A few statistics...

We spent 42 days in the USA, visited 11 states and covered 8,000 miles (which is the equivalent of the flight from the capital city of Alaska to Punta Arenas by the Strait of Magellan); six times we went over the continental divide, every day we covered (on average) 190 miles. It is a little less than we expected, which means that mileage computed by Google Maps is pretty accurate. With average gas mileage about 23.6 mpg we used 340 gallons of regular unleaded gas. Counting also the flights, we covered some 18,500 miles, which is about 3/4 of the Earth's perimeter.

We covered the biggest portion of the mileage in California (3,100 miles), which is the equivalent of the flight from Seattle to San Francisco and from San Francisco to New York, combined). We also spent most of the nights in California -- 18; followed by Colorado with 8 and Arizona with 5. We visited 18 national parks, 10 national monuments, 6 state parks and other monuments, and 7 big cities. We experienced 125 F in Death Valley and snowing in Rocky Mountain; we made it 12,000 feet above see level and 280 below; we survived violent storms in Badlands and dry deserts of California.

Our total cost reached 10,500 USD, from which the price for air tickets (4,700 USD) constitutes almost an half. Another big item was the auto rental (2,500 USD). We spent 970 USD for gas, 980 USD for food, 760 USD for accommodation, 200 USD for admissions, 170 USD for souvenirs, and 280 USD for other items (like camping gear). So the trip was less costly than I estimated in Fall, even though we payed twice as much for the SUV than I originally planned and also gas mileage was somehow worse. Total costs per day and person therefore averaged at 63.35 USD, air tickets included.

Should we choose our favorite park, it would probably be Great Sand Dunes because it is so unique (I wouldn't believe if I didn't see it) but also because it was far not crowded. Other highlights were Bryce Canyon, Badlands, Yosemite... there was no disappointment. The most pleasant surprise, however, was the American society, the way how people treated us (even strange people we met). I can hardly imagine such a trip in Europe.

Thank you!

We'd never be able to experience what we have experienced in 6 weeks if we didn't get so much help from our friends in the USA. You helped us with reservations, auto rental, planning (and much more); we could sleep in a real bed (after weeks of tenting), wash our sweaty shirts, you gave us excellent food (after so many burgers in fast-foods), guided us through big cities, we could try fishing in the ocean, shooting (plus much more), we had always someone to talk to and experienced and learned many new things. It's me (Tom) who writes this post but the others were loudly reminding me to thank you on their behalf. So here we all say: Ken & Betty, Edie & Norm, Moki & Garry, Don & Joyce, Vickie, Hanns, & Thorsten, Delene & Barry, Chuck & Denise, THANK YOU! I hope I didn't miss anyone and that we'll be able to welcome you in the CR or Slovakia one day.

Last Moments

After an excellent dinner, we spent the last night at Ken's and Betty's place. We got up around 9, had a similarly excellent breakfast, and went for the last (but very short) trip with our red Grand Vitara -- to buy some candies and shirts for our family back home. We say bye to Betty and Ken at 2 pm (we spent altogether 4 nights at their place and enjoyed being with them a lot), stop at a fast-food for the last time (Burger King, our favorite) and return the car at the Radisson Hotel. After that, we took a bus to the airport. The flight to London takes some 9 hours, but this time it didn't seem to be so long (despite the British Airways stewardess). We have 3 hours in Heathrow which we sleep through, and finally get to Prague at 18:00 after a much shorter flight. It's time to say bye for now. Michal stays in Prague, Zuzka's mom drives her to Bratislava, and me with Petr drive to Litomysl.

Thursday 13.8. (Great Sand Dunes)

We slept pretty well on the sand, without matraces, and in the morning we get up pretty fresh. We did not hear any bear or puma at night (and the food on the tree is still there, hanging). At 8 it is already warmer, we have a quick breakfast and hike the way back to the campsite we arrived yeasterday. It is more pleasant walk than yesterday since the sun is not scorching in the morning, the sand is colder and most importantly -- we walk almost all the way down the hill. We arrive at the campground, with 23 kilometrers at Great Sand Dunes in our feet, which is after Yosemite the most. We are pretty hungry, so that we leave the park and drive on the highway to Denver, with a stop at Carl's Jr. Fastfood meal, but still very good after 2 days of cookies and cold canned beans. In the evening, we arrive to Ken and Betty at Westminster, Denver and finish the trip in the same way we started.

Wednesday 12.8. (Great Sand Dunes)

This park is probably the most extraordinary and interesting place we have seen in the last 6 weaks in America. The highest sand dunes in Northern America (300 meters), which the sand "desert" consists of, 10 miles long and right next to it peaks of the mountains, the forest, meadows, marshes and a creek full of trouts -- completely amazing view (and each time of the day unique in different way), which we have to share only with a small amount of other tourists, the smallest from all the other parks which we visited till now. In the morning, we climb at one of the highest dunes. From the camp it looks so easy but the dunes are higher as it seems and the moving sand does not ease the climbing. Even if it is not so hot yet (about 30 degrees in the shadow), the sand was pretty hot and we agree that this is one of the most challenging hikes in the USA, so far. At last all of us climb to the top, we enjoy the nice view (and the way down as well). Before the noon we drive to Visitors Center for the backcountry permit and at about 1 o'clock we set off for the 10 kilometers long walk along the dunes. We walk constantly on the sand, often through smaller hills and dunes, so that we arrive to the end of the hike (primitive camp on the other side of the dunes, where is nobody else just we) only after 4 hours. During the hike we make a stop at the Medano Creek and freshen ourselves a little. We set the tent, hang all the food 3 meters from the surface on one of the tree branches (because of bears and mountauin lions who live there in large amounts) and enjoy the wilderness. After the sunset we look at the meteoric fall from Perseid constallation, the sky is almost perfect, without the light pollution.

