Las Vegas to Los Angeles

02/07/16

Three nights in Las Vegas. To sum up Las Vegas all I can say is absolutely crazy, like nothing I have ever witnessed or experienced before. Our hotel was also a huge casino, which I got lost in multiple times because it was that big.. especially at night when all the poker tables were in use. Our hotel was actually very nice, with a nice outdoor pool where we sunbathed in the 40 degree heat. The only downside was no wifi, and it cost $150 a day to get so sadly I was internet less for the most part.. first world problems! The Las Vegas strip was so bright and colourful, a city that never sleeps. The night life was big every night, with hundreds of people queuing til' the early hours to get in (luckily we had VIP entry). It was hectic, to say the least! The shopping scene was great as you can imagine, but the 15 minute walk to the mall was too much in the heat of the day! On our last night, our tour group had organised us all to have an hour limo ride to the bar, which was so fun! I'd never been in a limo before, and the free bottles of champagne were a plus too! 

The shopping centre

Roof top bar

In the limo!

05/07/16

Los Angeles

Last day of our Contiki trip ended here. Sad saying goodbye to all of the friends we have made. We have 2 nights in LA, back into the hostel life after 26 nights in lovely hotels, bad times. We went out for food with the friends who were also staying in LA for a few days. We also visited the Hollywood strip and the Hollywood sign! On and off to Hawaii!

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Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon and Zion National Parks

30/06/16
Early morning start to get to the Bryce Canyon National Park, located in Southern Utah. The park is well known for its orangey red coloured rock formations. The park is home to many hoodoos, which are strange looking pillars of rock left standing by erosion. There are the most amount of hoodoos here compared to any other national park. It is a very spectacular view! We walked along sunset peak and took some photos!

01/07/16
Next up our third national park visit, to the famous Grand Canyon, located in the state of Arizona. Again, we were overwhelmed by the views we saw. We went to the visitor centre, and took in the views whilst being entertained by some squirrel chipmunk looking animals who cheekily live of human food I presume. We then took a two hour hike up the Transept Trail, which is an easy one taking us along the North Rim from the North Rim Campground to the Grand Canyon Lodge. This place is so massive that you can fit 80 New York Cities inside of it, and the dept of the Canyon is one mile long! I think there has been around 12 deaths per year from people getting too close to the rim and falling down whilst attempting to take selfie photographs!! This place was definitely a highlight of my trip! :)

02/07/16

Finally, the fourth and last national park were visiting in America, Zion National Park, located in Southwest Utah. Another beautiful place. There was hop on and off shuttles which ran frequently and was the main way to get around the park. We took a one mile walk following the river to the Emerald Pool, where there was a waterfall located at the end. We also went to the Weeping Rock, which the name entertained us which too was essentially a waterfall. Very pretty views!

Weeping rock

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Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

27/06/16

Up and off early to spend a full day exploring Yellowstone, located in the state of Wyoming. Basically a desert. We stopped a couple of times on our way to the main focuses of the park for quick toilet stop and photo opportunities. One of the places we stopped off had this beautiful view of a small beach looking onto a massive lake. 

The reason why we set off so early was to hopefully catch some wildlife. You know, bison, maybe a deer... we saw two grizzly bears! A mum and its baby.. it was so cute! We made sure we stayed at least 100m away from them though as they can be very dangerous if the mumma is being protective over her little one. It was still amazing. I took a few photos but my camera wasn't clear enough, however, if you look closely you might be able to see them in the middle back behind a log :)

Next stop was the most interesting, yet terrifying experience ever. So it was kinda the first time we had seen bison, which is an animal which looks like a massive bull with horns, it's hard to explain just look at the photo. Anyway, they were chilling behind this fence so we were like omg! a bison! and obviously went to take photos. The park ranger told us to stay 25m away, which we did.. but then these 3 bison decide to jump the fence. So we obviously ran like the little girls we are, whilst the park ranger shouted "EVERYONE GET INTO YOUR VEHICLES". Our bus wasn't close. We ran with a terrified giggle. These 3 bison then decided to peg it towards us, so we ran onto a bridge towards a secluded path. Thankfully the 3 bison decided not to come up that way even though it first looked like they were following us. Shortly after that first scare, there was another bison looking very angry near us on the path. It then decided to peg it towards us again, but luckily running past us about 10m away. It's never good when your tour guide is also scared and cursing hahaha. I think it took us a good hour to calm down after this, we thought this was the end hahaha. We can laugh now. Here they are in all their glory. We're not the biggest fans of bisons anymore to say the least.

Being good behind the fence

Being naughty not behind the fence

Thankfully running away from us

After that eventful morning, the afternoon was much more peaceful. We went hiking for a few hours and visited Uncle Tom's Trail, which ended about 320 steps down to a beautiful waterfall where there was two rainbows created where the water hit the pool below. It was worth all those stairs for the view at the bottom. We then hiked some more and saw more beautiful views. We also stopped at many sites where there were active geysers. Finally, our last stop was the see the most famous geyser in the world, Old Faithful, which erupt varies from every 40 minutes to 126 minutes  Luckily we just got there in time to see it erupt! Here are some photos of the beautiful views and geysers I saw :) This has been my favourite place so far.

Grand Prismatic

 Excelsior Geyser

Old Faithful erupting

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