Grand canyon roadtrip

The round trip, according to Google Maps.

The odometer shows we covered 289 miles, or was it 2289?

The whole trip covered 2289 miles and 3 states. The Google map for the whole trip is here. During the trip we saw some diverse sights, from the decadence of Mullholland Drive to the splendour of the Grand Canyon. From the unbridled capitalist utopia of Las Vegas to the unspoilt Joshua tree forests in the Joshua Tree National Park.

Armed with just Google Maps, AAA maps and the Rough Guide to California we set off on our adventure. There's no susbtitute for a decent travel guide, and The Rough Guide is the best I've come across.

San Luis Resevoir Recreational Area- a welcome change of scenery on one of the most boring roads in California.

LA by day. Apologies for the poor visibility.

Union Station's elegant architecture and subtle lighting effects.

At the wax model museum.

The road system in LA can be very complicated.

LA by night. (One of Christina's photos.)

Our first destination was Hollywood, LA. The area we stayed in was a bit of a dive, with signs saying armed security guards were on call.

Unfortunately the weather was quite poor, so we didn't get many good photos. We saw the view across LA at night from Hollywood Hills. The pollution really adds some colour. The next day saw the same view in daylight, before travelling the length of Mullholland Drive, home to some of the most expensive houses in America. (The more affluent celebrities don't live there anymore, but there's still some great architecture.)

Santa Monica looks pretty much like any other seaside resort, with a beach, fairground and souvenir stalls. Given the weather, it wouldn't be hard to believe that we'd stumbled into Blackpool by mistake! Going to one of the more historic areas we saw some beautiful Latino architecture. By far my favourite was Union Station.

Cashing in on the tourist trade, there are plenty of museums in Hollywood. We saw the wax model museum and Guiness World of Records, which were pretty good.

I'd love to go back to LA again at some point and see some more of the cultural aspects, although the lack of public transport and the highways in LA made travel quite scary. I`m just glad it wasn`t me doing the driving!

Some dead wood, beautifully preserved with intricate curves.

One of the few photos I actually took of a Joshua tree.

Christina at the summit of Ryan Mountain.

A view across the Joshua Tree desert, with a Joshua tree forest. (One of Christina's photos.)

The Joshua Tree is actually a type of yucca and therefore of the lily family, but that doesn't stop them looking like freaky trees. They were named after Mormon settlers who passed through the area in the 19th century. The trees grow with a single bud, until that bud gets damaged, or otherwise dies, then two new buds form. This process continues, giving the surreal shape of a fully grown Joshua tree. (The Rough Guide's a great source for these kinds of facts.)

While not quite as arid as Death Valley, the Joshua Tree area is dry enough to allow remnant of trees to stay preserved for quite a long time, giving some contorted and fascinating artefacts.

The landscape was breathtaking, so we hiked up Ryan mountain, seeing some of the rock formations on the way. We wandered off the trail a bit. Oops. The view to the west at sunset was amazing.

One of the many very nice views of the Grand Canyon.

The Colorado River- a silver flash meandering through the Canyon.

Sunset at the Grand Canyon. Very romantic.

Christina posing the next morning. It was very cold when the sun wasn't shining.

On the way to Las Vegas we stopped by the Hoover Dam.

There isn't a great deal to say about the Grand Canyon. Obviously it's very pretty, and it's very hard to capture the scale of the canyon, both in size and majesty, in a photo, so if you're ever within a few hundred miles, make the effort to go see it.

The entire canyon wasn't carved by the river, but by wind. The Colorado River did contribute to depth of the canyon, but most of the erosion was arid. This results in one of the most fascinating geological areas in the world, with deposits from 3 of the 4 geological eras. (This time I stole some of the facts from the official website.)

