So last night in our tent lovingly borrowed from Joe and our last campground in America…at least this time round! We packed up and retraced our journey back up the 89 with another stop at Dessert View on the way.

We had been booked into The Lake Powell Resort courtesy of Ryan who we met earlier in September hiking in Mount Hood. His mother-in-law works there and they sorted us out with some friends and family discount. Thanks Ryan and Paula! With a stop in Page and the Glen Canyon Dam we arrived at Lake Powell at around noon but we couldn’t check in until 1pm. When we did we had room number 666! Good job neither of us are superstitious! We booked a table at the restaurant and enjoyed some of the spa pool action! The sun was in and out and we’d already driven through storms and hail stones so it wasn’t the best afternoon for a sunbathe but we wanted to take advantage of our accommodation!

Later we enjoyed a meal at the restaurant, it’s a good location due to the views over the lake but the food was a little overpriced and the quality could be upped somewhat, we were in and out of there in 45 minutes!!

The next morning we had been booked onto a boat tour again thanks to Ryan and Paula! The tour is one of the classic things to do on the lake whilst visiting the national park as most attractions are best seen on a boat tour. It was again chucking it down when we set off at 7.30am, we didn’t have high expectations and the first part of the tour was mostly poor visibility but eventually we arrived at some sights. Due to the rain there were many waterfalls forming on the canyon rock which is very rare for the area. We took turns to go on the top deck, some people getting drenched in their hoodies! The star attraction of the park is Rainbow Bridge, a natural bridge formation in the rock, it looks amazing on a sunny day and didn’t do too badly today either. The only problem was we couldn’t hike very far as the paths were river-logged. Others marched on through the water in their trainers but we didn’t fancy this!

After around 30 minutes we all got back onto the boat and had a further 1.5 hour journey taking in more sights throughout the lake, canyon area. We even enjoyed some sunshine later on. It is a really beautiful area but we have to say that we probably would have enjoyed it more with better weather. The tour got in nice and early for us though so we made tracks for Phoenix as soon as we could.

It took a further 4.5 hours to get to Phoenix through more rain and thunder storms, moody skies and bright sun bursts created an array of rainbows! When we got to Dave’s place (Helen’s cousin) we set off straight away for a bite to eat down the road and then back at his lovely house with a glass of red wine. Home comforts!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

As we wanted to try and camp within the Zion National Park camp site we were up early and out driving around the South Campsite looking for a free pitch. The Watchman Campground was reservation only and we couldn’t book a place, therefore we ricked the first come first served policy of the south site. Each person we asked who looked to be moving on said that their site was already taken by new people! After asking around 5 groups of people, we finally asked a guy who kindly offered us to share the site with him and his friend as long as we split the fee with them, “it’s a deal”!

Nick and Christina, who were pretty serious rock climbers, were to be our camp buddies for the next two nights with the site being large enough for both cars and the tents. Here at the Zion National Park there is a free shuttle bus service that takes you around the park (much like Yosemite NP) and drops you at various locations before doing the return trip. As customary we headed to the Visitors Centre for some information about hiking in the area as we were interesting in the popular Angels Landing hike – A five mile round trip in the canyon increasing +1488 feet elevation via a strenuous steep cliff-side. As this is the most popular route it would be very busy and also we wanted to do something a little different from the masses. Observation Point was recommended to us by the knowledgeable ranger and we decided this was our hike for the day. Eight miles round trip, +2148 feet elevation change via a strenuous steep cliff-side – perfect!

Helen’s cold had taken hold but she pushed through and we decided to just go for it. In a nutshell the hike was amazing. Quite possibly the hiking highlight of the America trip so far for the sheer natural beauty of the rock faces, views, weather, the autumnal leaves, the list could go on. You will need hiking boots, layers of clothes as in the shade it was chilly, food and plenty of water if you are going to climb up to the top. Also if you are afraid of heights and drops then be prepared to face these fears, but it is well worth it.

Back to our tent we hired up the single stove and Helen prepared another scrumptious meal of veggie chilly and rice. Dave went in search of fire wood (nearest place is at the shop near the Cafe Soleil and the Zion Canyon Theatre $6 per bundle) and we sat our a nice fire for the evening chatting with Nick and Christina.

We decided that the 22nd was to be another day of hiking as the area is so beautiful it would be a shame not to see more. Taking another tip from our ranger friend at the visitor centre we headed out to Kolob Canyons, part of Zion NP. This is a 45/60 minute drive from the South Campsite west along SR 9 and then north on I 15. The 7 day pass for Zion is good to use here too, just pop into the visitor centre at Kolob and show it to them.

We decided to take on the Middle Fork of Taylor Creek as it was only 5.4 miles round trip and hardly any elevation gain. There are some river crossings that need to be traversed but there are plenty of stepping stone rocks to aid your crossing in the shallow water. The hike was just as awe inspiring as the previous day but for other reasons. The trees here were much more autumnal against the orange rock and again out of the sunlight in the shade near to the river water it was pretty cold.

