In the 1950’s somebody had the great idea to build the Glen Canyon dam and collect thousands of cubic meters of water rushing in from the the Colorado River into the Glen Canyon. It took 11 years to fill the Glen Canyon to it’s high water mark (the white colouring of the red sandstone walls that you see on the pictures) now being one of the most outstanding landmarks at the boarder between Utah and Arizona.

It’s a crazy landscape. 300 feet water below and 300 sandstone above. Dead tree trunks testify that this wasn’t always the case.

Tom decided to trade floating in a boat for some solitude time in the Rocky Mountains. Santos had to work. So with tents, bathing suits, a cooler filled with wine and beer and two bags of snacks Jen and me boarded Nicks Pickup and we were on our way to lake Powell in south Utah. I got a warning that we will travel with dogs, which however didn’t prepare me for Nikita, Sage, and Patina which were going to be a quite entertaining part of the trip. The three dogs were in the bigger end of the scale and very skilled in taking up every space you would allow them, resulting in a car ride were I frequently had a dog head or ass in my lap (not to talk about old Nikita’s gas problems).

Traveling with three dogs in a Pickup is surely one of my more rare experiences.

Nothing looking like icebergs in Iceberg Canyon – yet.

This is a very different way of enjoying great landscape compared to our usual hiking trips.

Our neighbours were even more professional in using existing circumstances for recreation.

But I find to use rubber duck as floating devices for cocktails pretty great too.

We managed to spent approximately 1.5 days with these very common activities while the other 2.5 days were dominated by trying to survive a little hurricane passing by lake Powell. Luckily Nick and Audra just got what we would call a glass house for their boat, so we could sit in the relatively safety and dryness watching the rain, the occurrence of waterfalls, and flash floods passing by.
At the evening if our second day just after we arrived back from a little kayak exploration the wind picked up dramatically, flipping over cooking tables, playing sail with the boat enclosure and flattening out our tents. Everything was over in about half an hour leaving a soaked Jen (trying to keep frying pans from flying away), one broken and several bend tent poles.

Enjoying the sunny morning paddling and hiking flooded canyon arms …

… Sage liking of my sun cream …

… before the first storm and heavy rain …

… forced us to to enjoy Nick’s and Audra’s new boat enclosure.

But after the rain comes the sun and in a canyon: waterfalls. So we went hunting waterfalls by boat. This one was my favourite.

So much running water, sometimes also reminds us of our needs. In that case just go for the floating toilet.

You don’t feel especially safe seeing this wall coming while hiking in a canyon.

Securely equipped with drinks and food we watched the heavy rain starting off waterfalls around us until the rain turned to hail, the falls started draining enormous amounts of water and a flash flood of hail and wood rushed down the canyon that we just hiked. I didn’t really know what was going on but the three freaked out Americans indicated that this was an once in a life time and pretty dangerous experience. Nick shot some movies that even made it to the news. Thank god we picked a beach that hold up to the flood and the boat was properly secured so we watched the „show“ from with a relative comfort. Even the tents survived without any further damage.

Ready for the show equipped with drinks and snacks. 

It’s not about the tent but the drainage flushing into the canyon behind it.

And the Iceberg Canyon changed into a a river of gooseberry big hail living up to it’s name.

Our way out was completely blocked by hail leaving us wondering with happened to the rest of lake Powell.

Our neighbour tried to get through as well, but in the end spend 1 h in his boat waiting for the hail to melt a little just to come back to his camp. Shovelling his way out with a wake board was rather unsuccessful.

Some freezing bags and a little hail worked wonder keeping our food and drinks cold.

Good that we had a net and a rake. The engine didn’t really liked the debris.

My first time trying to climb a waterfall. I wasn’t quite aware off, that I would climb in the waterfall, when Nick proposed it.

But being back in the sun it was warm enough again for the pool noodles.

First from above the real dimensions of this place become clear.

The next day we packed up, cleaned up and started the long journey back to SLC.

But don’t forget, no trip to Lake Powell is complete without a swim in Lake Powell.

PSSST. Jen made me promise never ever to tell anybody about Utah. They don’t want to share it with the typical US tourist. So if anybody asks you: it wasn’t me who told you.

After consulting the lonely planet and talking to Jen and Santos it became clear that we wont be able to explore Utah without one of the most American cliches: our own car. So we rented the cheapest tiny car we could find for 330$ for two weeks. Far too small for the American standards it could anyway fit our backpacks a 6 gallon water jug (23l), a cooling box (many thanks to Jen and Santos) and food for several days. And off we went south.

Just big enough for two germans and a sheep, but it’s off road abilities could be improved.

