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)

This vista can be seen at Dante's View

 

How this coyote can live here: more than 40°C, no food and no water founded? 

 Las Vegas is the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and a major vacation, shopping, entertainment and gambling destination 

It, officially became a city in 1911 and the largest American city founded in the 20th century as The Entertainment Capital of the World

Las Vegas Strip and downtown

Road features some of the newer super megaresorts with world-wide themes

The Venetian with the Italian city of Venice and the famous Grand Canal where you may take gondola rides

                                                                  Paris Las Vegas with the 

                                                                       Eiffel Tower and 

                                                                    other Paris landmarks

The Mirage, may be 

the best with 

the Caesar's Palace

                                   
                                        and the Harrah’s where we stayed

Return from LA to Paris CDG lasted 11 hours 

 A long trip giving the opportunity to appreciate the comfort of the big new Airbus 380 

Stay in Albi and Millau area: Apr 2 and 3, 2012

It took only three hours by car from Bordeaux to reach Albi (Tarn capital)

Albi: classified as a UNESCO World Heritage since July 31^st, 2010 and called the city of red bricks

The Pont-vieux (Old Bridge) built in the XIth century extend its suburbs onto the right bank

In the XIIIth century the Palais de la Berbie as well as the world’s largest brick Cathedral Sainte Cécile were erected. 

Today the Palais de la Berbie shelters the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum . Since 2001, the museum has been refurbished and its restoration was just completed. The Apr 2 was the reopening date and we were pleased to be among the first visitors. We discovered a unique collection worldwide dedicated to the famous painter born in Albi in 1864

Maison du vieil Alby (Old Albi House) a renovated medieval residence

Castelnau district

Next stop was in the Aveyron Department (Millau area)

France’s Most Beautiful Villages in Aveyron: Peyre is an unusual village built on the side of a colossal rock

Built into an excavation the troglodyte church of Saint Christopher overlooks the village 

From this Peyre village site, there is a magnificent view of the Millau Viaduct

The viaduct: total height: 343m; total length: 2,460m

Conceived by the engineer Michel Virlogeux, it took only 3 years to build

55 people work on the viaduct every day to provide optimum driving conditions and top service quality

The last but unavoidable visit was for Roquefort and its famous cheese coming from the magic of the Grands Causses plateau and of the cellars of Roquefort naturally ventilated by the air of the “fleurines”. The air is used for the Penicillium roqueforti to develop the transformation process

The ewe’s milk is collected throughout the counties of Aveyron, Tarn, Lozère, Gard, Hérault and Aude called the “Rayon de Roquefort”