The hike brings you to a double arch water streaked alcove which is very impressive and we continued on up river a little further to see what we could find, more amazing scenery and the odd waterfall. On the way back we spotted a rather HUGE tarantula and we had to get a photo whilst he / she scuttled off with some speed into the woodland. The whole trip took us around 4 hours with lots of photo taking and a lunch break.

After some inspiration from Nick and Christina the previous night we decided to do a curry for dinner. It was pretty amazing after the hike and we head an early night ready to set off tomorrow for the next canyon, the Grand Canyon.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

Up early again we set off for Death Valley in anticipation of high temperatures! We stocked up on water and made sure we had lots of food! Its a very extreme place to experience with desert, canyons and not a lot of life other than tourists passing through. We were starting to feel the heat very early on and each time we ventured out of the car we’d soon be back inside! At one stage we had to turn the air con off so as to prevent the engine from over heating – a sign on the road told us to do this! Five of us and lots of bags, not a lot of room so in the heat it only got worse!

We hiked through the Mosaic Canyon which was really interesting and at times we were in the shade too as we walked through the narrow, smooth canyon formations. The lads improvised by using their shorts as hats to keep cool but they didn’t look very cool. Moving on from the mosaics we lunched at Stovepipe Wells (Mark and Russ decided to buy some hats here), paid for our park pass ($20 per car) and ventured onwards to find the pupfish at Salt Creek. We didn’t see any pupfish, but we did find water, although you really wouldn’t want to drink it! There are only two roads through Death Valley and we drove out to perhaps the most famous point through Furnace Creek, which recorded the hottest temperature in North America at around 134F (56 degrees C!!!). It wasn’t quite so hot when we were there peaking at around 102 F, but down at Badwater this was the hottest air temperature and sun all of us had ever experienced, plus to make it worse the salt just reflected the sun straight back at us! Still it was an experience worth having. In two days we’d gone from Yosemite to Death Valley, two completely contrasting landscapes and climates, from seeing snow on the road side to being in the dry hot desert.

Later that night we were entering our 3rd contrasting place in a row. Las Vegas.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

Oh oh beautiful Pai! How we loved our days camping in our wonderful boutique style tent with views across the valleys…not to make people jealous but we really were spoilt and all for as little as 250 baht a night! We loved spending time in our tent, reading, watching the sunrise, and having the luxury of a duvet! It was very hot during the daytime when we were here sometimes reaching 38 degrees, but in the night we were nicely cooled by the 16 degree air. This felt quite cold actually, long gone are the cold nights in China.

There isn’t that much to do in Pai to be honest, but it is a very beautiful town with lots of yoga class offerings, cooking classes, walks, bike rides and so on. In the night-time the streets turn into a walking night market with local crafts and clothes many of which are made by the neighboring tribal villages. We picked up a few nicely branded Pai items which are hard to avoid, but they do tend to stand out over most tourist branded things. There are opportunities to hike and explore on kayaking tours in the wet season but we opted for some low-key adventuring in the form of hiring a motorbike for the day and exploring most of Pai’s famous sights. It is a very twee place and extremely popular with Thai holiday makers due some old films that were made there in the 90′s.

There is a pool around 1km outside of Pai in the direction of the Canyon at a place called Fluid, it’s a good sized swimming pool and they have plenty of space for sunbathing too. The food there is okay but overpriced for what you get, however it’s probably the best place in town to cool down from the heat especially when the river is at a low level.

Helen found a nice yoga class to attend which cost 200 baht for a 2 hour session, if she hadn’t had been struck by her 3rd tummy bug in 5 weeks then she would have been able to attend a few more classes!! It’s also a great way to meet people as many will do 3 classes in a row before moving on. Aside from the stomach upsets though we had a fantastic time here and would consider returning. We don’t think we’d be able to get as good a deal on accommodation in the future especially for our little set up as we knew they were a new resort.

So 5 days later and we were ready to head back to Chiang Mai. We can quite see why people end up hanging around Pai for longer than anticipated. There are great restaurants offering a variety of good Thai, western and other foods, there are places to go and drink chai, a good choice of bars, shops to poke around in,  and a nice river that flows through beautiful scenery. If you’re a little prone to travel sickness then the 764 turnings in the road to get there may cause a slight problem but getting a mini-van would help with this. We got a minivan there for 180 baht and the return journey to Chiang Mai was only 150. You can get a local bus for around 72 baht if you don’t mind being crammed into the rooftop and the journey takes around 3-4 hours.

When we got back into Chiang Mai we sorted out a few arrangements for the next few days; one was to book an elephant mahout day, another to do a one day massage course and the last to sort out our travel arrangements to Bangkok.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)