Tuesday 11.8. (Mesa Verde)

We get up early to be at the reasonable time in the Visitors Center at Mesa Verde Park and buy the tickets for a tour to rock pueblo. We choose Cliff Palace, it is the largest pueblo in Northern America -- impressively biult in the window of a rocky wall, from the distance looks like a birds nest. We climb down with ranger and walk along the pueblo. The rest of the afternoon we spend by sightseeing of other archeological interesting sights of the park (several other rock pueblos and an older pithouses on the lands above the canyon). In Mesa Verde one can find a number of things and can spend much more time than a single afternoon which we have at disposal. We leave the park, driving east to Great Sand Dunes, to the more humid areas (looks more like in Alpes) and drive through the continental divide again, getting in the 11 ths. feet elevation (about 3 and half kilometers). In the evening, we get to to park and take one of the last empty sites in the campground (camp is pretty small).

Monday 10.8. (Navajo, Monument Valley)

In the morning we leave Grand Canyon and heand east along the cliff, the same way we took on Friday and make make a stop for the overlook. We have a long jurney before us, almost 600 kilometers, whole way in Indian reservation. Approximately half-way we stop at Navajo National Monument (pueblo built undre the cliff), take a short walk and continue toward the Monument Valley. Originally, we wanted to take the main road, but we decided to pay Indians for the entrance on a very bad dirt, winding road between the rocks (we have SUV so we finally managed to use this advantage). 20 dollars is definitely worth the fun, even if these 15 miles only cost about quarter of our gas. In the evening, we arrive to campground at Mesa Verde, swim for a while in the pool and rest till dark in the hot spa.

Sunday 9.8. (Grand Canyon)

We spend the whole day at Grand Canyon. Our campsite is directly at the Grand Canyon Village, a short walk from the shuttle bus stop (in the whole park there are several lines, no charge). We get to the Kaibab outlook, where a downward trail inside the canyon starts. We do not go too far to the river but still are pretty sweatty (even if the walk is more pleasant than in Zion or Yosemite) and have several nice views along the way; in the morning there is a fog inside the canyon but till noon it disappears and the view is much better. Beautiful day -- we are pretty lucky to have such a weather. The hike lasts only 3 hours and the rest of the day we spend driving the bus routes and making short hikes along the canyon. The lunch is at Grand Canyon Village, even if originally we wanted to cook something (which delayed the dinner). In the morning, it should be 4 C degrees cold.

Saturday 8.8. (Meteor Crater, Walnut Canyon, Sunset Crater, Wupatki)

Even if from the campground by Meteor Crater to the Grand Canyon it is only about 2 hours of driving by car, it takes us the whole day, because there are so many things to see. In the morning, we see the Meteor Crater itself (first crater proven to be caused by meteorite and still the best preserved in the world), we walk along the crater, very impressive overlook. From that point we drive few kilometers to Walnut Canyon, where in the canyon walls are the old Indian dwellings, pueblos. We drive a little on Route 66, make a stop for lunch at Flagstaff and continue to Sunset Crater National Monument, which is a nice volcano. We take a short hike to the top of one of the smaller volcanos and walk through the lava trail. From there, it is only few miles to Wupatki National Monument, where are several Indian pueblos. We walk in between them and return to the main route, head north and reach the Grand Canyon National Park. The sun is low above the horizon, so that it nicely shones on the eastern part of the canyon (due to several fires from the lightning, the western part is not visible). The view is amazing.

Friday 7.8. (Petrified Forest)

In the morning we left Chuck and his family and head toward Petrified Forest. As we approach futher to the norteast, the elevation is getting higher and the desert is exchanged by forest while the temperature is lowering slowly (so that when we got to the paark, it is already nice weather). We walk through the petrified once wooden logs in the rocks, which look very much as Badlands NP. A bit further in the park, there are the ruins of old indian pueblo with the original petroglyphs on the rocks around. Driving more to the south into the Painted Desert, we have beautiful overlooks on the colorfull rocks around. We drive from the park on highway heading west; make a stop at Burger King and in the evening we arrive to the camp at Meteor Crater. It is a nice campground and after a longer while we return again to the tent setting.

