Ubertramp noun: One who has recently left their home and employment seeking a life of pure recreation. Often equipped with tidy clothing and an array of gadgets (cellphones, laptops etc) left over from days when gainfully employed, Ubertramps may easily fool an observer into believing that they have more money than is actually the case. This quality is often utilised by Ubertramps in keeping a low profile when visiting such places as foyers of upmarket hotels (where they are not actually guests) whilst they poach hot-tubs, scab wireless internet and plunder ice machines.
Taking a break on the open plains of Idaho
The great American road trip has begun! If only after an unbelievably stressful last few days (thanks a million whistler weather for dumping snow on us while we were trying to move out of our apartment) and even if all our worldly belongings were more hurled in the back of the van than carefully stowed in their rightful place. In true west coast style, the snow gave way to pouring rain as we hit sea level and continued through the night as we caught up with friends in Vancouver with a deluge that lasted all the way to Seattle. We stayed with a household in which we had formerly couchsurfed, Lynn was an angel offering us plenty of mental support as we tried to get the van tidied into some sort of order that we might actually be able to inhabit. She also gave us a bit of a tour of the city since the sun had finally come out making sightseeing a little more appealing.
We pointed the van East and set off for Yellowstone, the nation’s first national park. Things got a little tense around Idaho, as we struggled with crappy signage and a seemingly endless list of fairly (if you ask us) overrated attractions that we seemed to spend hours driving in circles trying to find. Both on the verge of turning around and going the hell home, we thankfully stumbled into ‘little city of rocks’ right on sunset which was most definitely an underrated destination! We had it all to ourselves and stayed overnight exploring the bizarre landscape a little more in the morning.
Nothing else calms the stress like a campfire
An early morning walk up the valley got us inspired again
Our faith was restored, perhaps we had not made a mistake and everything would be OK.... Little did we know, that emotional rollercoaster some people refer to as travelling, was about to dive again. As the temperature began to drop with each mile, it dawned on us that Yellowstone park would still be blanketed in snow and mostly inaccessible. Silly tourists, we should have checked of course, but it was spring in Vancouver, we figured surely everything south will be warmer right? We decided that it just was not meant to be and headed south to Utah where things started looking up fast! We were thrilled to find that one of our favourite bands ‘The Presets’ were on tour in Salt Lake City the following day. Afterentering the venue and spending about 20 minutes looking for the bar, it finally hit me, we were in the heart of Mormon country and there probably was no bar. Well not to worry, when your car is your house you can easily slip out for a sly drink or two in the parking lot between sets. Felt a bit like a naughty teenager but what the hell, we had a great night! In our post gig euphoria, we finally settled on a name for the van too, ‘Mrs Robinson’. We were driving up the steep hill out of town and the song started to play on the radio, we figured why not... she is old, but she still turns heads!
The Presets can still get a room jumping, even without the help of alcohol
Just out of Park City, we had stopped near a trailhead in the forest and a mountain biker approached us asking if we might have an allan key. Happy to oblige, we started chatting and before we knew it, we had been invited to stay the night. The promise of a hot shower was too tempting to resist and we spent the night getting to know our new friends Nate and Anna, swapping stories and admiring their extensive collection of photos of them doing impressive things in stunning locations. After mentioning that we wanted to visit the Midway ‘Hot Pots’, a really cool group of hot springs where hot water has formed huge domes of minerals, Anna mentioned that if we were heading to Moab and wanted a good soak that we should check out Diamond Fork springs too. Thanks for the tip, we loved it!! A gorgeous hike up to a bunch of beautiful hot pools on the river and a pretty waterfall, could you ask for more? After soaking the afternoon away, we were just about to head back to the car when we ran into a couple of friendly guys from Salt Lake, soaking in a pool further downstream. They asked for our help, their mates had not turned up leaving them with a whole crate of beer to either drink or carry out again! Ha, how could we refuse! The guys gave us some more great tips for things to see along the way too which was very much appreciated. After plenty of beers and with the weather rapidly turning nasty we decided it would be best to stay put in the parking lot at the trailhead and we climbed over the back to sleep it off.
This beautiful hotpool, which you can rent diving gear to explore, is entirely enclosed in a dome of minerals deposited by the springwater.
Ahhhhh! Nature's bathtub.