The first six days we spend near Moab (Utahs outdoor hub) and the Arches National Park. The area is almost exclusively shaped from water biting its way through red sandstone resulting in deep canyons carrying sand loaded water framed by red cliffs, caves supposedly containing a caveman, stretches of never ending red walls, and the so famous spikes and arches. One of them even being Utahs emblem. I think it’s not overstated to say that it’s a huge playground for grown up outdoories. There are lots of camping grounds, hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, 4WD, and ATV trails, climbing routes, skydiving, motorboat driving, kayaking, stand up paddling and whatever else you can imagine doing outdoors (BBQing, beer drinking, recreating).

Red sandstone stretches as far as your vision allows to distinguish from red sanddunes.

We visited south Utah in the beginning of May and found it to be surprisingly green and in this case yellow. Most of southern Utah is desert and only with a little luck and a wet spring you are able to see it flowering.

We spend two days hiking around holes in stones without having even seen 1% of the arches that are sprinkled over Arches National Park. Once an enormous field of sandstone was elevated and bend by an agglomeration of salt. Consequently the sandstone broke into slices which was the basis of forming arches by the continuous erosion by water and ice. It’s surely not the only place where you find natural arches but one with a pretty high density.

Delicate Arch – the most famous arch in the US and Utah’s emblem. Just between the two of us, this arch is so delicate that it need support from a metal frame, which can’t be seen from this perspective.

Double arch

Landscape Arch

Double O Arch

Navajo Arch

Partition Arch

Misused Arch – you are not allowed to walk over or even club an Arch.

As rough and hard as sandstone.

And of course where there are stones a phallus isn’t far (remember Chile?) even though they call this one the „black angel“.

We were then joined by Santos and his friend who really put an effort into keeping our adrenalin level up. Santos a climber himself offered to do some climbs with us, which especially Tom accepted with great excitement. Something he always wanted to try. I willingly tried a climb at the so called Wallstreet (a road with a wall of red stone to one side).

Just a little equipment for just a few meter up the wallstreet.

Looking pretty easy to climb a 2 cm broad slot, well?

Looking not quite …

… as graceful.

When I saw where Santos planned to take us the next day my adventure limit was passed. I know to much about climbing to ignore the risks of going up a very slim spike 200 m above ground, Tom doesn’t, so of course he went. I enjoyed the view of the red towers and a slightly frightened Tom from the safety of the ground. If you would like to get a more lively impression I got a link for you here. But don’t be over impressed these are not Tom and Santos, but two professionals.

When I saw the goal of today it was pretty clear to me that I wouldn’t go up there.

After about three hours Tom finally (though a little shaky) stand up on the Ancient Art.

One day later. But who is climbing with shorts and a beanie?

On our last day with Santos „a half day“ iSUP (inflatable stand up paddling) trip on the Colorado river kept us busy the whole day (a friend of Santos owned the company organizing tours). These paddle boards are pretty stable but the water on Colorado river has somewhat white water so I ended up in the water 4 times (I estimate Tom went in at least 10 times). It was pretty fun, but next time I will bring a wet suit (I was wet to the bone and freezing in the shadow of the deep canyon). The two had to head home the same day and we headed for laundry before crawling exhausted into our sleeping bags.

iSUPs ready to go for the next day. When I was falling into the river after one minute on the iSUP, I was happy I didn’t brought any device to take pictures onto the river.

The next day teached us what US distances mean. Despite the fact Escalante looked close on the map we spent half a day in the car getting there only to find out that the road we planned to take might be a piece of cake for a pickup but far to much for our little blue baby. We turned around after 10 miles of shaking gravel road and decided to drive to Bryce Canyon first thing the next morning (it should turn out to be the perfect decision).

Distances get a different dimension in this vast country.

Bryce Canyon is most famous for its hoodoos (Tom thinks it’s a reference to hoodie) and we understood why, when we arrived. I guess most of Utah’s beauty is about sandstone but these are special in the sense that one of its layers is especially hard preventing the layers underneath from eroding. The resulting formations indeed remember of deformed pillars with a hoodie of stone. And as typical for the US you don’t just find one but uncountable numbers in colors ranging from white to yellow to pink to red. One (with some imagination) even looks like a statue of Queen Victoria.

What ever we did, I got the impression all dimensions are scaled by a factor of ten in the US.

Solo standing hoodoo’s were the exception in Bryce national park.

Erosions reach sometimes so deep, that we already visited the second „Wallstreet“ in the US without having been to NewYork City.

And well, if stone reaches deep dimensions tree simply counter act.

A hot shower and a night’s sleep later we headed of to our last destination. Zion National Park, where we planned to do some more backpacking (overnight hiking). Well, you know the story: hiking, camping, hiking, camping …

For a long time, this was our first hiking trip without cold feet.