Thursday 6.8. (Phoenix)

We get up around 9 and go for a trip that Chuck recommended us -- about 200 kilometers through the Arizona desert. We see the gost town at the former golden mine, everywhere present cactuses and silent mountains as from some horror movie. We drive beside several water reservoars, but the water here surprisingly does not change the desert character of the surrounding country. We have a sandwich in Tortilla Flats and continue further on the windy dirt road, where hardly two cars can get one beside another; beautiful views at the desert. We head back to Chuck and his family in the afternoon and with pleasure we try the pleasant water of their outside pool (outside is around 43 degrees and the water is around 31, about twice as warm as the ocean, in which we swimmed the day before yesterday). In the evening we get from Denise excellent Mexican meal.

Wednesday 5.8. (Joshua Tree)

The heat from the morning sun wakes us up and so we start todays jurney pretty early. We camp at the southern part of the park and now we continue northeast, where the real Joshua tree starts to appear, as well as groupings of rock formations typical for this park (often resembling faces and are also named by what they resemble). It is extremely hot (later in the afternoon we have 47) and clear day, so that we limit hiking only to a few short walks on the marked trails (in between the cactuses, Joshua trees and the rocks). In the car we cool down, so that the park looks more fair to us -- only few people and the nature is nice. We try to get to the pond (or a lake) advised by the guide, but there is no water at all (only few mices and rattle snakes live below the rocks). We drive through the whole park and get to its northern border, which is practically empty and straight road (very much preffered to the highway); we stop for the lunch and drive down to the Arizona toward Phoenix (gas price falls by 30 cents per gallon, we are away from California). Along the way we see several wind devils which look like small tornados. In the evening, we are glad that we arrived to Chuck.

Tuesday 4.8. (San Diego)

In San Diego we sightsee the Balboa Park (the largerst city park in the USA), nice Spanish colonial architecture, but mainly neautiful gardens. In San Diego, there is very pleasingly, around 30 degrees and fresh wind blowing from the ocean but the sun is scorching while we look for a place at the beach. We drive to the ocean through the peninsula Coronado and see one of the oldest hotels in the USA (victorian Del Coronado) and stay at the beach near the hotel. The beach is beautiful, the ocean colder than yesterday, waves are great so the we let them drag us for several hours. We are only 10 miled from the Mexican borders. Before 4 o'clock, we try to get rid of the sand even from the ears and set off toward the Joshua Tree. We ge to inlands, into the desert, the temperature rises to 44. Arriving to the campground in the national park we are more or less alone here (camping in the desert in the the summer does not seem to be that attractive for the natives). But in the evening, it is getting cooler, more bearable to exist. Rarely we see a rabbit or a lizard but otherwise it is empty and forsaken.

Monday 3.8. (Los Angeles)

From Malibu we drive to L.A. along the coast, turning left to the Sunset Boulevard we head to Hollywood around Beverly Hills. We make a stop at the Universal Studios and City Walk, then drive to Hollywood Boulevard to walk of fame and leave the city behind (it is far less pleasant city then SF even if the weather is far better than expected, given circumstances -- in the city around 33). We try to get out of the city on Highway 1 but the traffic is bad and each few meters stands a semaphore, so that we return to the speedway. We continue south and on a half way to San Diego we make a stop at the beach where we spend the rest of the afternoon. The water is warm, the air colder and the ocean has bigger waves so it was fun to swim along the coast (in practice, swimming is impossible only if one gets further behind the waves into the calmer water). In the evening we arrive to the Valley Center to Delene and Barry, we get an excellent dinner and beeing exhausted we go to bed.

Sunday 2.8. (Big Sur)

We leave SF and continue further south on Highway 1. Contrary to the travel from Eureka we have a beautiful day without the fog, temperature under 20 degrees, so that it is quite pleasant at the sun. We make a few stops and admire the coastline; Highway 1 goes often completely at the edges of the cliffs and winds above the ocean. We park at one of the state parks near the road and go on a half hour walk, sightsee the coast more closely, big crabs and smal fish imprisoned by the tide in the small lakes between the rocks. Driving a little further we get into the area known as Big Sur. We stop at the waterfall directly at the beach; beautiful view. By Santa Barbara we get into the first real heavy traffic, but we success to arrive to the campground darkling, barely seeing where to set a tent. Campground is very loud and full of people but still in the nice surrounding (considering there is a megalopolis only few kilometers away).

Saturday 1.8. (San Francisco)

Today we drive to the city alone. It takes a while to find the parking place (in San Francisco it is quite a problem, such as driving the car with manual is, because many streets go up the hill), then we start the trip on the boat to Alcatraz -- excellent experience, starting with the view from the ferry, continuing by the audiotour of the prison with a nice nature surrounding the island and the island itself. We stay 3 hours at the Rock. Back in San Francisco, we see the Fisherman's Wharf but it is getting really fogy, it is cold and we are pretty hungry. In the evening, Vickie made us spagetti (it is not in human capabilities to return back to fastfoods again).

Friday 31.7. (San Francisco)

The first day in San Francisco we spent by sightseeing of the city with Thorsten (son of Hanns and Vickie), which was awesome. We drove along the coast, saw Golden Gate in the distance, went through few parks, Twin Peaks, had a beer in the highest storey of the Bank of America (probably the tallest building in the city, beautiful view at the dock and Alcatraz), we took a cable car drive and saw Chinatown, where we had a chinese meal (pretty good). In the evening, we returned to Los Gatos, Hanns and Vickie made a barbeque to the dinner, everything tasted so good! We tried the local (and German beer) and went to sleep.

