This roadtrip covered some of the greatest US areas – the Rocky Mountains. Best point to start – Denver. Denver is the typical US city, all divided in blocks. The huge airport is far outside the city. We got our rental car – a Crysler 300 – directly at the airport. In Denver we spent one full day before heading to the Rocky Mountains. End of September was a great time to do so. Most Tourists are gone and conditions to photograph are great.
First National Park was Rocky Mountains National Park. With beautiful weather we had 2 Full days to discover it. The first day we drove the scenic Trail Ridge Road that goes up to almost 4000m and had some nice lookouts. The next day was the hiking day. Getting up at 6am to catch the sunrise at Bear Lake. Afterwards a hike to several lakes with some really nice views, especially Mills Lake. In the afternoon 2 more hikes and a nice sunset – typical day.
From Grand Canyon it took one full day (with a looong shopping break) to drive up to Yellowstone. We got very lucky with the weather again. Beautiful blue sky, warm temperatures. We saw lots of animals, erupting geysers, hot springs and enjoyed the beautiful landscape. Even the incidence with the car that didn’t open and the Park Ranger who had to break into our car, was quite an experience – at night with the coyotes howling around us 🙂
On the way South we stopped at Grand Teton, a park I really liked. Beautiful lakes in front of the Teton Range and I took a great shot with the sun setting behind the range.
From Grand Teton we drove South via Salt Lake City to the Zion National Park. Sadly the weather turned bad. It got cold and rainy. Next stop was Grand Canyon North rim. It is not so touristy as the South rim, but also breathtaking. Sadly we had lots of snow and bad tires so it was quite a long ride back to the hotel – 1hour trip. Less Tourists mean less hotels. End of the trip was Vegas. We stayed at the Stratosphere Tower a little further down the Strip. I won 125 $ at a slot machine :). The very last day we did a little Tour into Death Valley. It was too warm for me. The only animal I saw was a bid spider…
From Vegas I flew home via New York back to Stuttgart