of these oon each corner of the park
apparently elk loose their antlers once a year, and this is what they use them for around here.

PAGE + ZION NATIONAL PARK + GOBLIN VALLEY

Hi,

A fair bit has happened since Monument Valley. We started driving west towards Page, which is a cool little town with more churches than people. We booked a site at a place called Lone Rock, which is on Lake Powell. The site was basically desert meets water and it was beautiful apart from the fact that the wind was blowing about 3 million km an hour. After hanging there for about 10 minutes and eating a literal SAND WICH, i got the shits and we headed for the Holiday Inn. It was a shame about the wind at Page caus we would have stayed longer.

Next morning we headed for Zion National Park. We got there in the afternoon and all of the camping sites were booked out so we stayed in a private campground which was only 1km down the road. Zion looked awesome, we went through this tunnel that went staaight through one of the mountains for about 1mile, it was built in 1924 or something, I cant imagine them builing that thing back then with the crap tools they would have had.

There were free shuttle buses at the Park that took you wherever you wanted to go so we saw a few sights and then decided to do the most famous hike at Zion, 'The Angels Landing Hike'. We were super prepared, We both had about 5 hours sleep, had drank little to no water, and we just finished veggie burgers, chips and Coke for lunch, so we were in tip top shape for this strenuous hike.

It was meant to take 5 hours, but we did it in 3 and a half, so those Veggie burgers must have had something good in em. It was by far the best hike we have ever done. The last part of the hike you have to hang on to chains, similar to Mt Warning, but there are just sheer cliffs on both sides of you and some parts of the trail are no more than 3 feet wide. I was properly scared. Leah took it in her stride.

After Zion, we headed for Goblin Valley, which was only about 3 inches on the map, but it turned into one epic drive. We took the scenic route which involved us taking the Windstar down a dirt road for 50 km through mud and rock and dry dust. We got to the other side and their was a big sign that read " THIS ROAD MAY BE IMPASSABLE DUE TO WEATHER CONDITIONS". There was no sign at the other end of the road where we started.

Anyway we got to that campground and it was full which wasnt very refreshing. We ended up camping at an old abandoned uranium mine just down the road. Its easy finding stuff when you glow in the dark.

We checked out Goblin Valley this morning and are now at a town called Moab to check out the Arches Nat park.

Here is some photos and a low quality video of stuff from the last few days.

Climbing up Angels Landing.

Untitled from sam johnston on Vimeo.

The view from the top of Angels Landing

Clinging on.

Caught leah doing this hiking pose.

At the 'Three Patriarchs'. Can you tell this whole park was named by Mormons.

We woke up on the first morning and it had been snowing. When will winter ennnnd!

This is at Goblin Valley.

HOLY SHIT.........MONUMENT VALLEY!!!

Hi.

We are in Utah....just over the Utah / Arizona border. which is US state number 7 for us, only 43 more to go. We are at Monument Valley at the moment, we have been here 3 days and are leaving tomorrow.

Well we keep getting blown away by the scenery over here, and this place is no exception. Again, it is one of our favourite places. Red dirt everywhere, with scattered green shrubs everywhere. and massive coloured rock mountains that seem like they were architechtually designed.

Monument Valley is in the Navajo Nation Indian Reserve and it isnt part of the National Parks (but just as impressive), so though it is famous, it is reasonably quiet compared to other National Parks.

We entered the Valley and decided not to do a tour because you could basically do the same thing for free, and you didnt have to smell the body odour of 20 German tourists. It was a 17 mile dirt road track around all of the Monuments and it took us a few hours because the road was rough. Leah got a photo on a horse which she is pretty pleased about.

Heaps of Hollywood films have been shot out here as well, we are staying just down the road from where John Wayne used to stay when he was shooting his western films. Other movies that have been shot out here are Forrest Gump, Back to the Future 3, National Lampoons, Wild Wild West. and a plethora of old westerns. They have a really good Museum here which has heaps of stuff from all the movies as well as alot of indian cultural stuff.

We are headed for Zion National Park tomorrow which is meant to be good, but we might stop at a town called Page for a night in between to break up the drive a bit.

Driving over here is great, im really enjoying it. We have done 6530km since we left Revelstoke in Canada, of which leah has done about 30 km. haha. The everchanging scenery keeps it interesting.

We got some nice photos out here:

YEEEEEHAAAAAWWWW!!!!!


Standing on a rock in the Valley


Look at how small those cars are!


outside the museum, looking over part of the valley


If you look closely, you can just spot our RV!

Hi,

Here is some grand canyon photos, its been really good here. we are heading for Monument Valley tomorrow.

SEDONA

Hi

after 15 minutes of leaving Vegas, it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, we drove past Lake Mead which was really nice, but didnt stop. We stopped at Hoover Dam which was pretty neat, cant imagine them building that in 1931.

After that we headed towards Sedona, which is about 30km south of Flagstaff. We got into the campground and by pure luck we were camping right beside our swedish friends from canada agian! we stayed 3 nights there and it was the most beautiful place. one of the nicest towns we have been to so far. We did a few hikes and had the best mexican lunch in the world.

We are in Flagstaff at the moment and are heading to the Grand Canyon today, we will be there for 3 or 4 days we think.

few photos....

Driving into Sedona...


Did a hike up a big hill and got some good views...


Some rocks, much bigger than whats it looks


Leah is actaully lying down here, we went for a hike and she was to hungover to make it all the way...