Thursday 30.7. (Point Reyes)

Around 8 we said goodbye to Don and Joyce and set off further along the coast -- we continue south on the I-101 and get to California highway 1, which is curved along the coast down to LA. It is very slow road, but more pleasant than the other large roads few kilometers inlands; highway 1 offers beautiful views of Pacific. When we went from Eureka, it was of course completely in the fog, but only few miles south it cleared out -- and approaching San Francisco, there it was again. We made a stop at Point Reyes reservation and walked to see the famous lighthouse, but the whole country was sunk in the fog and it was really cold. We continued toward the city, went through Golden Gate Bridge and arrived to Los Gatos, where Vickie and Hanns live.

Wednesday 29.7. (Eureka)

We get up early, before 6, Don takes his boat and us fishing. We leave the dock few kilometers from Eureka and besides Don, a friend of his comes with us to help with finding the best place to fish while Don takes care of our trials to catch a fish. For a person who never saw the ocean (as I am) it is a unique experience (even if the waves made their job); besides few nice fish which we, to our surprise, caught, we saw many seals and sea lions and also one little whale. We spent about 4 hours on the ocean. Then, we returned to Eureka to Don's and rest a little, while Don did all the dirty work cleaning the fish (tonigh, we eat them). In the evening, we tried also some abalones.

Tuesday 28.7. (Eureka)

In the morning, we went with Don and Joyce to the ocean; it is still foggy, even if in comparison to yesterday the visibility is better. We walk along the rocky shore when it is short tide and Don shows us the ocean life (starfish, crabs..). We see the historical centre of Eureka and the dock, from which we should go tomorrow fishing, if the weather is good. In the afternoon, Don let us shoot from a few of his gun collection (hunting gun, gun, shotgun and pistol) on the property of his friend, which we enjoyed very much :). Afterwards, we went to the brewery to taste local beers (I really liked the beer; here, they are not afraid to experiment a little with the beer so there was a plenty of different kinds to pick from) and we have a dinner here.

Monday 27.7. (Redwood)

Leaving the Crater Lake and Oregon behind us we arrived again to California. Driving down to lower elevations, the ocean is right before us and it starts becoming warmer (in the morning it was about 8 C, at noon it is 30 already). As we approach the ocean, 15 miles from the shore, it gets cooler by 15 degrees and we see a fog coming from the west, which surrounds the shore whole summer. We drive on the dirt road in the redwood grove, where except of the tallest trees in the world there is also other diverse flora creating an impresson of a jurrasic forest. We arrive to the ocean but everything is misty. Great coldness. We drive through the rest of the Redwood National Park, make another short hike between the redwoods and then drive to Eureka to Don and Joyce. Joyce make a perfect dinner (venison), we ate well and went to sleep.

Sunday 26.7. (Crater Lake)

In Crater Lake, it was luckily not that cold in the morning as we expected (it is on the northern side of Lassen and we are still more than 2 thousands meters above the sea level -- as always, when we camp), so that we slept pretty well. At half past nine we set off to the lake, made a stop at several views and a 8 km trip to the highest peak in the park, Mt. Scott -- nice view on the lake and the whole volcanic area (not that challenging trail as in Yosemite). The next trip was decided to be to the edges of the lake (all around is very steep); the water is not that cold as one would judge from the snow still laying around the frontiers of the lake, and to swim in 30 C is very pleasant. We climbed back up the hill, went around the lake and right now, we gril the sausages. In the evening, we want to go to the ranger program near the lake to see the sunset.

Saturday 25.7. (Lava Beds)

It is a cold morning (6 C degrees), we wake up pretty early, omit the breakfast and head toward Lassen to the north. We make a stop at Subway Cave which is a lava tube pretty simmilar to the goal of today's drive (Lava Beds). We got there aroung the noon and walk through several most interesting ones -- all of the caves are possible to be explored without a guide and we did it without helmets and with only one good flashlight (thanks, Michal). The caves are not ornamentally rich as it is in the majority of our caves, but they are interestingly shaped, freely available, and a man can climb through them the whole day without meeting too many people. In the evening we arrive to the Crater Lake Park -- almost round lake in the kaldera; the deepest lake in the USA with unbelievably blue water. We stopped only to take few pictures (soon, it will get dark but tomorrow we will take a closer look on it), and set up the tents in camp. A change in comparison to yeasterday -- plenty of moskytos.

Friday 24.7. (Lassen)

Saying goodbye to Moki and her family we head north to the Lassen National Park. To the borders of the park we got around the noon, it is quite nice weather and we start off the 2 trails -- Bumpass Hell, which is a volcanic area very similar to Yellowstone, and a walk toward the lakes in the central part of the park, where it was possible to swim (swimming in the clear waters in the wilds is extremely appreciated as there are almost never showers in the national parks). We arrived into the camp pretty early and so we went to a little longer walk around the Manzanita Lake, where the volcanic cone Lassen Peak is nicely visible. The camp by the lake here in Lassen is far better than in Yosemite, where the individual sites were very close to each other and where it was very noisy. Here it is calm and peaceful -- moreover, no bloodsucking moskytos.

