Rajivc-food-travel-life: July 2019

Hello all.... what a kick-ass year 2019 has turned out to be. It all began with Doordarshan playing Metallica tracks during the F16 showcase in AeroIndia.At that very moment I realized we have great things in store for 2019 ;)

This was shortly followed by the IPL, the Indian Elections, The Cricket world cup and last but not the least F1 boasting the youngest lineup in almost 50 years of F1 history with bunch of 19 year olds zipping through at 300+KMPH & making big money :)

Phew what a year this has turned out to be...

Keeping in line with the happenings I also planned an epic road trip this year traversing 5 states comprising of 2500+ miles of pure road tripping pleasure :)

A mega trip with the below route

Salt Lake City, UT ---> Bryce Canyon National Park-->Zion National Park--> Page Az-->Monument Valley AZ-->Four Corners Monument, NM -->Canyonlands National Park, UT-->Arches National Park, UT-->Flaming Gorge Reservoir-->Grand Teton National Park-->Yellowstone National Park

--> Lava Fields, Idaho-->Salt Lake City

As you can see what a grind this trip would have been as we just had 10 days to accomplish it...

However, with a great car, Super company (Wifey) need to mention her somewhere atleast in the blog ;), breath taking landscapes, diverse Flora & Fauna took all the stress/fatigue away & made this trip one of the super amazing road trip of my life.

The Plan

Sometime back in Jan this year stuck at home due to heavy snowfall with nothing much to do I was couch surfing on Netflix.I happened to come across a documentary about the best National Parks in the US. I had not much clue about Utah, Wyoming.However, my recent trip to Colorado had provided me some glimpse of the amazing Mountain territories in mid west US.

Watching the documentary I was just hooked. I was blown away by the picturesque mountains, canyons, Gorges....At that very moment arose a strong desire to travel to these sheer natural beauties & that led me to draw up a road trip plan to Utah. I shared it with Wifey & as always she just nodded in agreement without batting an eyelid :)

The Trip.....

Utah

I don't know if there is any official tagline for this state. However, if there was a contest I would pitch the following quote. "Utah, A land carved out by the artistic Gods!!"

Though it may sound unreal, the mountain peaks, the canyons, the rivers, the landscapes don't seem natural in Utah. Instead they seem they have been carved out by superpowers with artistic intricasies.

When I had my first glance & the mountain peaks of Zion National Park I felt like I was in the sets of the movie "Avatar" & not in a natural landscape. Such is the effect of the natural wonders of Utah that you have to see it to believe it.

We had an early morning flight to Utah. As the flight was approaching the Salt Lake City Airport, my wife's phone went click click click. This woke me up from my deep slumber & I had the first glimpse of the beautiful snow capped mountain peaks surrounding the salt lake city airport.

Salt Lake airport have these huge glass panes. As we deplaned & were walking towards the luggage carousel, we saw the aircrafts parked with a backdrop of snow capped peaks.

A beautiful sight to behold & a great start to our long exhausting road trip

Bryce canyon National Park

Our first stop in Utah was Bryce canyon national park. We picked up the rental car & voila we were upgraded to an SUV ;) what more can you ask for a trip. After picking up stuff like water, snacks etc for the trip from Costco we headed off to Bryce Canyon.The drive to Bryce Canyon was amazing. we drove through valleys encompassed by snow capped peaks & lush green flora.

The landscape changes are very dramatic in Utah. After an hour or so of driving the landscape changed to desert landscape & then again to Red rocky canyons. Different peaks had different colors based off of amount of iron content in them. It is the Iron content in the rocks that give them the red color. We passed by Red Rock canyon en-route to Bryce Canyon. There were huge bright red monoliths some 100s of feet long.w e had a quick photo stop at Red rock & headed onto our destination of the day, Bryce Canyon.

Bryce Canyon again is a collection of Red,Orange, Green rocky canyons formed by erosion. At some places the formation depicts that of an amphitheater.There are many such rocky amphitheaters in the park. Parking is very limited at the park. However, we were lucky enough to find parking.

