Wednesday 7 August 2013

My Little Tour of America - National Parks

In-between the city stops on the USA tour we also visited three National Parks. Deciding which ones to see was tough considering how many national parks California has to offer.

The first park we visited was Yosemite National Park. Yosemite is stunning. What seems like infinite forests of Pine trees stretching as far as the eye can see…

Yosemite National Park





It also plays host to amazing waterfalls and towering mountains. It’s truly extraordinary.

Yosemite National Park


It’s also where I saw my first wild Black Bear. Despite the name; around 95% of the Black Bears found in the Sierra Nevada are actually brown, as was the beautiful creature I found myself catching a glimpse of foraging for bugs in a fallen tree…

Yosemite National Park Bear


The second park was on our way to LA – Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park. Although mostly forest and mountains it is very different to Yosemite.

Sequoia is named after its stunning Redwood population – Sequoiadendron Giganteum or Giant Sequoia.

Sequoia National Park


Wow do they live up to their name, they literally tower above you making you feel tiny in comparison. The national park is home to the largest tree in the world by volume, General Sherman.

Sequoia National Park


The final park we visited was an easy decision. Grand Canyon National Park - simply breath-taking.

The Grand Canyon


The Grand Canyon isn’t in the middle of the desert as I’d imagined. When I had previously thought of Arizona I thought ‘flat’, ‘vast’, ‘dry’, when actually the national park is surrounded by beautiful forest.

The canyon itself is incredible. Beautiful canyons carved by the Colorado River over nearly two billion years make you feel like you’re standing upon an alien landscape.
And it’s so quiet – even though there were groups of people less than 200ft behind us we couldn't hear a single thing.

The Grand CanyonThe Grand Canyon


We had planned to stargaze in a few places during the trip but knew that, if the sky was clear, the perfect place to see the stars would be The Grand Canyon. We were so right!

The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon


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3 comments:

  1. I love your pictures of your national park tours! Amazing how each park is so different and special in their own way! The largest tree looks so fantastic, I am sure in person it is breathtaking!

    Rebecca
    www.winnipegstyle.ca

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  2. UUUUHHHH! That is just the scene of my dreams right now, needed this little bit of escapism right now. Thank you! (please keep them coming lol ) xx
    fashionscholar.com
    xx

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  3. Really amazing pictures <3


    I was wondering if we could follow each other. It would be great, just let me know :)

    http://retrostreetstation.blogspot.de/

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