TX-NM-AZ-CA-NV-UT-CO-WY-SD-NE-OK-TX, July 2018

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Freemont Street Experience

Las Vegas Strip attractions I visited today
Pawn Stars

This night visited a couple of places along the strip. Starting with a boat ride at the Venetian.

Watched firework show at The Mirage.

Watershow at The Bellagio Hotel

Called it a night. Tomorrow I get into Utah and start visiting The Mighty 5 Parks in Utah.

 

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The Mighty 5: Utah's National Parks. I start visiting them tomorrow.

This is the best video I found on youtube that showcases them. After watching this short video, anybody would be very interested in visiting these parks.

 

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Zion Canyon National Park.

Too bad last night the park area had 3 inches of rainfall that caused erosion and rock slides. This blocked some parts of the road in the park and forced officials to close many roads in the park. This blocked access to most of the favorite places in the park and many people visiting were disappointed and had to turn around.

So, there was not much for me to see and visit in the park.

Also, for people like me who was planning to use the scenic and short route from Zion to Bryce, it was not possible because of the road closure in Zion. I had to make a u-turn and take a very long road now to get to Bryce NP.

Here are a few of my pictures I got at Zion NP.

And this is the closure at the park. Just about 2 miles from the Springdale entrance to the park. So, really not much to see in the park while this road is closed.

 

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Cedar Breaks National Monument.

From Zion, I drove for 2 hours 30 minutes to get to Panguitch, UT to spend the night.

The plan was to take the scenic route that goes through Dixie Forest so I could visit Cedar Breaks National Monument. This was a very scenic route that took me up the mountain to an elevation of 10,400ft with freezing temperatures in the 50s. And in non stop rainfall.

Pointe Supreme lookout (Elevation 10,350). Very cold up here in the 50s when I just left Zion 2 hours ago in the high 90s.

Sunset View Overlook (Elevation 10,354)

Chessmen Ridge Overlook (Elevation 10,450)

Panguitch Lake. Great looking Lake in the heart of this town.

 

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Spent the night in Panguitch and left this morning for the 30 minutes drive to Bryce Canyon. But awesome views on scenic byway 12 made this 30 minutes drive a 2 hours drive. And I just got to Bryce with enough time to kill before hitting the trails.
These are pictures from scenic byway 12 which houses Red Rock Canyon.

The 2 tunnels

 

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Bryce Canyon National Park

Inspiration Point and Bryce Point

All the way at end of the park is Natural Bridge (Elevation 8,627)

Rainbow Point

 

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Grand Staircase Escalante Monument.

From Bryce Canyon NP, I continued on scenic hwy 12 to Escalante and then to Torrey to visit Capital Reef tomorrow.

These are pictures on scenic hwy 12 from Bryce to Torrey.

 

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My hotel was so nice to let me use their water hose to wash my car this evening.

Aerial shot of the hotel in Torrey, Utah

 

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Capitol Reef National Park.

 

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Today before leaving Capitol Reef NP, I went down a scenic tight dirt road on a scenic drive in the park. When I was driving out, I met this french family in a rented RV thinking would make it down the road.

The man stopped me and asked how bad the road was as they were already taking a beating from the road when I met them. I told them the sign says no RVs down the road and that is true.

He was so glad when he found out I could speak french, so he expressed himself well enough and I offered to help guide him to back out as as far as he could where he could turn around. I spent 15 minutes helping them until he was safely turned around. He thanked me a lot and said he will not venture offroad in an RV again.

I got it all on video, but cannot upload any time soon.

From there, it was time to leave Capitol Reef and drive 4 hours to Moab, UT. But halfway, had to make a stop at San Rafael view point.

 

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Yesterday, I made it to Moab early enough and checked into my hotel. Went to get some food and realized it was the first day of the launching of the Moab Food truck Park.

I was too early at the park since it was due to open in about an hour, so I went away and returned 2 hours later.

The place was full of people, live music and good food. Not a lot of food choices, but enough for me to go to order food from 3 vendors; chinese food, Mexican food and tea an order of donut holes.

So, it is good to know now that Moab offers a Food Truck park. The food was decent and no way remarkably cheaper than some restaurants in town. But it was a bit cheaper.

Panoramic shots of basically a 360 view of the park from the dining area at the park.

After eating, it was time to go do a bit of offroading and I went and tackled Gemini Bridges.

 

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Before offroading, I stopped by the park to visit the visitor center and plan for my trip again there today.

Today, I mustered enough strength and energy to do the longest hike I have ever done at a national park. A 3 miles round trip which took me a total of 2 hours 40 minutes, including the 20 minutes I spent at the arch. This is the hike to visit and see in person and stand under the Delicate Arch. Utah's pride and the most famous Arch in the US.

Though the hole is not a really tough arch, the main difficult area is a very steep slick rock that people have to climb. And sadly, I went at a bad time of the day when the sun's heat was getting really hard on hikers. If you know the Utah heat and can imagine what it is going up a steep hill under Utah's sun, then you will understand it must have been tough. The park rates the trail as difficult and you must take water with you or the heat may kill you. I took 3 bottles and drank them all by the time I was back at the parking lot to my car. The good thing is that everybody is friendly and many people are willing to share their water if someone is in distress. Like the wife of this guy gave up halfway and asked him to go and see the Delicate Arch while she said she will rest at the halfway point where she was and then will slowly make it back to their car to wait for him. And just before the turn to see the Arch is a steep ledge. Another lady gave up and said she was tired and scared of the ledge and asked her husband to go without him. He went, but when he came back many people had gathered and encouraged the wife to make it as they said they would hold her and keep her away from the ledge and closer to the wall. So, he took his wife on the 5 minutes walk to the last part to view the Arch. It was such a great site.

After the hike up, the descend was not bad at all but the heat was terrible. When I got to my car, it was baking hot! And the temperature read 114 degrees. And it felt like it also.

From the parking lot of the park, I headed straight for the parking lot of a bbq restaurant snd had a feast of a meal.

 

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Yesterday went and did Canyonland National Park and Shafer Trail.

 

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Today, left Moab, UT and drove 3 hours to Telluride. Got there and aired down and went straight on Black Bear Pass to climb up to Bridal Veil Falls. I was so impressed by the tons of stock vehicles I met up at Bridal Veils and all with stock street tires not aired down at all. They all defied the rules for offroading.

I run my 33s at 45psi for my daily use. But when I go offroad, I air down to 28psi. Not as low as other offroad cars with a lot of meat on their tires who go down to 18. 28 is just good enough for my low profile tires and it does just fine.

Lower Bridal Falls

Upper Bridal Veil Fall. The point where everybody must turn around. I met a lot of stock vehicles here. Most 4x4s. Some just AWD. And 3 Subarus. All with stock street tires.

 

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Today was a busy day on the trail. My Infiniti surprised me with its performance and did remarkably. Left hotel at 6am, returned at 6pm with over 7 hours of trail driving today.

Hurricane Pass 12,750ft

Lake Como by California Pass

California Pass 12,960ft

Engineer Pass 12,800ft

Abandoned mine on my way to Animas Forks

Cinnamon Pass 12,640ft

Animas Forks. Drone shot.

Black Bear Pass 12,840ft. A badger decided to pose too in my pic.

After a full day of offroading and after over 7 hours of putting my truck through the most offroad it has done in a day, it was time to air up and head to the hotel.