The landscape reminded us a lot of Yosemite, washed stones cut by canyons and sprinkled with trees with a few but distinct differences: the stones were mainly red sand stone, it was soaring hot up to 35°C, and black flies (biting flies) were hunting us the whole day making every break a pain. However, there were two more highlights waiting for us at the end if this trip:

1. Angles landing a rocky ridge dropping down on both sides as two vertical walls and supposedly so high that only angles could land there. Today a path equipped with metal chains lead up to the beautiful view over Zion Canyon, but after a 14 mile hike I wished I had wings to fly up there like an angel.

I wasn’t really aware of what I was buying into, when I agreed to climb up Angels landing.

Tom climbing a bit higher than his guardian can fly (my opinion).

The view into Zion Canyon is most impressive at sunrise or sunset (as usual). By the way according to the Mormons „Zion“ in general names a place where the righteous can escape all badness of this world. Well. They not just renamed this Place that was inhabited since thousands of years by native americans, but simultaneously gave all peaks names of mormon saints.

2. We returned to the valley the same evening and were really lucky to get a camp site and Tom a hitched ride back to the car which was on the other side of the park.  Therefore, we were able to hike into the far end of Zion Canyon the so called „Narrows“ the next day. The name says it all, the canyon is a few meter wide slot between two steep walls of sandstone, the virgin river flowing to their feet. Don’t believe that you will have dry feets hiking here, we spend roughly 90% of the time wading through up to hip high water (from the point of swimming we turned around). Luckily it was a  hot summer day making the shadowy wet canyons a real comfort zone.

Every kind of human excretion has to be buried 100 feet from any water source. not easy to find a spot in a place like this.

But it’s such an incredible place to hike. And if you are uncomfortable it is possible to rent water tight shoes in the visitor center.

If there is any kind of rain forecasted DON’T go in here. There is absolutely no escape in case of a flash flood.

Unbelievably two weeks of road trip were already over and we had to head back to SLC to return the car and prepare for our next adventures.

The Sierra Nevada is a 400 mi long and a up to 80 mi broad granite block mainly located in California. Some of its most astonishing features lay in the Yosemite National Park along it’s 800 mi of hiking paths. So of course Yosemite was a magnet for us.

The visitor center gives a little impression of what you by into, if you decide to hike in the Sierra Nevada – countless steep accents.

Glacier shaped granit stretches out before your eyes for miles and miles in Yosemite and you are allowed to hike every single one of them.

After six hours by bus and train (for a distance that you cover by car in 2 h) we arrived at the visitor center in Yosemite village (more an enormous camp ground than a village). Loaded with our hiking gear and food for seven days but otherwise completely unprepared we were standing there a little confused. The first sign wasn’t promising: campgrounds full! The very friendly and very gay ranger behind the desk sent me off to the wilderness office the second I asked for the wilderness permit and a bear canister. Against all hopes, here the also very friendly ranger provided everything: a wilderness permit including a permit to climb the halfdome (otherwise only given out by lottery and hard to get hands on), actually two bear canisters and the permit to sleep on the backpackers campground the first night. Fully equipped we headed for the backpackers campground to arrange all our food, toiletries and some of the pharmacy stuff (everything that gives of a scent) into our 10l bear canisters to find out, it won’t fit. So either bear canisters are not designed for a week hiking our we are simply eating to much (I guess the later).

Slightly overfilled bear canister. We squeezed it shut and ate the leftovers.

Bear canister inside my backpack. You just have to squeeze the rest of the equipment all around it.

The next evening after a beautiful but strenuous 3000 feet (yes we are in the US) ascent into Yosemite highlands with many day hikers we (actually Tom) found a cozy campground at the base of the North Dome overlooking the color changing Half Dome (exaggerated coloured as the background picture of the current MacOS software „Yosemite“) in sunset. When we finished the last pack of Asia noodles and it was getting dark we tried to pack our bear canisters again and only with a lot of good will and squeezing we could fit everything into them. And because we are little paranoid germans we jumped through the woods in or pyjamas to hide the canisters 100 m from the tent (The ranger told us to just through it a few yards away into the trees, but we didn’t found this sufficient.).

Little Halfdome in fading twilight. Familiar?

Lake May at the following starlit night (Tom toke the picture, I would never have left the tent at these temperatures.) And yes thats snow in the lower left corner.

The weird thing was, the warmer the day, the wetter the socks.

This dammit bear print was fresh, but to Toms disappointment we never met it’s owner.

White water rushing through a golden canyon before falling a thousand feet deep.

Low season colours the highland meadows in a vivid khaki brown.

Setting up our home for one night at Cathedral lake got a cold venture after sunset.