Thursday 23.7. (Mono Lake, Lake Tahoe)

We drive from the Yosemite and stop at Mono Lake, a salty lake known by the tufa shapes -- and a smell simmilar to the Salt Lake with a beautiful view. We go to the north, have a luch in Jack in the Box and the first (and hopefully the last) small car accident, when we slightly bumped into the other car; luckily, no harm was done to it, only our car has a little scratch on the paint. We took a great bath at the Lake Tahoe and went to Grass Valley to Monique. With a good meal we tried some local bears and went to sleep.

Wednesday 22.7. (Yosemite)

We set off on a longer walk, this time it is Half Dome. It makes the total of about 25 kilometers with the elevation of 1500 meters, so that we made about 40 km in Yosemite during our stay. We get up at 6 to avoid the heat (which we in the end did not avoid but eliminate, at least). The morning is very pleasant even if a steep walking up the hill starts right from the beginning. On the first kilometers we pass nice waterfalls Vernal and Nevada, where the water-drops cool us. Whole trip is pretty challenging, not comparable to anything I met with in the Czech Republic (rather to High Tatras in Slovakia). Around 11 we get to the rocky dome, swimming in the sweat. Here comes the best part -- to the top of the mountain, it is possible to get without the proper rock-climbing stuff only up on one of the rock's sites (about 150 vertical meters), which has on some places a 75 deg. angle and is rather smooth, the rock is slippery. To the top of the rock go cables so that one uses more hands than legs. From the top, there is an excellent view and many marmots and squirels which steal food from tourists (we already had one of the little thieves in our anti-bear box locked in, but we found the "hungry" squirel only after one hour, with a round belly full of our only bread left).

Tuesday 21.7. (Yosemite)

First whole day in Yosemite. Early in the morning we start the trail to the Upper Yosemite Falls. It is about 12 kilometers only but pretty steep -- challenging trail. Even if the Yosemite Valley itself is overfull and busy, we do not meet many people on the way. After some 3 hours we finally climbed at the top and are pleasantly surprised by the beautiful mountain lake right above the longest waterfall in the Northern America, where we take a comfortable bath and wash off all the stinky sweat from the way in 38 C degrees. Way down is much faster but a man gets dusty either way, so that in the evening, a little swimming in the river is convenient. For the first time here, we see a coyote. In the evening, we are so exhausted that we take only a short round trip by the shuttle bus through the valley, and go to sleep with a lullaby sounds of rangers shooting to scare the bears out of the camp.

Monday 20.7. (Sequoia, Yosemite)

Before the noon we drive through the park further to the west and view the second world's largest (and first heaviest) tree, General Grant. Heading toward Fresno, we finaly found our way to Yosemite. It is maybe the fifth day for us to have the temperature in the shadow above 40 C degrees; luckily, it is getting better when moving north (especially, shen we arrive in the evening to the park and climb into the higher elevations). After seeing the sequoia grove on the southern border of Yosemite, we drive to Yosemite Valley, where we set up the tents, bake the franks on the open fire and go to sleep pretty soon (to be fresh for a trip in the morning).

Sunday 19.7. (Sequoia)

In the morning, we set off from KOA Campground at the Lake Isabelly and head Northwest. GPS led us through county roads of the vast American countryside, to arrive into the Sequoia National Park in the afternoon. We climbed on the Moro Rock view, from where the whole park is nicely seen, and saw the largest tree in the world (General Sherman Tree), a road through the tunnel log of fallen sequoia tree and many nice sequoia groves. On one of the hikes we finally saw a bear (this time the black bear baribal), feeding itself only few meters from the trail. We set up the tents at a beautiful place near the river with waterfalls where we took a bath (the water was very cold but a natural jaccuzzi and pure water was worth the sacrifice).

Saturday 18.7. (Death Valley)

We start from Fremont at 10 in the morning, and after a little confusion on the Vegas highways we get to route heading toward Death Valley. After the dry Las Vegas, a true Nevada desert replaces the surrounding and the temperature increses to 50 C degrees (and recording 125 F degrees of that afternoon). Driving into the park on the southern road, which is practically abandoned, we get to the Badwater lowlands, which is the lowest placed land in the Northern America (85 meters below sea level), the wind so hot that a man cannot stand to be out of the car more than several minutes. We go along the sand dunes. The gas started to disappear when we passed the Valley and only by chance and a strength of the minds we arrived to the gas station. Very expensive gas (welcome to California).

Friday 17.7. (Las Vegas)

Extremely hot. We drive along the highway and the temperature increases to 47 Celsius degrees in the shadow. We continue on the local route, along the Lake Mead, through the Arizona and Nevada desert. Without the air-conditioning, it would not be very pleasant. We set the clock one hour back and approach the Hoover Dam -- last mile to the dam is neverending, we got to the traffic. However, it is worth to see the dam. The air-conditioning is fully employed and the drive is very slow, the gas consumption rises and we stop at the gas-station again (and have a great lunch at the Burger King). Around 5, we got to Fremont hotel, in the evening, we take a walk through Vegas -- Fremont Experience and Strip, of course. A perfect contrast to the heavenly Salt Lake City. Around the midnight it is still 44 C degrees, hot as in hell. We drive through the whole Strip to Stratosphere Tower, where we take a rollercoster ride at the very top of the highest building west from Mississippi -- and a little break to catch the breath after the ride to see the beautiful view of Vegas. Again at Fremont hotel, we try to gamble a little (winning 15$) and around the 2 in the morning we return to beds.

