Collaborative travel journal for lovers of the American West! (page 15 of 41)

We're in the dunes of Sandwich Harbour,

Great 😏 idea! The excursion is planned, and I should be able to remember the name of the spot 😛! Maybe in July, during the dry season, I’ll even see a real blonde 😎!! Just hoping the guide knows their stuff...

Hello everyone,

What a great idea this collaborative journal is! Like some of you, I didn’t have the courage to write a long, beautiful travel journal after our trip in August 2017, which was our first time in the United States. We caught the travel bug, though, and we’re already looking forward to returning to this amazing American West next summer. I chose to share a photo of a very specific moment when I felt an overwhelming emotion. It’s (yet again😉) a stunning view of Monument Valley (my favorite place so far), but more importantly, it’s seeing my son gazing at this extraordinary landscape that brought tears to my eyes. We’re all so lucky to be able to take these kinds of trips—these are unforgettable moments we give ourselves and our children...

I'm joining in too, for the same spot, but during a storm

To stay with the stormy skies, Death Valley...



And the rainbow that follows a little further on

At Kodachrome SP there’s one that’s not half bad either... 😊😉

Vinciane

Oh, that guy’s just showing off! [;)

Hi Martine,

Between the Native Americans and the diphtheria and scarlet fever epidemics between January and September 1866, the small village of Grafton lost a good number of its inhabitants.

Thanks for these details!

Yep, I remember your travel journal and the adventures of your little group. Bunch of little rascals. 😉

We’re in the Sandwich Harbour dunes, and this place is nicknamed "pussy"—go figure why!



I went to Sandwich Harbour and missed this!

To stay in stormy skies, Death Valley...

A ray of sunshine and stormy skies always make for stunning photos!

Alright, let's continue with stormy skies! Ghost town of Bodie, September 19, 2017

The next day, the closure of Tioga Road due to snow from Yellowstone forced us to take a detour over a lower pass to reach San Francisco, which made us miss Yosemite and didn’t stop us from getting caught in a snowstorm along the way. And all this on September 20th!

To stay in the stormy skies, Death Valley...



To continue with the stormy skies... West Grand Canyon, just after the storm. The black clouds are still above our heads, but the cloud cover is breaking up, lighting up the background and making the Colorado River shine like a ribbon of fire...

To continue with stormy skies...

I would’ve loved to play along, but no luck—I always get big blue skies when I go to the US 😎 ...

Just kidding! 😏

On the other hand, I’m not sure I have such great photos to share. A borderline anecdote: late afternoon in MV, the sun’s already low, and the sky in the distance is pitch black. We barely escape the storm, and the next evening, while watching the news at the hotel, we learn that civil security had to rescue hikers by helicopter in the Grand Canyon—yikes...

And then there was that eerie moment on the Kolob Plateau (above Zion)... It's around 2:30 PM and the sky has turned into an opaque lid... soon it's going to crack and we're going to get snowed on... before it clears up just as fast as it came!!!



In that light, I wouldn't have been surprised to see witches flying across the sky on their broomsticks...

I learned on this forum that when you love something, you don’t keep count: totem pole.



Not too far down the road...

Oh rage, oh despair at Alcatraz last July.

Hi Yves,

A place where I was the second to take a photo, or at least the second to share the photo.

For the record, and unless I’m mistaken, you’re the third person to post photos of this spot: the first were the Synnatschke couple (in 2010), I was the second (in 2017), and you’re the third.

Here’s one of my photos without great lighting but with a different angle to also show the left side of the canyon:



As a bonus, here’s a photo I took in 2011 while hiking inside this canyon all the way to the base of the cliff where the viewpoint photos were taken.



Philippe

I didn’t know about the Synnatschke. Oh well, 2nd or 3rd place—on a global scale, it’s all relative! ;)

If all goes well, I’ll be heading there in a month!

If all goes well, I’ll be heading there in a month!

Did you find a Hopi guide to go down there?

Good evening Fabienne,

What a brilliant idea this post is—it’s great to be able to see all these beautiful photos! I’ll keep posting some too... That dear American West we all love so much!



Off-road in Badlands National Park in July 2017! That feeling of freedom—it’s me driving and passing this 4x4. I love it when we’re the only ones out there 😉



We visited Mount Rushmore (2017), and on the way out, we had a typically American encounter 😉

Okay, just one more... I can’t resist...



A tree, red rocks, a stunning landscape near Moab—yes, those are the Fisher Towers 🙂

Keep posting photos—it’s a real treat for the eyes....😉

To keep chasing the stormy skies, in 2018 during a visit to the Grand Canyon (GC), At first, I wasn’t planning to go through the GC—I was aiming for Coal Mine. But when I woke up that morning in Page, the sky was dark and the weather wasn’t promising. I had to get to Williams, and while checking my route, I saw the GC as an option. I’d been there in 2010, and it hadn’t left much of an impression. But with the weather like this, I figured the conditions might be perfect for some cool photos. I wasn’t disappointed—I think it actually made the place even more beautiful, way more dramatic than under a clear blue sky like in 2010.



Sorry, I can’t count to 1 on this one 😉

No storm, but mist in Moab's Castle Valley