We drove around the park witnessing one rock formation after another. All in all it was a day well spent & we headed to the hotel to just crash for the night.

Zion National Park

The destination for Day 2 was Zion National Park. Honestly I did not know much about Zion.
All I knew was it was one of the must visit places in Utah. However, when I first witnessed the natural wonders of Zion I was just blown away by the magnificence of the park.It literally feels like you have reached heaven when you are at Zion.

The parking in Zion fills up quickly. There is a small town outside the park & it has multiple paid parking spots.There are also shuttles every 15 minutes from these parking spots to Zion. we parked in one of the lots & took the free shuttle to the park.There is park shuttle within the park which stops at 10 points of interest. Visitors can hop-on-off these shuttles & visit all the scenic spots in the park.
If you are a hardcore hiker do visit "Angels Landing" hiking trail. This is one of the most dangerous & exhausting hike in Zion.However after the hike you will witness spectacular view of Zion. Hence the wait times for the hike is huge. There was 4 hours wait for us when we visited the park.
Another highlight is the short hike from stop # 3 (Canyon Junction )to the park entrance. One of the best scenic trails I have visited.

After an amazing day spent at Zion we headed to the hotel which was located in a small town called Kanab.The Drive from Zion to Kanab was one of the most picturesque drives I have taken. The road traverses through beautiful colored canyons, steep hills & sometimes alongside deep gorges.

We reached Kanab by 9PM & that concluded day 2. Kanab was a very beautiful town.

Page, Arizona

It was time to take a slight detour from Utah & visit the wonderlands of Arizona. Page, Az is one such wonderland which boasts of places like Horse Shoe Bend, Antelope Canyon which draw millions of visitors every year to just to experience the wonders of nature. Page also has some other equally amazing places like Lone Rock, Glen Canyon & Rainbow Bridge.

One of my friend had suggested us to do the boat trip in Lake Powell. However, due to rains both the Boat ride as well as tour to Antelope Canyon were cancelled. With th at disappointment we could just visit Horse Shoe Bend, Lone Rock & Glen Canyon in Page AZ.I know i am rambling on & on but, HorseShoe Bend was another such place that I have no words to describe.

I just sat at the edge and gazed on and on taking in bit by bit nature's magnificence. That concluded day 3 and as the regular routine we headed to the Hotel located in Kayenta & called it a day.

Kayenta

Day 4 was dedicated to visiting yet another set of Natural wonders, the monolith's of Navajo nation which is sacred & revered by locals. Kayenta is situated in the Navajo nation.Navajo nation is a native american territory & is the largest land area retained by Native Americans in the US. The Navajo Nation has its own Judicial system & its own elected governments & executive system. However the US Federal Govt still has plenary powers over all decisions.

The Navajo nation has some unique geological mountain formations. One such formation is that of the Monument Valley National Park. Huge monoliths right in the middle of a desert marks the Kayenta landscape. Apart from the Monument valley national park I was mesmerized by the Agatha peak which had a very unique & magnificent geological structure.

Mountains surrounded by yellow & purple weed makes this landscape a truly unique place & must visit place while you are in Arizona. Driving around these unique structures & taking in bit by bit of nature's magnificence concluded day 4.

Four Corners Monument, New Mexico

Four Corners Monument is where four states, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico & Colorado meet and hence the name.The Four Corner monument was featured in the famous Netflix series "Breaking Bad".

Wifey is a BIG BIG fan of Walter White from Breaking bad & visiting Four Corners National Monument was like paying homage to her Idol. Hence Four corners Monument was in her must visit once in lifetime list. Thanks to the wedlock I had to endure the trouble of driving to the monument which is located in the middle of nowhere in a remote location where there is hardly any habitation ;)

We checked out of the hotel in Kayenta & drove through the desert in Navajo Nation. There is no Cell Phone Connectivity in this place. Thanks to the upgrade from Enterprise, our car was equipped with GPS without which I guess I would have never spotted this place.

There was an entry fee of 5$. There is nothing much to do at this place other than clicking few pics & Geo Tagging yourself on FB to herald to the world that you are in four states at the given moment :P

We spent half hour or so & headed to our next destination of the day which was Canyon Lands National Park.The drive from Four corners Monument to Canyon Lands National park passed through some beautiful landscapes in Colorado.For a moment I thought I was driving in Switzerland :)

Canyonlands National Park
Canyon lands National Park comprises of colorful canyons, mesas, butes, arches & spires in the heart of southeast Utah's high desert. The park contains huge canyons sculpted by water & gravity.The Needles is the highlight of Canyon lands national park.

We reached Canyonlands at noon. We headed straight to the visitor center to get info on what we can cover in a span of 6 hours. We were provided a map & list of places that can be covered in 4-5 hours.
We visited couple of overlooks & hiked briefly to get a view of the Needles. We also came across a rock called the newspaper rock that had engravings from Stone-age people.After visiting all the key highlights of Canyon lands we headed to the town of Moab to spend the rest of the day. Moab was a beautiful town with many good places to wine & dine :) So with that it was end of Day 5 & we were looking forward to visit another natural wonder on Day 6.

Arches National Park

Arches National park comprises of close to 2000 naturally formed arches by forces of erosion, water & gravity.The highlight of the park is the Delicate Arch located north of the park.However, as the saying goes, good things come after a lot of hard work & pain. Same holds good for the Delicate arch.There is a grueling 2 mile hike through a steep mountain to reach the Delicate arch. After hiking for 2 miles we got the 1st glimpse of this natural wonder.

The arch is Huge!!! almost 60 feet in height.I lost the count of number of natural wonders we had witnessed in this trip & I was in complete loss of words at this point of time. Just like Horse Shoe Bend this is one such natural wonder where in I was just gazing & gazing & soaking in the beauty nature has to offer.

So with that we headed to the next destination of the day, Flaming Gorge reservoir.

Flaming Gorge Reservoir
With a depth of 1700 ft, Flaming Gorge is one of the biggest reservoirs in Utah.
The reservoir is formed by the Green river & hence the green color, genius! ;)

So that completed Day 6 & we were headed to the final destination & the highlight of our trip, Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National park was the first national park in the USA & is claimed to be the first national park in the world. Situated atop a Super Volcano the last eruption of which was as recent as 600,000 years ago, Yellowstone national park hosts a variety of natural formations like hot springs, geysers, mud pots, traventine terraces & fumaroles.

Fun fact- one of the first explorers of Yellowstone detailed his experiences in a journal & reached out to one big publisher in NewYork to publish is findings about the park. The publishing house dismissed his findings & did not publish the article stating that they do not publish fiction :)
Such is this wonderland that one has to see it firsthand to believe that there exists such a place on earth.

We humans need to cherish the fact that we are blessed with such natural wonders & we need to preserve these places.Yellowstone is also home to Grizzly Bears, Moose, Wolves & also microorganisms that were first organisms of the planet earth & can survive only in these conditions of heat & sulfuric conditions.

We had 2 days to explore the length & breadth of this wonderland. We started off by spending half a day exploring another wonder nearby, Grand Teton National park. The Teton Glacier is something out of the world. The snow capped peaks & the surrounding Flora & fauna makes it a photographers dream location.

We reached Yellowstone by noon & explored Norris Basin, west Thumb, Mammoth hot springs on Day 1 & then Old Faithful, Grand Prismatic the next day. Unfortunately we did not spot any Bear. We spotted Elks, Moose, A Fox & lots of Bisons. All in all it was one of the iconic landscapes that I have ever seen in my life & hats off to the US Govt. in preserving this sheer beauty of nature.

With that we were done with this epic trip of a lifetime. We headed back to Salt Lake City where I met my schoolfriend after a long time. We visited the Mormon Temple & the Capitol building in SLC.