· Las Vegas · Death Valley ·
· Sequoia · Grand Canyon ·
May 2013
My trip began with a five-hour layover in Newark,
during which I took a train to Central Park and discovered
an incredible gathering of migrating warblers... the
"Central Park
Effect" is real indeed, so much so that my delayed return to
Newark caused me to miss my flight!
Thankfully I caught a stand-by direct flight that got me to Vegas three
minutes before my original, cutting out a Denver layover. For the next five
days I traversed Death Valley and ascended the sheer face of the Sierra Nevada
to the Giant Sequoia groves before circling back to Vegas.
There I joined my South African friends Eben and Jacques -- on their own
month-long road trip around the American Southwest -- for a three day Grand
Canyon rafting trip. With a pit stop at the Bar Ten Ranch in the remote
Arizona Strip, a helicopter ride down to the Colorado River, drifting through
calm waters and rapids, exploring petroglyphs and waterfalls, sleeping under
the stars, and a high-speed jet-boat ride along the meandering tail of Lake
Mead back to civilization... a most memorable trip of a lifetime.
My trip began with a five-hour layover in Newark,
during which I took a train to Central Park and discovered
an incredible gathering of migrating warblers... the
"
Thankfully I caught a stand-by direct flight that got me to Vegas three
minutes before my original, cutting out a Denver layover. For the next five
days I traversed Death Valley and ascended the sheer face of the Sierra Nevada
to the Giant Sequoia groves before circling back to Vegas.
There I joined my South African friends Eben and Jacques -- on their own
month-long road trip around the American Southwest -- for a three day Grand
Canyon rafting trip. With a pit stop at the Bar Ten Ranch in the remote
Arizona Strip, a helicopter ride down to the Colorado River, drifting through
calm waters and rapids, exploring petroglyphs and waterfalls, sleeping under
the stars, and a high-speed jet-boat ride along the meandering tail of Lake
Mead back to civilization... a most memorable trip of a lifetime.