Thursday 16.7. (Zion)

We slept well and about half past ten we head towards Zion. The road goes down to the lower levels and it begins getting warmer. First, we stopped om the northern edge of the park, driving along the Kolob Canyon to set off to the South and biuld the tents on the other side. In the main part of the park, it is forbidden to drive with the car, so that we get on the shuttle bus and sightsee some nice places; at the end, we start a 2-hour tour. However, now it is about 40 Celsius degrees, so that we are happy to return to the camp in the evening. The sun is scorching and the place is not very exclusive, everywere around the ants. We look forward to tomorrow, the hotel in Las Vegas, especially the shower and real beds.

Wednesday 15.7. (Bryce Canyon, Cedar Breaks)

We arrived to Cedar Breaks around the noon, accomodated at the campsite and quickly went to the Bryce Canyon. Parking the car on the edge of the park, we took the shuttle bus to see the most interesting sites, riding few miles around the canyon. Canyon itself is made of plenty of the red-and-grey rocks balancing on the thin pillars. A bit further from the place, the forest fire was visible. In the evening, we returned to the camp in Cedar Breaks and walked through the monument view. Here, we were camping in the highest placed camp (3200 m above the sea level), so that through the day it was not hot at all. In the evening, we baked the American sausages on the open-fire and went to see the ranger program and the star party -- night sky watching in Cedar Breaks with a strong telescope with the commentaries. There is almost no light polution, so that the sky is really beautiful.

Tuesday 14.7. (Salt Lake City)

Today, we went through the city of Mormons. We arrived to the Temple Square, listened to the enthusiastic commentaries of the Mormon sisters and climbed toward the local Capitol. We saw the tabernacle, originally biult as a speaking place of the Mormon prophet Brigham Young, now it is especially a seat of the well-known Mormon choir. The whole city was practically rised from nothing on the salty desert, when Mormons came there in the first half of the 19. century. We wasched our legs a little in the Great Salt Lake, came to the frontier of the Great Salt Desert and then returned to the original southern route heading to Las Vegas. We stopped at the camp which we really liked (somewhat we got accustomed to the heated pool :), which lies right below one ofthe Mormon temples in the middle of nowhere (Temple Hill).

Monday 13.7. (Grand Teton)

Today, we left Yellowstone and continued further to the south into the Grand Teton National Park. At night, there was a great storm in Yellowstone, the most intense one by now. It was fairly cold. In Grand Teton, we made a 2-hour tour by the Jenny Lake to the waterfalls on the other side of the lake; Grand Teton are high mountains (cca 4 km), it liftes practically from the plains, and than from the east it looks pretty impressively. Same as in the Rocky Mountains and Yellowstone, the tops of the peaks were covered by the snow. We could not swim in the lakes, the water was too cold. We got from the park and after two days we finally had a decent meal, tried the fourth fastfood (so far the best one, Hardee's). Often, the work on the roads made our drive slow and often we smelled a run-over skunk (pretty common on the American roads) but have already arrived and compensated it in the camp´s swimming-pool (and have a real wifi, finally).

Sunday 12.7. (Yellowstone)

In the morning we set for the southern part of the "eight", mainly geisers, hot springs and coloured volcanic ponds. We saw several plateaux with geysers; a man could spent here whole week and still he would not see everything. Touristic trails almost always lead through the hot steam, causing a dizziness. Today, we meet a lot of people in the park -- it is sunday. Around 3 pm, we got to the most famous geyser in the park, Old Faithful. It is not the tallest one but it explodes fairly regularly (in comparison to the several miles distant, the tallest geyser in the world, Steamboat, which can reach 120 meters but the explosions happen from several days to decades). Moreover, we werte lucky to get see the geysir just few minutes after we arrived to the place. We were pretty tired from both days in Yellowstone already (many sights, many views), and so we stopped afterwards only in the last geyser area besides the lake, and registered to the campsite. It is possible to swim in the lake but the water is extremely cold and so I only dipped in my legs -- immediatelly, the storm clouds appeared. Yesterday, a grizzly bear visited the camp so we will se, whose dinner will allure him tonight.

Saturday 11.7. (Yellowstone)

At the camp Cody, we finally got to the internet. We met a guy from Switzerland, who knew Czech and Slovak and was familiar with the realia, which was pretty fun. We slept in the open (except of Zuzka who usually preffers the car). We woke up around 6 am and set off west, in an hour we got to the Yellowstone National Park. The park is huge, it´s center is created by the Yellowstone Lake, from which effluents the river of the same name. The lake lies in the middle of caldera (whole Yellowstone os one big volcano), so that we already started to see the hot springs, fonts and other phenomena; whereas during the whole trip the peculiar sulphuric bad smell went along with us. Through the mid of the park a well-known 8-shaped road turns round, and majority of the most famous places is accesible there. In Saturday, we drived through it´s northern part; we accomodated at the campsite and subsequently checked the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (it is not that big as the one in Arizona but it is more colorful with several cascades and waterfalls), Mammoth Hot Springs (tectonic terraces) and plenty of other stuf. We saw many bizons, elks and from the distance the grizzly bear and moose, as well. I took a bath in the river near the inflow of one hot spring, the water had 40 C degrees. When returned to the camp then and made a fire to get rid of the mosquitos.

