Day 6: Vegas

We got up at 6am to pack up camp and set off for the bright lights of Vegas! We left early so that we would have that little bit extra time in a hotel – with real beds and non-campsite showers.

After a wrong turn a five hour journey turned into a seven hour one. But that didn’t matter when we arrived at The Golden Nugget Hotel in Downtown Vegas, because we were all so happy to finally have a night in a hotel, and a luxury hotel at that. A few of us went thrift shopping with Clayton, with the plan to find fancy outfits to wear that night. The guys found some suits and bow ties, but the clothes available for the girls were not so glamorous! Luckily we had all brought outfits with us anyway – so not a complete disaster! We had a quick drive down the strip before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the night out.

Welcome to Vegas!

Day 5: The Grand Canyon

Today was an early start – the earliest of the whole trek in fact. But it was well worth getting up at 4:30am to catch the sunrise over the Grand Canyon. It was so beautiful to see, with all the different colours of the rocks under the shadow of the sun coming up. Again, it was nothing that could quite be captured in a photo, although I did try my best!

Sunrise over the canyon

Day 4: The Grand Canyon

Day 4 consisted of another long van day with a couple of interesting stops along the way!

The first stop of the day was at Lake Havasu City to see the original London Bridge. The bridge, which was originally built in of course London, was bought by a rich man (Robert P. McCulloch) and reassembled in Arizona in the late 60s/early 70s, in a fake English town. But it was unlike any English town I have ever been to. Imagine an idyllic Shakesperean village with palm trees that’s about 30 degrees hotter than actual England.

London in America

Day 3: Travelling to the Colorado River

Day 3 was spent mostly in the van, with the occasional stop along the way to our destination for that evening: the Colorado River, Arizona. We packed up camp and waved goodbye to San Diego, and set off on the road at around 10am.

The first stop was at a gas station. Not something I would usually consider worth mentioning, but it was about 40°C, and the air was dryer than anything I had experienced before. By the end of the trek 40°C+ was pretty standard, but there and then it was quite something! I still can’t get my head around how people can live and work in such a heat, and some of the people I saw I was just mesmerised by. There was this man in jeans and a flannel shirt, and he didn’t appear to even be breaking a sweat. I on the other hand, was in shorts and a crop top, and had been sitting on an air conditioned van for most of the day, and I was most certainly breaking a sweat!

The first proper stop of the day was at Salvation Mountain, one of the oddest places I have ever been to. The only word that I can think of that properly describes the mountain is trippy. Salvation Mountain is a man-made mountain in the middle of the Colorado Desert, made out of adobe, straw and paint. It was created by a Christian man, Leonard Knight, in order to show his love for God. I’m not religious at all, but it was still cool to see. It was so colourful that it looked surreal in the middle of the barren desert, and aside from all the religious messages about sinners accepting Jesus, it did look pretty in a peculiar sort of way.

Salvation Mountain

Day 2: San Diego

The second day of the trek was a free day in San Diego. The majority of the group decided to go to the beach, but Tom, Ffion (one of our fellow trekkers) and I decided to go to San Diego Zoo. Before this trip I had never been to a zoo, so to be able to go to the best zoo in the world was pretty exciting, and an opportunity I couldn’t really say no to.

Clayton dropped us off at 10am, and was going to pick us up at around 4pm. Initially I thought that 6 hours was a bit too long, and that we would run out of things to do. But the zoo was massive, and we ended up only seeing about two thirds of it! It was definitely worth the experience to see all those animals up close, I didn’t realise how big some animals are before seeing them on this visit. Giraffes are massive – I knew they were tall, but I was genuinely surprised by how tall they actually were! However I probably wouldn’t go to a zoo again, it’s the sort of thing I feel that once you’ve done it  once you don’t need to do it again. Especially seeing as how San Diego Zoo is considered to be the best zoo in the world!

Day 1: LA/San Diego

Tom and I arrived onto American soil (or tarmac) late on Wednesday the 22nd of July, and we were eager to start our Trek America adventure the following morning.

We were up bright and early on the Thursday, ready to meet our trek group at 7:30am. I was a little bit apprehensive about meeting everyone at first – I’d read blog posts about Trek America before coming and some mentioned that one awkward person on the trek who hogged all the wifi and charger points, and who didn’t pull their weight in camp. But I soon saw I had nothing to worry about, everyone was super friendly, and throughout the trek everybody did their bit in camp whether it was the cooking or cleaning, and there were no arguments over who got to charge their phone on the van!

After a slight delay, because our trek leader got caught in LA traffic, we were on the road to San Diego! It was about a two to three hour drive, and even though I was slightly tired I didn’t want to fall asleep because the sights out the windows were nothing like anything I’d seen before. There were these amazing houses as we travelled out of LA, like the ones in The OC, and massive billboards along the roadside, which I have never seen anywhere in the UK.

Hotel del Coronado, San Diego

Final Week

I am writing this from a hotel in Manhattan Beach – the final destination of our holiday!
Tom and I both had the most amazing time on the trek. With every single location offering memorable experiences, from the bright lights of Vegas to the ridiculous temperatures of Death Valley (seriously, it was about 54 degrees Celsius). My personal favourite place was Yosemite, and San Diego a close second (although I would loved to have seen much more of the city).
Originally my plan was to write blog posts along the way as we travelled through West America. But a combination of a jam packed schedule and a lack of WiFi has meant I haven’t been able to. However, I have been keeping a detailed journal, so once I am back in the UK I will be able to write in depth posts accompanied by some pretty brilliant photos!

Yosemite