The following day we made our way to Moab, a little foggy from the night before and also little surprised to be getting lashed by a blizzard and several inches of snow. What on earth, we thought we had left that in Canada! To our relief, as we approached Moab the weather began to behave a little more desert like as we had expected, and we spent the following week exploring the stunning National parks surrounding what is a very cute little town in the middle of nowhere!
Corona Arch was being used by a group of rockclimbers for rapelling practice.
Biking in Canyonlands NP
It really is a paradise for outdoor recreation with amazing opportunities to hike, mountain bike, raft and jeep in every place you look. We explored the Arches NP, which is famous for....well arches! We did some slickrock mountain biking on the smooth sandstone trails that bikers flock to the area to ride, and even took Mrs Robinson up the Shafer Trail. Just a little way up the road from where ‘Thelma & Louise’ went over the edge, this road was a real heart starter, winding its way up the cliff to the top of the mesa. What a view though, the top is part of the ‘island in the sky’ district of the Canyonlands NP and it is literally like floating above the earth with sheer cliffs on all sides. After taking in the panorama, we did an overnight hike into the ‘upheaval dome’, an amazing circular crater which nobody quite seems to be able to decide how it was formed.
Double Arch in Arches NP
Its breakfast time!
With campsites like this, we felt like we had the whole desert to ourselves.
Spot the van
Justine checks out the Shafer trail which we just ascended
The fun aint over yet! The road meanders along the mesa top uncomfortably close to the edge
What a view!
Justine at the edge of the 'Island in the Sky'. Note the white rim visible on the lower plateau
Red rock turns a deeper hue at sunset hiking near the upheaval dome
Slickrock trails like this make Moab famous in the mountainbiking community
Canyonlands NP is absolutely huge with 3 separate districts, ‘the maze’ was extremely remote so we skipped that but did give the Needles district a visit on the way out of Moab. Another overnight hike was in order as the rocks here are pretty unique. We were getting pretty tired from all this exploring and figured we would camp a short way in and explore the network of trails in the morning without the heavy packs. Well I got a bit blasé with the navigation and stuffed that idea! We got a fair way up the wrong trail and figured that going back would be almost as far as circling around, but didn’t factor in that the new route was a lot more demanding! Trying to clamber through a slot canyon with a full pack is not so funny! Trying to follow a trail consisting of small rock ‘cairns’ in the dark is even less funny! We did make it to our designated camp at around midnight, totally exhausted nonetheless. The following day we managed to muster enough energy to explore at least a little of what we had planned, and were rewarded with some stunning views of the needles formations.
Narrow sections in slot canyons were tricky to negotiate with full backpacks
As the daylight faded, the hike became more challenging!
The payoff, beautiful formations of the needles
We continued on our way across the desert, stopping at a really nice little slot canyon that (Cameron & Paul, the boys at the hot spring) had told us about. It was well worth the detour, beautiful rippled walls of red sandstone that stretch for a good Km or two. We even got a bit wet in one section that still had a fair amount of water pooled in the bottom.
After all this activity, we decided that Escalante NP was best admired from the road since we were pretty stuffed by then! Lazy you might say – HA! Not as lazy as the American couple we overheard arguing at our next stop in Bryce Canyon – she wanted to take the shorter trail (shorter being 0.1 mile!) because she “wouldn’t want to do anything too hard”. Hmmm, perhaps one day there will be an escalator, dear!
Peek a boo! Little Wild Horse Canyon was an impressive tribute to the power of water
A kilometre or two of sculpted rock make this one of the prettiest slot canyons we visited
Even to drive through Escalante NP is a spectacular experience
Despite being a little bit ‘rocked out’ by then, Bryce was still a pretty impressive sight. Soft pinks and oranges of muddy stone as far as you can see all carved into bizarre formations. It was certainly a bit different to most of the ‘rock’ attractions we had seen. Driving further around the NP circuit, we came to Zion NP and after popping through its iconic tunnel built carved through the sandstone in the 1920's and catching sight of the canyon we thought, wow, we really need to spend some TIME here. It was a tough call as our buddies Nick and Juliana were in Vegas for a couple of days and we really wanted to push on and see them. We decided that a little city time might get us back in the mood to go hiking again and that perhaps we would appreciate the park more if we came back a bit later, so we headed off to the bright lights for the odd dollar margarita and a bit of fun.
Aptly named 'Wall Street' area of Bryce Canyon
The striking Checkerboard Mesa (above), and the Mt Carmel tunnel make for an interesting welcome to Zion NP
It was great to see our budddies Nick and Juliana
Returning to Zion proved to be a great idea. We spent almost a week exploring trails up and down the canyon which are stunning. The canyon was created by the Virgin River, and is an amazing contrast from the desert – it is filled with lush green forests, waterfalls and even ferns which can survive in the moist microclimate within towering sandstone cliffs. The vast array of rock formations have biblical names given to them by the Mormon pioneers that settled the valley. It is really nice just to be there and enjoy the surroundings and of course much more pleasant temperatures for hiking than some of the other sun baked parks we had been to. The highlight would have to be Angels Landing – a hike up to a high sandstone peninsula that juts out into the middle of the canyon. At one point the trail is only a few feet wide with a 1200ft drop on one side and a 900ft drop on the other. I have to admit, I was shitting my pants! It was breathtaking though.
The Three Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
Waterfall in the desert
Climbing 'Walter's Wiggles' on the trail to Angel's Landing
Yep, we're going up there!
Hold on to that chain, its a long way down!
A rest at the top
Waste from this restroom on the trail is choppered out!
We made some friends along the way
Hidden paradise in the desert
On the right, the 'Altar of Sacrifice' has a spooky red stain
Passing through Vegas once more, we decided to try something different and visit the old district. The original ‘strip’ that preceded the line-up of theme park style megacasinos that most people think of when Vegas is mentioned. It is very ‘old school’ with the original light bulb style signs that were used before neon stole the show. The city fixed the area up a bit a few years back to try and shake off the seedy reputation it had and it definitely succeeded. Very cool vibe with loads of cheap drinks, free live music and performances on the street, and of course the world’s largest TV screen! Yep, its about 4 blocks long and suspended above the street. Every hour all the casino lights shut off up and down the street and a themed show plays out on the screen with music and lights. Trashy, but cool – like me...ha ha! To keep some perspective, we did some biking on an old rail line near the Hoover dam, and also visited an awesome hotspring. It was a 2 mile hike/canyoneering effort (after a dodgy $6.99 all-you-can eat buffet, no less) to a group of hot pools we had all to ourselves to soak for hours and watch the stars twinkle between canyon walls. Still blows me away that such a great and relatively unknown spot is only a couple of miles from a major tourist attraction.
Appropriate slogan flashed up on the giant monitors just as I took this pic
New bridge at the Hoover Dam being constructed to divert traffic from driving over the dam wall, vehicles are currently stopped / searched for exlosives because of the possibility of terrorist attacks
Water level is low, I guess it is not just Australia having water issues
Rail trail near the Hoover Dam
Joshua trees in Mojave National Preserve
Stalactites in Mitchell caverns, Mojave NP
Pretty cacti are about the only thing that survives on the rocky lava
Inside the Lava tube
General Sherman in the Sequoia NP, one of the largest trees in the world
Mojave was cool, we wandered amongst the Joshua trees and cacti, so nicely arranged you would swear that they had been landscaped. Also did a bit of caving and explored a lava tube there too. Ticking days off the calendar, we realised that we really had to make tracks to San Francisco, so after a quick stop on the way at the Sequoia NP to see the giant trees, we put the pedal down and headed for the city we had heard so much about. Well it certainly did not disappoint, we were fortunate enough to have a friend to stay with – actually several friends! We ended up couchsurfing, ironically at couchsurfing HQ, the home and office of those wonderful people that tend to the website. They have several offices that move periodically, staff and all, around the world. With the company growing, logistics were getting tricky so they were setting up an additional fixed location in SF. With many people still on placement, we were lucky enough to score our own room too. We also had a houseful of travel-loving new buddies to take in the sights and sounds of the city. We were barely settled in when our new friends Mars and Jackie invited us to join them at a 3 day music festival. It sounded great and best of all, it was free! Everybody piled into Mrs Robinson and we set off for UC Davis, a college town north of the city. Tonight we would be couchsurfing with our San Francisco hosts, whoa....double surf!!! Our Davis hosts were really great too, Tony and Stephanie welcomed us with open arms. We all had a lovely time at the festival and also exploring the town. Beautiful tree lined streets and tons of delicious and affordable ethnic food to try. We also ended up at a huge college party, even if I did feel a bit like a ‘toolie’ with most of the crowd a good ten years younger than me. We also got to hang out late into the night with some local students at ‘the domes’ – a student sustainable housing initiative where they built 14 small fibreglass dome apartments back in the 70’s. It runs as a co-op with students tending to vegetable gardens and chickens etc. Apparently the project was intended to run for ten years, but the domes are still used for student housing today!
