Three weeks in USA National Parks and west coast. Part 1

Motorbike: Harley-Davidson Electra Glide
Accomodation: the easiest way to find a roof in every part of America is a motel. We didn’t book anything in advance only in the most touristic places and National Parks although we could avoid it also.

Food: isn’t really various, mostly sweet and fat. It’s not so easy to find even a good quality burger. Healthy food costs. You’ll much easier get unlimited Coca-Cola than drinking water. But we must admit impressive ability of Americans to promote their recipes: pasta Chicken Alfredo and spaghetti meatballs are more famous in the world than classical Carbonara. Some dishes we found very interesting anyhow: quality burger is a king of all dishes, grilled lobsters, giant grilled mussels, traditional soup from West coast – clam chowder. And there is a big community of Japanese which food is fabulous.

San Francisco.


Once we landed in San Francisco after a good run at the airport of Frankfurt and 2 hours of delay in Toronto the first thing we decided to do at 2 in the morning is going to eat the real American burger at Mels. Five hours later we’d already been awake ready to explore new country. The beautiful thing about most big american cities is multiethnicity. Monumental downtown, colorful Chinese district, Castro gay district, trying to find out who killed Laura Palmer in mysterious Twin Peaks, skyscrapers, Pier 39 invaded by seals, longest harbor with bars where you can taste a famous clam chowder soup.
We took our Electra Glides from https://www.eaglerider.com/. Check all the aspects of the insurance included beforehand and anyway you’ll have to pay extra. The insurance system in the USA is very complicated.

Nevada desert.

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Aa soon as we left the city walls GPS navigator told us to proceed for another 180 miles without changing the direction. That gave us an idea of how vast is this country and how long will be the road. So it left only to admire desert landscape.

Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.


It took us a couple of days to get to Yellowstone, one of the largest and wildest national parks, that spreads in three states – Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. And the first evening we decided to pass watching local rodeo – a couple of local cowboys and cowgirls organized the show with riding a bucking bull and demonstrating their high skills on horse riding.

Rodeo

Rodeo, Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone is mostly attractive for its outstanding wildlife and the world’s biggest geyser Old Faithful erupting every 1,5 hours. It’s one of the few places in the world where you can easily meet a herd of bisons , reindeers or even Grizzly. Enormous spaces opens to your eyes, when you drive up the hill.
Before entering the park we’ve got U.S. National park annual pass which is valid for two motorcycles. To visit only main attractions it took us two days of constant driving and a lot of walking – this is something not to be underestimated – to hundreds of kilometers you make by bike you should add dozens of kilometers made by feet.


The road of Grand Teton National Park leads you through endless forest and rivers and peaceful lakes. Farmers from Idaho come here on there boats to eat some pizza and talk to passing tourists.

Bryce Canyon.


Very particular park, someone calls it the most beautiful in US, Is composed by amphitheatres of thousands of hoodoos formed by erosion. The color of bricks is prevalent and in light of sunrise it must be something special. You can visit all sites in half a day and arrange a trip also to Zion National Park but we had a long way to go to another important destination – Grand Canyon.

Indian Reservation Navajo.DSC_0621_1

Only the road by itself is something incredible particularly in the rays of sundown. When we had no more power to go we saw this small village down the road. No lights, nice motel, restaurant and an ethnic shop all managed by Navajo Indians, hard-faced but openhearted people.
Today Indians are considered in America a kind of “protected species”, they have their pension and some activities to be carried out, a lot of them are drinking. Sad situation especially when you see the beauty of nature that they’d preserved.

Horseshoe bend and Antelope Canyon.


Another free show that nature offers you is a bend of the Colorado River. Practically the river turns 360 degrees forming the curve that reminds a horseshoe.
An idea to visit Antelope Canyon came to us while we were staying in Indian Reservation. It consists of two small canyons – upper and lower – and guided exclusively by authorized Navajo Nation to protect their authentic territory and also because during the rainy period it’s very dangerous to enter the canyon because of the flooding. One of the most famous Microsoft screensaver was shot in this natural wonder under the interplay of light, color and shadow.

Grand Canyon.


Overwhelming Watching geological layers of the canyon you can trace the history of Earth from the dawn of times. And the best way to do it not only from above but also going down the tracks.
Inside everything is organized very well – public transportation, parking, horse riding, rafting, trekking and excursions by helicopter… We’ve chosen to move with a shuttle inside the park therefore and it was the best choice we made because at a certain moment the weather is changed, which is quite normal for this season and we found ourselves under the heaviest rain and lightning. In these occasions shuttle service picks up all the people from outside.
You can easily explore the Grand Canyon for entire week but after a couple of days we had to leave to follow our plan.

Here is a link to a second part of our trip with a road map:

Three weeks in USA National Parks and west coast. Part 2

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