Winter Holiday Season '09

Pre-skiing facial hair feast: Lewisburg, PA











12/24 - Incline Village, NV



















Diamond Peak, NV














































Mt. Rose, NV

homebound

dear diary,

our trip home was long and took us across several states again. the highlights were (1) the upper colorado river valley in the morning light, (2) the almost 12K feet tall highway pass across the rocky mountains just before denver, (3) a this-scared-the-shit-out-of-me minitwister ripping through the kansas grain fields in the middle of a major thunderstorm and finally (4) the never-ending cornfields of the midwest that completely hypnotize the driver after a few hours.

the first day we drove from moab, utah to abilene, kansas (lovely little town: word up for pat, who we visited in the native american art gallery. he hails from the potawatomi tribe). second day i drove a brutal 17-hours through to the atl.

















here's a very subjective factual summary that will wrap up our crosscountry blog:

- distance spanned: 6446 miles / 10.373 km
- states crossed: 15 (alabama, missisippi, louisiana, texas, new mexico, arizona, california, nevada, utah, colorado, kansas, missouri, illinois, kentucky, tennessee)
- lowest elevation: -282 feet / -85 m, death valley, california
- highest elevation: 11.990 feet / 3654 m, loveland pass, colorado
- national parks visited: yosemite, death valley, zion, grand canyon, canyonlands, arches
- tribal parks, state parks etc.: 5 (sonoran desert national monument, big sur, glen canyon, antelope canyon navajo tribal park, monument valley navajo tribal park.)
- gallons of gasoline burned: don’t even ask, i have no idea
- cars ruined: fortunately none, our family sedan still runs
- good times: 20 full days

canyonlands/arches

dear diary,

the last stop of our cross-country trip was canyonlands/arches national parks. due to the shortage of time, we had to visit both on one day. which we accomplished fairly successfully.

canyonlands, millions of years ago, was covered by an inland ocean. as the waters receded, all kinds of futuristic formation and, yes, more canyons were revealed. the spot it carved out in a Y-shape by the colorado and the green rivers, which cut amazing valleys into the former ocean-floor. each third of the national park’s Y-shape is sealed off, there’s no access from one to the other because of the rivers that merge downstream. we went to the top third of the park called island in the sky, which has the tallest plateau from the three.





a few mid-range hikes took us to the edges of very high cliffs were i was experiencing not very brave moments again, fighting my fear of heights.





























for the afternoon hours we had arches national park on the menu. when we got to the park, we spotted pretty serious looking clouds approaching. i asked the ranger if he knew what the weather forecast was, but he told me not the worry. apparently, the desert air is so dry that even if the rain stars coming down from the clouds, it usually doesn’t reach the ground and evaporates. and he was right, the brutal grey-black clouds unloaded only a few drops of rain (at least only a few reached us).




the most promising hike lead us through a part of the park called the devil’s garden. and it delivered.








we passed by 8 completely different arches that are the remaining parts of narrow slices of orange sandstone rocks that break down from larger masses. incredible formations in the middle of the utah desert. one range of rocks looked like an ancient city’s remains. others like ufos that have landed and turned to stone. apt name: the devil’s garden.

















moab, utah has nice local beer breweries making their own beer. they tasted really nice… my only concern (again) was the 3.2% alcohol law in place significantly changing the beverage’s effect. but it was all good; after all, we had to hit the road the next day.

later we retreated to our hostel room filled with hippies, crazy french mountain bikers and other cool creatures. the lazy lizard hostel was the coolest accommodation we had on the entire trip.

desert celebrities

dear diary,

to meet the movie stars of the desert we, traveled on to monument valley. in the middle of the arizona red desert stand these mesas and buttes. when you see them for real, you realize quickly that you already have seen them million times in ads, films etc. ok, this last sentence i stole from our guidebook. but it really felt like that. “the little one on the left, remember that one?!”


i felt that we should take the dirt road to see more fame in the middle of the navajo reservation run by native american indians, but eszter convinced me that the brutal route would probably be too much for a 1997 nissan family sedan. so, to her greatest joy, we took a short hike in the blistering heat. this took us very close to a towering desert celebrity.














as indicated above, we wanted to skip the gravel roads thinking that it would have lethal impact on our car. but thanks to our map, this part was still ahead of us. expecting that moki dugway was paved, we fearlessly departed monument valley but encountered a brutal serpentine climbing 2K feet to a cliff overlooking valley of the gods. no comment, check out the photo.















en route to moab, utah, we passed the gigantic wilson arch that dominates the plains in the eastern part of the state. little did we know then: next day we would see dozens of the same formations.

page, AZ

dear diary,

after mapping out several national parks and sites, we had to take a day off. page and lake powell seemed a perfect site for this kind of unactivity. in fact, our day off turned out to be fairly adventurous and also somewhat luxurious. here's what happened…

first thing in page, arizona, the visitor has to check out the antelope canyon. this well hidden, sandstone crack in the surface of the desert is a bizarre underground fault. we wandered back and forth in the canyon contemplating how perfect it is that mysterious forms of this kind were discovered by a 13-years old navajo girl herding sheep in 1931. although the popularity of the site forced us to share our experience with several other tourist (this usually allows for a lot more estranging encounter), we were able to appreciate the compelling beauty right in front of us.




antelope canyon in 1997 was the wrong place to be for 8 western tourists. after sudden rainfalls in the surrounding mountains, the few feet narrow crack filled up with water in just a few minutes. apparently all of them were warned about the danger and told to leave by the only local navajo person on site. they didn’t do so and sneaked back. the rushing waters trapped all of them. standing in the canyon we tried to imagine those moments: trying to fight millions of gallons of rainwater in the surreal valley.


















