Believe it or not Im struggling to remember what the first few nights in America were like. It genuinely feels like so long ago but it was only two weeks ago I left for the states. It's kinda crazy. If you didn't know a couple of weeks ago I headed off on a Trek America Trip to visit some of the national parks in the states and soak of some American Culture. I'd never been to the US before until late last year and that was only New York so heading to the opposite coast was always going to be a bit different!
So I ended up staying out all night on the Saturday before I flew. I was hungover and a huge mess by the time I reached the airport on the Sunday morning but I was determined to make the best of my experience. No hangovers are going to be ruining this trip!
The flight over there was easy as anything. Me, Evan and Steve sat together and chatted our way through a 10 hour flight which included Evan getting tipsy within the first two hours and then spilling food everywhere. It’s nice to go away with people that just get what you do. I’ve been on a Contiki before with “regular” people (I know I sound like an asshole, but you know what I mean!) as well as on a Contiki with a bunch of other bloggers and to be honest both have their pros and cons. Having common ground makes it so much easier to make friends with people though. Luckily I knew a few people going on the trip already but it was awesome meeting a bunch of new people who did the same kinda stuff as you.
Vegas was a stereotypical blur. We stayed in the old strip near Fremont Street which was fun. Me, Hannah and Steve ended up staying out way too late and drinking way too much which was the cause of sore heads in the morning. Little did we know it was going to be nothing like our last night in Vegas… That was something else.
From Vegas we headed over to Zion National Park where we would be thrown in the deep end and be camping for two nights solid. Now if you’ve seen my packing video then you’d be safe to assume we thought it was going to be warm. The agency had told us it’d be warm so we took their word for it. Boy did we goof here! It was absolutely freezing in the evenings and drizzled most days!
Our first Trek was to be the Emerald Pools Trail. This is one of Zion's most popular trails and certainly set us up for the trek's we'd be under taking over the rest of the trip. I found that this hike was pretty easy but found the whole trail itself a little underwhelming. It was pretty but there was no big pay off at the end like some of the other hike's we did during our time Stateside. It was a pretty short hike though but got our blood pumping and ready to go!
The above photo is my favourite photo I think I took on the whole trip. I wish the sky wasnt so blown out but the only way I could have got it back was to Photoshop it in but then I felt like it would have lost some of it's authenticity.
After the hike we were tired, hot and a bit sweaty so headed back to our campsite to set up. Me and Corrie did a boss job of putting up our tent. For two "beauty guru's" we sure did good when it came to camp set ups! Our first Campsite was really nice and it even had two heated pools and a slide which we all joyfully played in like children. Camp life is fun but basic, the food was absolutely fine - we cooked ourselves and then had beers around the campfire. It was nice. But like I said this first night was SO cold. Unbelievably cold, none of us were really prepared for how cold it was going to get and we all awoke grumpy and craving sugary American Cereal.
However within hours it started to warm up and we set ourselves up to hike Angels Landing. Now this was a bit of an epic Trek for us n00bs. A 5 mile steep climb including a 1/4 of a mile which was ropeways and chains attached to rocks with sheer drops either side. When you see my vlog from the trip you will totally get where Im coming from and see what I mean a little better. There was no chance I was trying to take photos with my SLR some of these tiny walkways! They were unbelievably hard to get across.
It was pretty terrifying actually but when I reached the top with Hannah and Emma we were all so proud of how far we'd come. We sat on what felt like the top of the world and reflected on life. It was really awesome. Pictures really don't do any of the places I visited here in America justice. I really hope I captured them the best I could! I have loads more to share over the next few days so keep checking back for more updates (:
