Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Many thousand miles of travel

Back to blogging after a long time. Let's see how long I can keep up ...

Can't help but look back at all the nature travel I did in 2007:

January '07: PCH 1, California : Call it by any name, it's the best road trip ever. PCH 1 is all you can ask for in a road trip - cute li'l towns (think Carmel-By-The-Sea), beautiful towns (Santa Barbara), and the fantastic road which winds through steep mountains on one side and oh-so-blue sea on the other. The Big Sur coast line is breath taking. Bixby bridge is awesome! An unexpected highlight: Seals! Ending in LA is another experience though. I can't wait to do this again!

March '07: Death Valley, California : Hottest, Driest, Lowest. This was so much fun ... terrible heat, but I will never forget Zabriskie Point, Devil's Golf Course, Badwater, Artist's drive ... it's another world. The best point hands down though is Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes.

June '07: Rocky Mountains, Colorado: about 8 hours before boarding the plane, me to my friend (who I was gonna join there) - "I should be flying to Denver, right?" That might give you an idea of how stressed out I was and how badly I needed this trip. And I had never thought Colorado would be so much fun! Did whitewater rafting for the first time ... thrilling! The rockies are so beautiful. Highlight: Pike's peak (both by cog railway and road)

July '07: Yellowstone, Wyoming (and Idaho and Montana): They don't say "This is the first and the best national park" for nothin'! Wild bison < 10 ft away from you? Check. Breathtaking lakes? Check. Hot springs of various colors and shapes and sizes? Check - everything from a notorious 2 ft spring to 150 ft high. Fabulous camping? Check. Highlights: I saw wild wolf, bear, elk, bison and numerous birds. The Grand Teton National Park is great bonus too.

August/September '07: Las Vegas/Grand Canyon/Yosemite: I can write reams about this. From the Sin City to the torrid Grand Canyon, it's a journey of showy flashy Vegas with fantastic fountains at Bellagio and nifty Ceaser palaces to the Grand Canyon - vast, empty and deep. Yosemite rocks. The sights are so wonderful! I can bet that every single person who has ever visited Yosemite has been impressed. Lonely Planet puts it best: "Yosemite is the Taj Mahal of all national parks".

November '07: Stay tuned for Shan's continuing adventures in Londonland!

Not to mention other small (but equally delightful) trips in this year: Niagara falls, Ithaca and Delaware water gap!

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This post is inspired by Tom's blog : http://existentialtraveller.blogspot.com/

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