Friday 10.7. (Devil's Tower)

Driving day. We slept pretty well and set off after 9 from Sturgist to the west. We made a short detour at Devil's Tower, the monument towering above the plateaux of northern Wyoming. We made a circle around the tower and stopped at the shop for souvenirs, then continued west to Yellowstone. It is a long way, about 650 km; we passed the high and rugged massive Big Horn (few miles to the South we passed the happening of general´s Custer last battle). Through Big Horn it is a slow driving, the road is full of serpentines and frequent stops because of the work on roads. Around 8 pm, we arrived to Cody, where we slept and in the morning, we head toward Yellowstone.

Thursday 9.7. (Badlands)

The evening program in camp was canceled because of the storm and strong wind. Therefore, instead of listening to rangers, we climbed up the rock and watched as the storm was getting bigger above the eastern horiyon. At night, the wind intensed and we were glad to be able to keep the tents on one place. At last, we slept pretty well and after 9 am we set for the 12 km trip through the Badlands National Park. It is a land of the rattlesnakes, so that besides admiring the nature around we had to pay a great attention. After few hundred meters we got to the dry waste land and we were glad not to leave the jurney to the afternoon -- it was scorching and the light reflected upon the white sand. For a while we went through high grass (one could not see where he was putting the foot), on some places, nothing grew. The rocks in Badlands are colorfull (mostly white to grey but also yellow, red and purple) and spiky as well, for a Mideuropeans completely alien land. In the morning, we met only few people (not many people here are willing to make more than few steps from the car), till the afternoon, only few tourists appeared. No rattlesnakes so far. Around one o´clock, we set forward to Rapid City, went through other smaller part of the park with a few views, then took the interstate. In Rapid City, we had a snack, bought some reserves and followed the road to the west. We camp at Sturgis in Elk View, where allegedly had had to be a wifi but it seems for now that we will have to wait for the connection a day or two. But luckily, we can finally have a shower, after three days :).

Wednesday 8.7. (Wind Cave, Crazy Horse, Mt. Rushmore, Badlands)

At night it was pretty pleasant, even if in the morning, for the tradition not to be broken, few raindrops fell on us. We depart from the Wind Cave park and meet a herd of bizons along the way, there are also American antelopes. Crossing the Custer State Park we came to the Crazy Horse Monument, which is already for more than 50 years still beeing build memorial to the Indian battle strategist at the Little Big Horn. The statue carved into the rock will be larger than the Egyptian pyramids and is a counterpart to the American presidents at the Mt. Rushmore, where we arrived a little while afterwards. Everywhere around are big crowds of people, contrary to the Wind Cave, where was only a little number of visitors. We do not stay too long and only walk by the monument, to reach the target of the day -- Badlands National Park. On the way, we made a stop at Taco Bell (and we agreed that we had tacos for the last time), and in the afternoon we passed the ghost town (as from the horror movie) on the borders of the national park. Badlands is a beautiful country; as from the other planet, deserted and practically without the tourists. Incidentally, we decided for a drive through the field path and came to the fantastic view on the Sheep Mountain. The temperature was increasing rapidly and soon it was close to 100 F (37 Celsius degrees). 2 days ago it snowed! In the evening we arrived into the campground. It is crazy hot, no trees around, in the shade of which we can put the tents. We set forth with the ranger on the walk with a short commentaries; in the meantime, the clouds are getting on size and a sound Dakota storm begins (for the first time in my life I saw a horizontal lightning); we hardly managed to put up the tents in time. It stopped raining and after a half an hour the rainbow appeared on the sky; now, Peter tries to cook something and me, I am trying to write something before we go to the evening program prepared by the rangers.

Tuesday 7.7. (Scotts Bluff, Agate Fossil Beds)

Today we had the first of the long driving days, we covered the distance of about 650 kilometers, so that there was place for short stops only but still sufficient (compared to the yesterday snow it was fairly hot and completely cludless throughout the whole journey, even if not that unbearably -- moreover, the air-conditioning in car functions well). After the departure from the national park, the mouintains disappeared from the horizon pretty quickly, and so we got to the endless prairies, where around the highways a man sees only the grass, cattle and the wind-powered water pumps. We stopped at Wal-Mart for some necessities, for which we did not find time at the weekend. Walking by ScottsBluff was nice -- high cliff towered above the prairies -- around it the old Oregon Trail heading from the times of the Wild West. The next stop we made by the Agate Fossil Beds (petrified tree trunks with the first warning about the rattlesnakes). We tanked full and stopped by the Wind Cave, where we first saw the bizon, crossing the street right in front of us. In the campground we joined the evening program with ranger, talking about the prairies. We tried to cook something from the semiproducts from Wal-Mart but it looks like we will keep with the fast-food menu. I am finishing this entry, listening to the bizons (we camp at the side of the campgound and it is normal for the deers, elks and bizons to pass by the camp so I hape it will turn out the same way as with the bears yesterday).

