Schorschi was in America, now in Sweden

After three weeks of camping, our last stop before leaving the States was of course New York. As we were already used to hiking for hours, we continued to do that also here and went all over Manhatten (from south to north, from east to west and all around). In Little Italy we found a great restaurant:

Central park:

Liberty island and a view over Manhatten:

Lady Liberty:

At one night, we visited the Rock:

And Times Square:

The next morning we drove up to enter the valley. Weather was great (78° F and once again a blue sky). Our first hike brought us next to the former Mirror Lake, which is now, due to a rock slide, almost empty:

Day three was used to hike up El Capitan (or its back). Not always an easy way:

A spectacular view from the top of Higher Yosemite falls (which drops down 2425ft):

A lynx (yes, this is what leo.org says) walking by:

Yosemite falls just before the drop:

And Yosemite point (best view over the whole valley), Half Dome in the background:

As mentioned before, Yosemite Point provides another breathtaking view (click to enlarge):

Our last national park on our trip was Yosemite NP. This park is far more popular than Sequia, so we reserved a campsite for two days. However, for our first night we were not able to catch a camp site inside the valley but had to stay outside in the lower parts of the park. The camp site was pretty lonely, but also very scenic (wild river next to our fire place). Because we arrived very late either way, we started a fire and just enoyed the sky for a while (no artificial light source!):

Sequia was my personal favorit among all the national parks that we visited. The park is pretty big, but one of its most fascinatng features is the difference between height levels. Lower parts appeared to me to be like a very dense and sometimes almost tropical forest, the higher parts are occupied by the famous and enormous Sequia Trees andabove these there steep rock formations. Lower park levels were warm while the higher parts were still totally snow covered.

A view from the river (next to our campground, really great camp site in the middle of a forest) to the mountain tops:

Palm trees:

We went snow hiking (awesome) and found some huge Sequias that are not that popular as there is no street nearby. Unfortunaetly we sometimes lost the track as everything was snow covered.

Well, and of course there is General Sherman (biggest tree on earth?):

Some trees just went the wrong way:

Being carefully observed:

Also, always keep your food stored. Bears really do like snacks. Here is an example what might happen if you drop your chocolate into a sewer:

Finally, on the road again:

Next to Las Vegas you can find the lowest point in continental America, the death valley. I did not really like the place because there is, as suspected, almost no vegetation:

When looking to the top of the rock wall, you can find this sign:

Nice dinner:

Some impressions after leaving death valley:

After so many days of camping, we decided to stay in a hotel for one night and sleep in a regular bed again. Through gambling on priceline.com (name your own price) we reserved a suite in the Venetian for a very reasonable price. Americas vision of Venice is a very clean and decent hotel with great artwork and very neat pool decks. Inside there is a fake version of Canal Grande and outside a replica of the Dome.

Also other resorts along the strip are worth a visit:

Finally we did not gamble because we both do believe in mathematics

On the way to Las Vegas, we passed the Valley of Fire and Lake Mead. Of course, two engineers needed to see the Hover Dam as well.

ahmm ..

The next famous national park was Zion. In addition, it was our last canyon on the route. We stayed only one night but were very happy about rising temperatures (after a freezing cold night at Bryce). During our visit we climbed up a rock called “Angels Landing”. Here are some pictures:

Find Waldo.. ah.. Christian

Steep stairs:

Even a canyon can be green:

The next day we went a little hiking and used the bus to drive along the rim. Smile:

We were carefully observed:

And a beautiful  sunset (uhm, and pretty cold too):