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.