On the way to Vegas we stopped by the Hoover Dam. While we didn't bother looking over the edge (we'd have to pay for parking then cross route 95 to look at some water at the bottom of a concrete wall) we did take a quick break to look over the machinery. At the time a Hoover Dam bypass highway was being constructed, presumably to reduce dangerous traffic across the dam, eliminate gridlock, and take all those annoying windy bits of road out of the journey for big trucks. There was also a security checkpoint, so it looks they were being overly paranoid about terrorism. It's okay, they didn't find the bomb.

The Venitian, with it`s indoor canal system, complete with singing gondaliers.

The Conservatory at Bellagio`s.

The decor in Caeser`s Palace. This place had its own spiral escalator.

An exact replica of the New York skyline. But with a rollercoaster.

The alpacas in the zoo at the Mirage, former home of Ziegried and Roy.

One of the many stunning views of Las Vegas at night. Good job I bought my tripod with me.

Excalibur, looking like a Disney castle.

Paris casino, built to upstage Bellagio across the road.

Undoubtedly my favourite part of the trip, Las Vegas is capitalism run amock.

We stayed at Circus Circus, one of the cheaper casinos at one end of the Strip, meaning we had to walk for 20 minutes to see anything else, but it was definitely worth the effort. Vegas was built in the middle of a desert, so huge water displays are a sign of decadence. This means that there are plenty of fishtanks and fountains everywhere. In fact two of the main attractions include a "volcano" water feature that "erupts" (with real fire!) every hour and singing fountains in a huge lake that reach about 50m in height. Presumably the Treasure Island casino also had a water feature, but it was being repaired when we visited. The biggest user of water was the Mirage that not only had the volcano, but a lush indoor garden and a set of dolphin pools (watching the dolphins swim was lots of fun!) About the most decadent display I saw was thousands of apples piled in a harvest theme, which had presumably been flown in and then left to rot for a week or two. This place is insane.

Of course I wasn't immune to the glamour, so I gambled some and made 50 cents, although I was disappointed that they kept track in paper tickets rather than real coins. I should have taken home a special Circus Circus dollar really. Nevermind. The other major attraction in Vegas (other than the marriages, of course) is the choice of shows. We went to see Cirque du Soleil and it was amazing, although I didn't really follow the plot. (Or perhaps I did and it was just very, very simple.)

The lights were shiny and we drive up and down the Strip just to see them, and then walked up and down to get photos. Even the McDonald`s signs sparkled and said "New sign arriving soon" on them. To really get a sense of how the town looks, we headed up the Stratosphere, a huge needlelike tower that loomed above the city, and enjoyed the view from there. It`s another one of those views that can't really be captured on film, and something I could look at for hours.

The Strip itself was immaculate. Even with three or four major construction sites there was no rubbish about and everything was very clean. To keep the punters flowing, there were escalators and bridges across the roads, but they usually lead into the middle of a casino, so there was no escape. It`s a scary, surreal town that will take as much time and money as you are willing to give it. Go once and be amazed, but watch you wallet!

On the way to Death Valley we saw some hills displaying beautiful layers of rock, which was just a taste of what we would see in Death Valley.

One of the sculptures in the Rhyolite open air art exhibition.

One of the ruins in Rhyolite ghost town, which was abandoned after the quarry become unprofitable due to mismanagement.

Golden Canyon, where we got bored and climbed a gulley up through the yellow-coloured rock. (The contrast is slightly enhanced to bring out the richness of colour.)

The view we got after climbing Golden Canyon.

Artist`s Palette, known for its rich colours and layers of rock. (The contrast is slightly enhanced to bring out the layers of rock.)

The basin of Death Valley, the lowest point in the Western hemisphere.

The salt deposits in the basin.

Death Valley is a geological wonder. Two mountain ranges slowly inch away from each other, causing the area between to sink further and further down. The surrounding high altitude provides rain-shadows and takes moisture from the air as it rolls up the mountainside, leaving the air arid. When it does rain there are flashfloods that carry water to the basin below where it pools until it is evaporated. This leaves exposed rock on the mountains and salt deposits on the basin floor. As there is very little moisture, the ground absorbs all the heat from the sun, and the air from the mountains compresses as it descends making Death Valley the hottest place on Earth (based on a year-round average.)

