Gilbert Dalbos' Blog: West America Tour

A trip from May 24, 2012 to June 6, 2012

traveling to California, Arizona, Utah, next to the

Colorado border and Arizona...

... stopping in Los Angeles CA(2 nights), Bulhead AZ (1night) , Flagstaff AZ (2 nights), Chinle AZ (1night), Kayenta AZ (2 nights), Moab UT (2 nights), Bryce Canyon UT(2 nights), Las Vegas NV(2 nights), and return to LA CA (1night).

A total of 4500 km driving on pleasant roads mostly classified “Scenic Ways”

Tour operators describe West America as a fabulous place, one of the most beautiful parts of the United States.

I can confirm this statement and add that during that tour the fun never stopped everywhere we stayed or we visited

Our tour was focused on view of National or State Parks, cities and amusement places

Difficult to post on that Blog a selection of topics and photographs, among more than 500 pictures taken…

The Los Angeles metropolitan area, which includes Los Angeles County, is the second largest in the U.S. This amazing city is most famous for Hollywood, Universal City, and Downtown.

For many visitors, the "Los Angeles experience"
includes Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and Pasadena

Hollywood is a district of the city of Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., located northwest of Downtown

Hollywood Boulevard
"Walk of Fame"

Due to its fame it is the historical center of movie studios and stars

Historic Route 66

Immortalized in folklore, cinema and song, as the Bagdad Café, Route 66 remains the iconic symbol of the great American road trip.

The best area for the bikers

Located on the edge of Arizona's Painted Desert, Petrified Forest National Park is the world's finest collection of fossilized wood

Huge pieces of 225 million year old trees

The heart of the Painted Desert of
northeast Arizona, a colorful badlands

Grand Canyon National Park the world's most spectacular sightseeing

It is 277 miles (445 km) long, 16 miles (25km) wide and up to 1 mile (1,6km) deep canyon

Standing on the rim of the Colorado River

Canyon de Chelly National Monument offers the opportunity to learn about the Navajo Indians (Native American) who live and farm here today

A male hogan

The Navajos used to make their houses, called hogans, of wooden poles, tree bark and mud. The doorway of each hogan opened to the east so they could get the morning sun as well as good blessings

Inside the hogan

The spectacular vertical walls make access to the canyon bottom difficult, providing an ideal protection for the Native Americans who lived here

Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park

For me the most beautiful and unusual scenery. Its Navajo name, Tsé Bii' Ndzisgaii, means "Valley of the Rocks"

John Ford Point

The desert landscape on the border of Arizona and Utah is a fantastic wonderland of color well-known for the many movies filmed in the area, like John Ford western with John Wayne as a star.

Access road without traffic. Amazing!

Glen Canyon Dam

constructed between 1956 and 1963, was the last giant dam complex to be built in the United States. The dam was originally built for water storage and hydroelectricity. However Lake Powell's recreational popularity has created a significant tourism industry

Bryce Canyon

is not actually a canyon but a high elevation (more than 2700m)...

...sandstone ridge known as a photographer's dream

Canyonlands National Park

The mesa that is Dead Horse Point provides breathtaking views of the canyon country of southeastern Utah...
The ending of the famous 1991 American road film "Thelma and Louise". They embrace, Louise steps on the accelerator, and they ride the car over the cliff to their deaths

In the country of the cowboys,

horses’ rides are very common

Arches National Park, Utah.

The park offers some of the strangest erosional effects in canyon country

Delicate Arch, the world's most
spectacular arch in a spectacular setting

Death Valley

offers some of the world strangest scenery as well as North America's lowest (Furnace Crick elevation 190 feet/60m above sea level) and hottest place with temperatures sometimes exceeding 120°F (49°C)