Highway 1 and Hearst Castle July 21th 2008

My trip in the wild wild west ended with the drive south on Highway Nr. 1. It was only since a few days, before that was burning there and the road had to be closed.
The drive is very scenic with beautiful views:



The fires had reached the Highway 1. These trees here are brown because of it.





They had a sealion colony there. Most of them relaxed and warmed up in the sun.


Some teenage male sealions did some noisy fighting to train their fighting.



One highlight on HW1 is the Hearst Castle. The publisher Hearst bought lots of arts and collected it here. The styles are mixed together and many rooms looked funny. It looked a little kitschy, but had its special charm.


I loved the pools, either the outside pool:



Or the inside pool:

And having a meeting here must be special:



Here ends my trip in the wild west, I saw many beautiful places, had fun with my friends and met some strange guys too. I drove over 5000km, America is very big.

San Fransisco July 19th 2008

I drove one day into San Fransisco. I had to go with the cable car, a funny relict from the past.

And saw the famous steep winding road:


One of my favorite things there was a museum with old gambling and gaming machines:

Here you can watch an execution ;-)


Or test your hottness

Or let yourself tell your future.

All machines are still working and are waiting desperately for your quarters!

campbell July 17th 2008

Then I visited my friend Carsten with his wife Zsusa in Campbell. He told me to drive through the mountains and stop at the Panoche Inn.



The owners there live a peaceful life. I had a nice talk with him. Some day he started to pin his tips on the ceiling. His guests liked this. I also added one dollar and wrote some good wishes onto the banknote. When he will retire he can collect all the dollars ;-)


One attraction of Campbell is Winchester House. It belonged to a lady which belongs to the rifle company owner family. She was superstitous and one fortuneteller told her that she should always construct on her house to protect herself from all the souls which have been killed by her rifles. That is was she did till she died. A funny house with some funny architecture...

Sequoia NP July 14th 2008

My last Park was the Sequoia National Park. The main attraction there are the Giant Trees, the Sequoias. The trees are big and tall... but ugly.


At the time of the first settlers, fallen trees had been used as houses. The trees are big enough for this as you can see:




This is the biggest tree of the world called General Sherman. The crown is dead but the tree is still growing.


It is not the tallest tree but the biggest one:


They grow slowly and can get very old. They even can survive fires because their crowns are very high and the fires don´t reach them. Their bark is also very thick to protect them.


I talked with a US couple, they told me how many bears they saw at Yellowstone NP, I was a little sad that I saw none.. then I heard some noise in the background looked up and saw.....
MY FIRST BEAR in the wild!!!



Another small attraction was a historic gas station which is still in use. You fill the tank visually and pay by the gallon which was displayed in the glass ;-)

Yosemite NP July 12th 2008

The Yosemite NP was the busiest one. I had problems finding accommodation and ended up outside the park. The upper valley was very beautiful and not so crowed like the Yosemite Valley.


It was a pleasure to cool down my feet in the cold water.

I did a hike to the top of the Lambert Rock. From there you have a nice overview. On my way down my camera fell out of my case and was scratched. Luckily it survived this accident.


The formations have been very interesting:

The meadows have been very scenic. You can rent a boat and ride slowly down.

Death Valley July 10th 2008

Of course I had to go to the Death Valley. It is a strange looking landscape, not cozy and very very hot.

The deepest point is 85m below sea level and is called Badwater.

Click on this picuture!! In the background you can see a foreign runner group... Crazy people..

Badwater is also one of the hottest places on earth. My car thermometer showed 125 degrees Fahrenheit which is 51 grad Celsius.


The scenery was strange but also beautiful.




I did a short hike into a valley. During this half hour the bottle of water I took with me was heated up and tasted awful at the end.

Zion National Park July 8th 2008

Some friends asked me, which was my favorite parc in the US. Its hard to decide, probably it was this one, the Zion NP.



I had a unusual accommodation, the Village of many Nations. The first night I slept in a Tipi:



Inside i looked so:


The night was very cold, i was freezing in my sleeping bag. And no squaw was with me to warm me during the night, poor Winnetou had to freeze....




The second night I sleept in a Hoogan, which was much much warmer. I made a fire in the oven the light was reflected from the walls. Outside it was completly dark and silent, I was far far away from civilisation. The Hoogan from outside:


Inside view:


They also had a show, where an Indian told us many things about his culture and did a raindance.



In the park itself I did a walk through a river. It is very long, I did the short version. The long version is a full day with many kilometers in the water, you will need a bus transport for this version.

I did this hike twice, the second time I had proper equipment and also my walking sticks.

The best hike there was up to Angels Landing. From there you have a nice overview over the valley, but you need courage, it goes straigth down over 1200 meters and is not secured. For the last part of this hike I was not brave enough, it goes over a very narraw path to the top.


On my last day there I did a short horse riding trip, was nice but not so spectacular like the hikes.

Bryce Canyon July 6th 2008

To keep the order of my blog here is my next stop after Toadpoles, the Bryce Canyon National Park. The funny thing was the weather. The park is quite high, it was raining very much and at the highest point it even had some snow! I was not expecting this but was prepared with my rain trousers.



From the rim you have a magnificent view over the amphitheater as it is called. The sandstone formations and the colors are very beautiful.



I did a nice hike down and met a french family and had a nice conversation with them. The hike down was funny.And seeing the formations from the bottom was also very nice.