The chill that froze our tent at night continued the whole next day. So though the highland meadows are amazing we kept our breaks pretty short. The original plan was to hike up Clouds Rest (roughly 3300 m) continue to the Quarter Dome and camp somewhere up there. But wearing three layers, gloves and beanies at the foot of Clouds Rest, we continued into the direction of Yosemite Valley. Literally from the frying pan into the fire we found ourself in burned woods for miles. A thunderstorm (as claimed by the park rangers or a careless camper as told by the gossip) did a good job here and we ended up setting up the tent in ashes of burned trees. But at least we had a nice view (very important to Tom).

The white patches reminded us again and again, why we were the only hiker in this amazing place.

The burned land, definitely has it’s one beauty, but finding the path in the soft ashes wasn’t always easy.

Although burned, the land is not death and gives space for new life. Next to the strange fungus why met hundreds of hungry ants on our campground.

I don’t know a single place in Europe, where you get a view like this, while laying in your tent and even be the only person in this spot.

The beginning of 10 cm fresh snow going to fall during the day.

Can you make out the Halfdome behind this white wall?

I still believe that we made a wise decision. The hiker we met this day turned around the next day (on the second day of his 29 day trip), because he couldn’t find the path in 30 cm fresh snow.

By the way, the richest wildlife did we observe in Yosemite Valley. Pizza stealing squirrels, deeply relaxed deers, hungry wildcats and through the campsite strolling bears (actually we only heard the story from three days before).

Losses of the trip:

1. 3 kg each due to a pretty high energy consumption (should make trips like that into a new diet approach).
2. One pair of hiking socks forgotten at May lake.
3. One toothbrush fallen from a pocket at Cathedral lake.
4. One water filter frozen to death at Cathedral lake.

After our great experience with translocation cars in NewZealand and because Tom couldn’t stop thinking about how great it would be to drive over the bad, unbelievable straight and never ending roads of the US (You see, I was bored and couldn’t read, because Tom needed entertainment, because he was bored too.), we rented a small translocation trailer for five days to go from Las Vegas to San Francisco.

Our tiny ‚recreation vehicle‘ measured only 25 feet (around 8 m).

When we arrived at the rental we realized McDonalds meals are not the only supersized items in the US. Our trailer was a little house on wheels, with a bed room, bathroom, shower, kitchen, fridge and even a sofa :). on our first day we didn’t came very far and therefore decided to stay in a little town very typical on a Walmart parking ground. Walmart allows campers to stay overnight on their parking ground. Its a quite noisy and not very privat place to spend the night but a good spot to buy dinner and breakfast supplies.

May I show you our living room. The dinning area is to the left and our recreation area to the right.

Tom taking a picture of the bath room, while standing in the shower (The water was hot!).

Because it was more or less on the way, we went through the lowest and hottest place in the US: Death Valley. Actually Death Valley is not just a very hot valley (and it is hot even in April). It is a valley located in the biggest national park of the US, where you can visit canyons, colored mountains and sand dunes. You can spent days in the park exploring all the hidden natural wonders, but because we only had a few hours and a vehicle unsuitable for the rough gravel roads we just visited the most popular ones: bad water, artist drive and the golden canyon.

The hottest point of the US is covered in salt and cryptobiotic soil (ancient slow growing black bacteria).

The golden sand dunes go on for miles before turning into massive red sandstone walls.

And then because we still had a far way to go we drove until bed time, found a hidden spot with other trailers (driving trailers seems to be a popular sport in the US), took a shower ;), and fell into bed.
The next day led us through the beautiful mountains of the sequoia national forest dotted with trees and wind power wheels, criss crossed with ATV tracks and the Pacific Crest trail. We rolled through more hills covered in wine and signs offering wine tastings to every side that leveled off to a coastline covered in lion seals and before we could turn around we found ourselves on the scenic part of highway no. 1 with mountains to one side and cliffs to the other. The overnight parking was prohibited over the next 72 miles and we had a time and mood that did not allow for driving into the night again. After half the way we found a tiny gas station and shop very the nice lady behind the counter told us that we will find a road 7 miles from here where we can stop overnight in one of the many shoulders. So we did not got only a parking spot for free but even one with view over the ocean.

There were a few elephant seals on this beach. Humans were not allowed there.

Our last day in the RV (recreation vehicle) we spent mostly out of the RV hiking the beautiful hills along Highway number one, before we had to go on the hunt for a parking lot for the night again. We found it down a road to a beach but sadly it was not only already getting dark but also cloudy.

It’s a really really beautiful highway. Just the cliffs are a tiny bit scary.

Our last day ended in a little rush. We needed some breakfast, a dumping station for the waste water (ALWAYS the black water first) and to fill up the petrol (can get a bit more time intensive to find a cheap station but it’s worth since the RV was very very thirsty and prices varied by 50ct per gallon (roughly 3.8l)). Against all odds we managed to hand our little car back by 10:55 before heading of to beautiful San Francisco.