US diary // part 4

And here it is: the last part of our California/Nevada/Arizona diary.

As I mentioned in the previous post, we woke up in a true American motel located in Ridgecrest, where we had our breakfast and took off for Death Valley. Death Valley National Park is a desert, and the highest temperature ever recorded there was 56.7 ° C. It is, as people like to call it, a land of extremes. Its Badwater Baisin marks the lowest elevation in North America (86 m below the sea level). I highly highly recommend visiting this park, just be make sure you bring A LOT of water. It truly is a unique sight and it honestly blew our minds that one day we can almost melt in one of the hottest places in the world and the other we are freezing in jackets. America’s vast diversity is really one of a kind.

We spent the night in Las Vegas and thus crossed the state line between California and Nevada. To be honest, Las Vegas (being filled with casinos, hotels and fake foreign attractions) is not really our kind of thing so we just slept there and in the morning continued with our journey. The next park to cross off our bucket list was Valley of Fire, which is named after breath-taking red sandstone formations. It offers the most stunning view of nature’s wonders and will definitely leave you speechless.

On our way to Williams, we crossed another state line between Nevada and Arizona and crossed the famous Hoover Dam. This engineering marvel is a concrete arch-gravity dam, constructed during the Great Depression.

The next morning, we woke up in historic Williams, which lies on the road of Historic Route 66 (one of the original highways within the US Highways system covering a total of 3,940 km). We visited a lovely cafe for breakfast where we basically stuffed our faces with pancakes and headed to glorious Grand Canyon. And it really is grand. It offers spectacular views that send shivers down your spine and make you realize just how mighty nature can be and how small you really are.

After our grand visit (it never gets old), we took off for our longest drive yet since we had to return to California, where we booked our Airbnb. The drive lasted for approximately 5 hours, so we arrived to our lovely apartment in Twentynine Palms at around 11 pm and fell sound asleep.

When we woke up and had our dose of caffeine, we drove to hot Palm Springs and took a stroll around the city. We didn’t spend much time there though, since the heat was almost unbearable (around 35 °C). 

We had lunch at Grill-A-Burger and ate delicious avocado fries. When we were fed and full, it was time to visit the last national park. Joshua Tree National Park offers surreal geologic features and a fascinating variety of plants. I especially loved the ’little’ Cholla Cactus Garden and Keys View, where we watched our last American sunset.

Then it was time to pack and prepare for the next day. We had a connecting flight LAX-Rome-Venice and arrived to Ljubljana at around 11 pm on Sunday 14^th May.

All in all, this trip was amazing. Everything went smoothly, Americans are the kindest, nature is unreal, and the roads are in great condition. What I liked most? My favorite destinations were LA and Laguna Beach, and I absolutely loved driving on Hwy 1 and seeing the endless coast. In contrast, my boyfriend liked San Fran the most. However, whether you prefer the beach, parks, tall buildings or paved roads, America has them all. I have lost count of how many ooh’s and aah’s we uttered on our adventure and it’s only a matter of time until we book another overseas ticket.

Until the next time, America!

♡

^{2pac feat Dr.Dre - California Love}