The area is rich in ghost towns. When precious metals were discovered in the area in the late 19th century people rushed from the East to exploit the new wealth. Towns sprung up for as long as the mines were profitable and just as quickly they were abandoned. The harsh conditions meant that the buildings were often preserved for decades. On the way into Death Valley we saw Rhyolite, a town named after the mineral found nearby. The area still has a profitable quarry, but mismanagement lead to a collapse of the early miners' enterprise, and so the town was abandoned.

In Rhyolite there is an open-air art exhibition (presumably exploiting the same harsh conditions that preserved the ghost town to preserve the artwork.) The exhibition adds a spash of colour and humanity to something so far away from large human settlement and reassured me that we weren't quite in the middle of nowhere in one of the most unforgiving climates on the planet!

Nearly all of the attractions in Death Valley are geological, as there is very little flora or fauna to speak of. We walked up Golden Canyon, which is one of the larger flash-flood gulleys. After a few minutes we got bored of the gently incline and decided to try something more exciting, so we climbed up one of the side-gulleys. It took a couple of hours, when we got down again it was turning dark fast and if either of us had had an accident it would have been bad, but it was the most fun I had on the trip and I'd do it again. The views we got as the sun started setting were spectacular, though a bit disappointing on film. Seeing the lowest point in the Western hemisphere was quite cool. As the water evaporates the salt that crystalises becomes wider than the area it occupies, causing ruptues that form an interesting honeycombish pattern on the floor.

At night the sky is very clear, allowing some great star-gazing. But we didn't bring a star chart. On the way out there were signs telling us to turn our air conditioning off, and taps for radiator water. Apparently lots of people tend to turn on their AC in the summer and end up overheating their car engines, leaving them stranded in the middle of the desert. To make matters worse the amenities in the park are a bit lacking (there are no gas stations in the park) and a bit overpriced. Luckily we either had or could buy everything we needed.

General Sherman, the largest known living thing in the world.

A view across the misty valley.

Christina driving under Tunnel Log.

A dead tree near Moro rock, in stark contrast to the lush greenery surrounding the rock.

Moro rock, sticking out above the canopy.

Sequoia National Park home of the giant Sequoia Tree and many bears. Some of the views are spectacular, but beyond this the Park didn't seem to offer anything as special as the other parks we visited.

There are several trees in Sequoia that for some reason warrant special mention by the park rangers. The most famous is General Sherman, a huge Sequoia that is the largest (by volume) living thing in the world. The top of the tree is dead, so it's never going to get any taller, but it continues to grow out. From time to time there is a natural fire in the forest, killing many trees and scorching others. There are old photos of General Sherman with a huge burn scar running up the trunk, and the burn scar can still be seen today. For a time the park rangers used to fight the natural fires, but more recently they let them burn. Otherwise dead wood accumulates waiting for the next fire and faster growing trees compete with Sequoia saplings, leading to fewer new Sequoias.

Two other noteworthy trees include Auto Log, which fell over many years ago and for a long time was strong enough to support a large car, so tourists used to drive on it. There's also Tunnel Log which has a huge tunnel dug through the middle so that you can drive beneath it. When Sequoias fall (yes, they make a noise, even if the forest is empty) they decay a lot slower than most other trees. I read about an explorer finding a falled Sequoia near intact, with a 100 year old tree growing through a crack in its trunk.

The route up through Sequoia is long and winding, but offer some good views along the way. The most rewarding views can be found on Moro Rock, which itself is pretty amazing. When we got there all we could really capture on film was the mist rising up from the mountains, which is a peaceful, almost mystical image.

It was freezing at night. I thought I'd die of cold. And we had to lock everything that smelled like food away from bears. The bears were said to be "active", which meant they'd happily tear a car to shreds for a sandwich before hibernating.