After the festival, we still managed to make it back to SF in time to take in the tail end of the ‘How Weird’ street festival. Holy crap, these people know how to party – multiple stages, crazy costumes, gratuitous nudity, you name it! I am sure you would be arrested in any other city in the USA, but not here. I think what I loved most about San Francisco is how extroverted most people seem to be.
Tony and Stephanie, our hosts in Davis relax on the grass and take in the good vibes at the 'Whole Earth' festival
Shovelman - yes his guitar is a shovel!
Biking under the Bay Bridge
Lombard street is so steep, it zig-zags up the hill and in many other streets we saw, cars were parked sideways to prevent runaways
Streetcar with Alcatraz in the background
View from the pier
Now that we had some good city time in, we decided to take a side trip to Yosemite. By sheer luck more so than good planning, Whistler buddies James & Yana were also about to head that way. We managed to coordinate picking them up and spent an amazing couple of days in the park. It was prime time for waterfall viewing at the peak of the spring snowmelt and we certainly got our fair share. The scale of the place is just phenomenal. Got very drenched on the appropriately named mist trail, but that’s OK, it was a welcome cool down on the mostly vertical trail that ascends the cliff right next to one of the biggest waterfalls I have ever seen. We left James and Yana in the park, as they were going to do some longer overnight hikes with friends that had arrived for the weekend, and we headed back to SF.
Views of Yosemite Valley
James and Yana pause at a viewpoint on the trail
Interesting tree with Bridal Veil falls in background
Bridal Veil falls
Who could resist this little poser
Climbing the Mist Trail
Vernal falls
James at the top of Vernal Falls
Yana with a huge standing wave at a fast flowing rapid above the Emerald Pool
Nevada Falls
Coming back to the city for the weekend proved to be a good idea, we got to attend the annual ‘bay to breakers’. A 10 mile marathon from one side of the city to the other may not sound like that much fun, but this is San Francisco! There may have been a couple of registered ‘serious’ runners in there somewhere, but they were more than outnumbered by costumed revellers with carts and trolleys loaded with booze who successfully turned it into the world’s longest moving party! Even houses along the route got in on the action throwing parties of their own. By the time we reached the finish line, we were feeling pretty happy from all the enroute entertainment and beverages, especially when we realised there was plenty of delicious food for sale and live music in the park to watch.
They all look so awkward because they are walking backwards - the crowd doesn't stop moving, it is a marathon, after all
Oah Yeah!
Random leapfrogger couldn't resist jumping our 6 and a half foot mate
When it was all over we got to celebrate with live bands and half a chook on a stick!
With just a few days between San Francisco and picking up Justine’s folks in Vancouver (they would be joining us for 6 weeks of travelling), we needed to make tracks up the coast. The trip was mostly uneventful except for running out of gas at the very top of a mountain pass, the needle on the gauge seems to over read when driving uphill, and it had been a long way up! We managed to coast down the other side and rolled to a stop right in front of an RV park where the owner was able to help us out as he had just filled gas cans for his lawnmower. We decided to pick one place on the way to stop and have a look around which turned out to be Portland, somewhere we had really wanted to see properly but not quite gotten around to yet, we always seemed to be passing through in a hurry on earlier trips. We had organised a couchsurf with a lovely local couple and took a couple of days off driving to explore the city. What can I say, it is pretty nice! It has a great vibe, loads of live music venues and pubs. There is also a load of microbreweries and there are so many different beers to try, and try them we did! Each night I think we sampled about 6 with dinner! The city really has a great down to earth feel with heaps of interesting old buildings and bridges, and a great alternative scene. Definitely our kind of place, I wish we could have stayed a bit longer.
Passing through Seattle, got to catch up with Channing and Co again, if only briefly – they were packing up to head to Sasquatch festival (which we were insanely jealous about). then we hopped the border and made our way back to Vancouver to meet Rhonda and Stephen at the airport. There were many hugs and tears, Justine had not seen them for almost 2 years. We headed to the city where we had a lovely inner city apartment to stay for a few days and see the sights in Vancouver.
Our Portland hosts Corey and Andrea treated us to some very special donuts at a local bakery - mine is shaped like a voodoo doll!
