Sin City

LAS VEGAS, NV

Ah.

:D

Tied for my favorite stop of the trip (with Cooke City - yes, totally different ends of the spectrum).

OHMYGOODNESSITWASSOCOOLANDFUNDANDAWESOMEAND -

Exciting.

It was so lively. I've never EVER been to a big city like that. Ever. And being able to walk around, to experience the feelings, was unforgettable. We went walking down the strip at night.

So. Out-of-this-world.

Street preformers of all sorts (including one Alfred from America's Got Talent - contortionist) dotted the sidewalks, Mexicans handed out cards with their "merchandise" on them. They had a varitey - you want black or white? Ginger hair? Brown eyes? Short or tall?

...

Like I said - out of the this world.

What I also noticed, was the outrageuous amount of homeless people sitting on the fringes of the sidewalks, off to the dark side. Some held signs to try to earn money. Others didn't even seem capable of standing. It was... eye opening.

And while the flashing neon lights of every color blinded me, I couldn't help but see past it all. Past the glitz and glammor, the shiny and bright, to the gritty, dirty underbelly that is Las Vegas.

Sin City.

It's a dark ciy, really. Full of interesting characters. You'll never have a dull moment, I promise. (unless you stay in the hotel room all day, like SOMEONE I know)

And well, I fell in love with it.

Oh, and we went to Hoover Dam.

Blah.

Too hot.

Like, wayyyy too hot. 120 degrees hot. -_-

Dead Birds and Red Rocks

SALT LAKE, UT & BRYCE CANYON, UT - intertesting.

The Great Salt Lake in Utah was... well, it looked amazing. It smelled... like a lake. However, its shores were riddled with dead bird carcasses. I'm not talking a few. I'm talking - fifteen within a 10' square. There were sooooooo many, all in various stages of decomposition. Why? I HAVE NO IDEA!

I was all excited, because we traveled along this specific road just so I could see the famous lake, and then... I can't even hardly walk in the sand, let alone stick my feet in water like I had originally planned. -_-

What caused all those birds to die? WHAT'S IN THAT WATER?!

-

Anyway, we left there in a hurry. 'Twas exceptionally unsettling.

We made it to Bryce Canyon (which was better than the Grand Canyon, in my expert opinion). It was gorgeous - red rocks, crazy formations, Asian tourists looking at me like I'm the marvel - not the canyon.

What, have they never seen a firetruck-red haired girl with fuzzy green pants before?!

There was a surprising absence of handrails along the vast majority of the edge. Erm. And the ground was crumbly.

You best consider yourself lucky! It was so difficult to photograph when you're standing on one leg, dangling the other towards the edge, when you can feel the gravel sliding beneagth your other Converse clad foot... O_O

You're so lucky to have me. ;D

Yellowstone National Park, WY

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WY - Can I just say, B-E-A-UTIFUL?! It was utterly amazing. So much wildlife...

On the drive into the park, the winding road cuts through a dense forest, packed tightly with trees, some alive and vibrant, others dead with burn marks. Because the sad reality is, our national parks are dying. Forest fires have ravaged the ecosystem, destroying nearly everything. It's part of the life of the forest, I suppose. It's since picked up and grown more and more. :)

The trees just... stop. At once. Sweeping into a grassland full of all sorts o' critters! We saw our first buffalo of the trip, a lone male milling by the edge of the woods. (and took about a million pictures...) Reluctantly, we moved on, and then realized... buffalo are everywhere! We saw herds of thousands roaming, and even caught a glimpse of the deer and the antelope playing! ;)

There were several calves in the herds we encountered, and they were ADORABLE! *squeals* Just like little orange cattle~

The antelope mixed and mingled with the buffalos like the good friends they are. They were so common throughout the entire trip, I didn't even snap one photo of 'em...

We also ran into quite a few waterfalls (like ze photo below). Sadly, those were the only times I actually remembered to take pics. xD I was too engrossed with Yellowstone, I tell ya!

In addition to the waterfalls,it was HOT SPRINGS GALORE! Seriously. So. Many. Hot. Springs. Such a pleasant oder, though. Ah, sulfur~

On day two of our Yellowstone adventure, we saw a moose couple! To be young and in love...

And then, and then, and then... we saw the PETRIFIED WOOD! Which is about as exciting as it sounds... The really cool part about it, though, was the "tour guide". The little fox would walk up the trail a ways, wait for us to catch up, then walk a little farther, untill we reached the rock. It waited beside it until we were done, then lead us back down to our car. It was super cool!

So we're driving along, gawking at all the buffalo, thinking, "oh my gosh, many buffalo are there?!", and listening to my mum talk about how "all she wants to see is a bear". And by golly - we do! A mama black bear, to be precise. She got within 300 yards of us, then the park ranger said, "yo dogs, get in yo car. Dat bear gonna eat chu." (or something like that) So we did. A few hundred yards down from Mother Bear, was what all these slickers were a callin' "a wolf!!" They cried wolf. We believed them. 'Til we saw it. It was a COYOTE, PEOPLE! -_-" (we can pretend it was a wolf, I suppose, because one does not simply go to Yellowstone and exclaim about the coyote one saw, after all)

You see, my mother became "bear drunk", as I shall lovingly refer to it. Now she wanted to see a GRIZZLY bear. (we saw another black bear later on) She was ready for the big guns. Lo and behold, we saw one! Well, according to Mr. Park Ranger (who looked fairly educated on the matter), it was a Cinnamon Black Bear. So. It. Looked. Like. A. Grizzly. But it teases... :p Still coolio, though!

I was able to see the glorious blue springs Yellowstone is famous for, and heavens... photos can't do it justice. It was the most amazing shade of blue I'd ever seen.

And oh yeah, OLD FAITHFUL.
...
Not so grand, if I do say so myself. I was expecting so much more... But alas, I shall have to bear with it!

All in all, a great two days! I recommend visting Yellowstone if you're ever in the area. And DEFINETLY split it into two days. There's so much to cover!