Monday 6.7. (Rocky Mountain)

Early in the morning, we headed toward the first national park. Peter drives (which probably won´t change for a while :), slowly ploughing the altitude kilometers. The highest point, where we got with the car, has over 3700 meters above sea level -- thinner air was certainly enregistered, especially when we tried to walk somewhere. Rocky Mountains is a beautiful and varied national park (we lived through almost all kinds of weather, from scorching sun to rain and snow). Larger part of the park can be comfortably passed by car but we managed to set off on a longer walking trip -- indeed, the rain destroyed our plans ahead of the schedule, but beforehead, we got to the total wilderness full of completely tame well-fed marmots. When we arrived into the camp in one of the valleys of the national park, it was already after the rain and fairly cold; the night was far from warm. Luckily it was not snowing :). People in camps are very nice and polite (as a matter of fact, not only in camps). The grizzly phantom did not appear at night, neither it sieged Zuzka, who slept in the car where all the food was stored by rules of the camp. But when it started to rain at night, I envied Zuzka´s place, bear or no bear.

Sunday 5.7. (Denver)

In the morning, we picked up the car. Suzuki Grand Vitara -- smaller SUV, for our trip quite sufficient. It is red, year of production 2008, very nice car. Afterwards, Ken took us on the Denver sight-seeing; we saw Red Rocks Natural Amphiteatre (partially a natural stage with great acoustics), where concerts often take place but also masses. In the afternoon, Ken and the others prepared a picnic for us, so that we were a bit overeated afterwards (burger, sausage and the cake with Czech flag). Betty prepared for us plenty of stuff to take with on the trip -- they took a perfect care of us, we can only hardly payback their generosity. It rained again, same as in Saturday and Friday. Before sleeping, we walked along the trail in the open-space, near the place where Ken and Betty live, watching the colony of prairie dogs and the sunset above the Rocky Mountains with a pair of white pelicans on the lake. Denver has a beautiful suburbs.

Just a few days till Friday...

We have passed the state exams, so there is just a couple of things to arrange and we will be ready to go. For now, we would like to stick to the itinerary we planned in winter; with the exception of some places near Mexican border (this is because of the swine flu: no Mexicali, no Tijuana). We will see which sites from the planned route we will be actually able to visit. We are leaving Prague at 12:15 on Friday, July 3; and arriving in Denver at 18:15 local time. We will spend the weekend with friends and begin the road trip on Monday (first stop: Rocky Mountain NP). Hopefully all will go well.

Car for the trip

We have finally booked a car for our trip; it is Suzuki Grand Vitara, a small SUV. So now everything should be arranged. Just to finish all exams and we are ready to go.

Reservations completed

Today we have finished booking of accommodation for the trip. New reservations include 3 nights in the Upper Pines campground in Yosemite NP and hotel Fremont in Las Vegas. We tried to balance the need to have something arranged in advance (we will be visiting the US during the peak season) and freedom to adjust the itinerary on the way (for example, we have no reservations for the last few days of the trip).

Tasks for the coming months

1)   Choose a car and a rental company (March, Michal)
2)   Buy a GPS with US data (May, Petr)
3)   Book a campsite in Yosemite NP (March 15, Tomáš)
4)   Book a hotel in Las Vegas (March, Zuzka)
5)   Buy Rand McNally 2009 Road Atlas (April, Tomáš)
6)   Buy Woodall's Campground Directory 2009 (April, Tomáš)
7)   Make a list of essential items for the trip (April, Zuzka)
8)   Get the Frommer's guide to national parks (March, Petr)
9)   Book a campsite in Mesa Verde RV resort (March, Tomáš)
10) Summarize all the info about our reservations (April, Tomáš)
11) Explore the possibilities of charging cameras (etc.) in a car; US specifics. (May, Michal)

Itinerary update

We have finalized the itinerary during the Christmas; this version is definitive. For every day of the trip, there is an estimate of the distance we will drive (it should be pretty accurate, but there can be many detours, of course) and time (rather underestimation, in my opinion) it will take according to Google Maps. Some changes may occur in the map of the trip but it should not affect the dates of departures from and arrivals in the particular places (blue and red circles), unless there is some serious trouble. The only exception is the lap between Grand Canyon and Denver at the end of the trip—we have no reservations there, so we can adjust the schedule on the way.

The map has been updated as well; now there are suitable campgrounds (and a hotel in Vegas). It is necessary to book about half of the nights—we have already reserved most of them.

Once again... the Koruna weakens

The Czech Koruna keeps falling, and I have already stopped recalculating the expected costs of the trip :). I am glad we bought air tickets so early. Hopefully our currency will recover soon because since the first calculations in Summer, the dollar has strengthened by an half. Luckily this is partly compensated by cheaper oil (nowadays 30 % of its July USD price!). Who would expect that a few months ago…