USA hiking 2016

Hiking in Arizona, Utah, Nevada and California.

Three weeks spent hiking through some of the best national parks in south western USA is a nice way to spend your time and discover things that can't be seen from the road. With hiking the more you put in the more you get out. Slow touring at it's very best.

A suggestion from our friends to buy an annual pass for the parks worked very well, good shoes and hiking poles made it a lot more comfortable and made the climbs and descents easier. Coming from sea level it took a few days for us to adjust but the last few hikes at over 10,000ft. weren't a problem.

I want to mention the software we used for all of the hikes, it is an Android app. called Locus, I am not connected with them in any way but want to spread the word. I have upgraded to their pro version, the $9 cost is money well spent. Buying the vector maps from them for the areas we hiked for about 25c. per state and downloading the GPX files for each trail made it easy to see where we were. Many of the trails are well marked but on some of them signs had been vandalised or turned in the wrong direction by that sub species that exists in every country. www.modernhiker.com/ is a good source of GPX files.

Photos were taken using an iPhone 5 and a Sony a6000 with the kit lenses. My shoes are Oboz Firebrand 2 well worth the money.

Wallace Lake loop, Prescott AZ.

Brins Mesa Soldiers Pass trail Sedona AZ.

 Brins Mesa trail Sedona AZ.

 Devils Bridge trail Sedona AZ.

Devils Bridge Sedona AZ.

Sedona
.

Boynton Canyon trail Sedona AZ.

 Boynton Canyon trail.

Petrified Forest N.P. AZ.

Blue Mesa AZ.

Canyon de Chelley AZ.

Cohab Canyon trail Capitol Reef N.P. UT.

 Cohab Canyon trail.

 Bryce Canyon Navajo trail switchbacks UT.

Bryce Canyon Navajo Loop trail.

 Steep and very muddy.

 Sticky stuff.

 Great Basin N.P. NV. Bristlecone trail.

 Great Basin N.P. Terese Lake.

 Sabrina Basin trail. CA.

 Sabrina Basin trail, I still can't believe that view.

 Convict Lake walk, very easy. CA.

 Convict Lake.

Convict Lake.

USA driving 2016

California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada.

Our three week trip was planned around hiking destinations but fortunately was connected by some of the best driving roads we have ever done. We avoided freeways and kept to low traffic back roads and highways wherever possible. Near perfect weather made it one of the most enjoyable holidays we have had.

We rented a Chev Impala, it turned out to be a good choice. Quiet, spacious and economical, a little heavy in the nose for twisty bits but good in most other areas.

 Touristy but fun.

 Route 66 in all it's tacky glory.

 UT 95. near Hite.

 UT 95.

UT 21. near Milford.

Just off UT 21.

 NV 488. Great Basin National Park.

NV 6. The loneliest road. 

CA 190 Death Valley.

CA 190. In the US they can build them straight, just need to figure out how to get the undulations out.

The Moki Dugway

Utah Highway 261

The drive from Bluff Utah to Torrey Utah passes through some of the best red rock scenery in the USA, The roads are in good condition and traffic is light. There is one gravel section which makes the drive even more spectacular.

The Moki Dugway, 3 miles long, 11% grade and unpaved. It was constructed by a mining company to transport uranium ore to the processing plant at Mexican Hat, fortunately it has been left unpaved. It's quite wide in most places and has plenty of passing points. Unfortunately the drivers of RV's of all sizes ignore the signs advising against it's use by those vehicles and can cause hold ups for cars and motorcycles.

We were fortunate to do the drive at the same time that entrants in the Pan America Friendship Rally were heading down the mountain. Details here  pan-american rally

A group of well heeled Brits who had shipped their cars to the US for the drive.

 Lucky to escape a head on, still thinks he is in the UK.

Coogee to Bondi Coastal Walk

A good walk at anytime but even better when Sydney is experiencing an east coast low pressure system. The photos were taken at Bronte Beach. We extended the walk to Watsons Bay which results in a total distance of just on 12 kms. 

Goulburn River National Park

Beautiful countryside, unfortunately the areas outside of the park boundaries are sitting on top of huge coal deposits, we had to pass through Chinese owned open cut mines on the way to the park entrance near the town of Ulan. This view looks towards the town of Bylong, made famous by the Obeid family. As a failed prime minister said recently ''we are open for business''. The factories and jobs have already gone so lets sell the farms and what's under them too. So very sad.

Ellsworth Id

I haven't ridden this bike for almost a year, something that I plan to change in future. It's a beautiful thing to ride with full suspension, hydraulic disc brakes and a frame that is quite unusual, the cranks are set much higher than normal MTB frames, that gives good clearance for rocks and logs but raises the centre of gravity.

The bike was built from scratch, parts came from various suppliers in the USA and it was assembled in a friends garage in Austin TX. He did 70 % of the work, I did the rest and learned a lot. Worked out costing thousands of dollars less than the then retail price in Sydney.

It has had an interesting life, with rides in Texas, New Mexico and Colorado including the 12000 ft. Monarch Crest Trail way above the tree line and the classic 401 Trail near Crested Butte. 

The ride pictured is an easy out and back fire trail near Sydney.

Photos were taken with an iPhone 5 and a Blackberry Bold 9780.

More photos of the US. rides here.