later we simply had to submerge in the atmosphere that dominates page: large motorboats ripping up the surface of lake powell, which is very extensive system of canyons (carved by the colorado river) filled up by a huge dam. glenn canyon now is only accessible via water, so we took that route.















for a few hours, we rented a powerful motorboat, flew up the water-valley. after reaching an amazing side-canyon with a few hundred feet tall walls, we stopped (in order to achieve that, captain laszlo submerged the anchor with one elegant move. only later did he realize that it was not tied to the body of the boat). and went swimming into the clear-blue water.





while i will admit that the huge and powerful motorboat was a lot of fun (big toys for big boys), the best part was that this vehicle took us veery fast to a spot that would otherwise have been out of our reach. kayaking would have taken about 2-3 days longer.





the rental place took back the big toy after a while, so all there was left for us to do was to enjoy the late afternoon arizona sun and watch navajo kids play in the water until sunset.

grand canyon

dear diary,

when trying to wash down the dust of the road each evening, we made a few comparative observation in alcohology. look at them as additions to georgia moral, according to which god does not want You to drink on sunday.

so here's two new concepts we learned on the road. the first is that of a “dry town,” where no alcohol is sold. like weatherford, texas. on day one of our trip, we had to drive one town down the road to get a six-pack. when i asked about directions to the liquor store , several older ladies in the gas station looked at me as if i was satan himself. the second concept is the state-regulated alcohol content of beer. in utah, the government says 5% alcohol is too much in beer, so they re-set it to 3,2%. while our horizon has definitely become wider in understanding different habits related to drinking, we still fail to understand how any of this is supposed to keep anyone from boozing.

so this morning we were on our way to the north rim of the grand canyon. after reading that the north rim gets ten times less visitors that the south side, our decision was made a lot easier. after arrival, we quickly realized that we made the right choice. although there was no shortage of visitors, the atmosphere was friendly, and you didn’t have to throw twenty of them over the railing before catching the sight from the observation points.


eszter is much less afraid of heights than i am, so she was more willing to climb out on the edges of crazy rocks with only a few thousand feet below her feet. it was very funny seeing many of them hugging the rails, and walk with the legs spread to get a more stable position. it didn’t take very long for me to realize that i am doing the exact same thing.

the canyon views from the north rim are absolutely amazing. you can see the different layers in the rock like layers in a slice of cake. the base of the grand canyon rocks are grey-yellow, followed by red and finally a whitish level. each of these consist of two parts: the lower looks like ordinary rugged cliffs and the upper as thin layers broken apart.

we had to conduct a close observation of scenery, so we descended into a side canyon. little did we know. it turned out that there are organized mule trips on the same route, which resulted in the entire trail covered with, well, there’s no way of saying this nicer… large pools of mule pee and shit. thousands of flies liked this setup; we did not. but we kept going and after passing the first post, i convinced eszter to keep going. she was not very happy about it, but agreed.





the temperature was climbing higher continuously, and by the time we got to a small wooden bridge connection two canyon walls, it was pretty close to unbearable. nonetheless, there was people emerging from the bottom of the valley. we talked to a couple who started from the south rim the previous night, battled the 18 miles/28 km long trip with 5200 feet/1600m elevation with 120F/48C temperature. when i asked how they will get back to their car after the hike they said they’ll improvise. worst case scenario, they’ll walk back. yes, my friends, that’s determination. i thought they were plain crazy.



after our hike we drove across the stunningly beautiful north-western part of arizona, crossed the marble canyon on the spectacular navajo bridge and arrived to page, arizona. we secured a room in a hostel the previous night over the phone, and after arrival we saw why it is so cheap, but still decided to give it a try: since there was no locks on the doors yet, the owner gave us $10 discount. however, when we realized that the water in the shower smelled like rotten eggs, we had to leave. i asked for my money back at the counter, and a guy my age told me that his half crazy uncle opened up the place several months before the ‘remotely acceptable’ stage. the half crazy uncle, in our opinion, was entirely crazy. i should have taken photos on site…

desert views

dear diary,

we really did it, got up at 4am, and drove to death valley to catch the sunrise in the desert. and it was well worth it. part of it was that we didn’t want to get grilled in the sometimes 130-degree (55 celsius) heat that takes over most of the place that is a few hundred feet below sea level. the views we caught were amazing. the valley is this piece of land between two ranges of mountains, that trap the heat. all that is left is sand dunes and salty planes.

on both sides, the road climbes through these ranges, and allow for a numbing views down into the valley. we hit the famous zabriskie point, then put the car to a brutal test, and drove it through the 20 mule team canyon on a dirt road, and finally drove it up to dante’s view, a 5475 foot (1600m) elevation, which ended in a 15% climb. i thought the drive was amazing, but the car didn’t, based on the sounds in made.



the valley deserves its name. when you’re there, you wonder when your car is going to break down, and you survive that moment only by a few hours thanks to dehydration and the crazy heat. but it is exactly these feelings that give the valley a haunting characteristic. it makes you shut up and just gaze. for example, we’ve never experienced silence in this form before. the moments before the sun came up, there was NO sound to be heard.










later that day, when we thought we’ve seen enough canyons, rocks and valleys, we crossed zion national park, where we didn’t have any time for hanging out, just passed through. this brief visit made us reconsider our earlier judgment on canyons, rocks and valleys. in the southwest, every time you arrive into another desert, it has a totally different characteristic. the plants, the texture of the soil, the light and also the colors keep changing. so we are looking forward to the upcoming days, which will include plenty of more desert to be explored.