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Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't written in ages, it's been hard to get time on the internet. I have so much to tell you all this is going to be an extensive entry from several different places. Although I am in Longview currently I am writing over the past few weeks and the places that I have been fortunate enough to visit. So bear with me :)
Firstly, I will begin with more of what I did in Los Angeles. I left Flagstaff on the train and sat next to a woman called Kathleen who lives in LA. We talked for a lot of the journey and she told me all about her life as I told her about my travels. She offered to take me around LA and I have learnt about trust in God more than anything and this was a great opportunity to see more of the city so we agreed. She took me to Hollywood Forever, a famous cemetary where celebrities gone by amongst other locals have been buried. I got the chance to do the VIP tour around Warner Brothers which was immense as I got to see the Friends set which was the highlight for me. The tour guide let me open the door and said it would be a moment I would never forget and he was right :) Kathleen drove me around Beachwood Drive which would have been the Beverley Hills equivalent of the olden days. We stopped at the end of the road at this ranch and stroked some horses (this is where I chose to do my horse ride in the Hollywod Hills at a later date). She drove me briefly around the Beverly Hills area before going to Santa Monica. When it started to get dark we drove to the Wilshire Boulevard Hotel and a hotel worker opened my passenger door and I felt like a celebrity but sadly I said, "Sorry just passing through..." shame lol...
Whilst I was staying at the hostel I was at the centre of the action. I was between Hollywood Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard so I went exploring. I saw the Walk of Fame, the Kodak Theatre and did the tour (home of the Oscars) Grauman's Chinese Theatre with the cement hand and foot prints, the Capitol Records building, the Amoeba records store..... there was quite a bit to do as this was a major tourist hotspot.
Other trips I made in California were to Anaheim to Disneyland as I had never been and wanted to get pictures for my sisters :) Universal Studios, Bel Air/Hills, Santa Monica again but on a sunny day, Venice Beach which was a dodgy area in my opinion because of the marajuana theme, run down stalls etc....
After leaving the hostel I was out on another adventure. Trek America. I've already written up to Telluride, Colorado... The adventure continues in a different direction. Sadly we couldn't go to the Rocky Mountain National Park because all the trails were snowed up so there would not be much for us to do there. I was gutted because I was looking forward to exploring Colorado a bit more. However, it was back in the desrt (Utah) for me and we were headed to Arches National Park which is still an awesome park. We went to Delicate Arch which was really impressive to see. Years of erosion by freeze thaw action and wind have caused this arch to form. It was beautiful. We also hiked a primitive trail to Double O arch. This was a hard hike as we were basically climbing up and down big rocks with slopes. It was 7 miles round trip and was an expereince to say the least :)
As we couldn't go to the hotsprings in Colorado we hiked to the '5 pools trail' in Utah. It was a nice easy hike which made me smile. There were hotsprings here too but after my expereince of hotsprings in Arizona I didnt get in because with the hot weather it becomes a little unbearable lol. The sulphur from the water made the surrounding air smell like eggs but when I was hiking I thought it was me the whole time :/ We made a quick stop through Salt Lake City and saw the Temple for the Mormons which was closed to the public. Me and Christian went for a walk and found this German restaurant/shop called Sigfrieds which was pretty awesome. He hadn't tasted German food for 21 months!
The next stop was Jackson, Wyoming which was absolute fun :) We saw a 'shootout' between the cowboys and Indians which was put on by a local acting group. After all that excitement and some food, we went to the Rodeo. There was bull riding, catching cattle, horses racing around ina figure of 8... it was awesome. They were the real cowboys and there were real cowboys in the afternoon. It was a great atmosphere and unlike any sport that I was used to. Whilst I was in Jackson I had the opportunity to white-water raft and that was incredible. A little taste of danger :D The Snake River was at the highest it had been in a very long time which added to the element of risk :P Our tour guide Vern told us the river was brown because the snow melt was transporting a lot of silt.
The weather was dismal as we left Jackson and headed to the Grand Teton National Park for a very quick visit. At the visitor centre I discovered that what I learnt at A Level about glaciology applied to this national park such as: the accumulation of snow outweighing the rate of melting; the accumulation of snow compacts to form blue ice (the air is compressed out so the only colour that it refracts is blue); ice moves slowly downhill plucking at the ground causing friction and carving the landscape typically making the U-shape valley; it leaves terminal morraine creating lakes like Jenny Lake which we stopped at.
We could only just see the mountains and it was just miserable so we headed to Yellowstone and sadly, the weather did not improve. We saw Old Faitfhul but the hot water that was shooting up blended in with the cloudy sky. I also checked out the Prismatic Springs which was very colourful (what we could see) but it is more impressive from an aerial perspective. We were given a talk on bears and how to protect ourselves if we see a black or a grizzly which was scary but interesting :) We did a 7 mile hike in the morning on a trail that was not very clear to follow. We had to climb over logs to stay afloat as the ground was boggy, saturated and very muddy in places. The best part of the hike was walking through a large herd of bison. You are not meant to be close to these animals but we were breaking boundaries as they were on the trail. It was so much fun though and we were so close we could hear them breathing :) Awesome!! At this point I came down with an awful headcold but I still carried on - just lol. We did another hike later that day to Artist's Point to see a waterfall which was really awesome. There was even a rainbow next to it which made it all the more spectacular.
Next stop was the Iron Steel Ranch in Montana which was absolutely amazing - I could live there :) I went horseback riding and got some amazing views of Montana. My horse even went into a trot which was bumpy but great :) We had dinner made for us and I got to sleep in the comfiest double bed which made a great change from sleeping in a tent.
Glacier National Park was a different world altogether, the way the mountains reflected in the water. It was so beautiful. ..
It's getting late here now and as you can see I have written a lot and will continue the rest of my story soon :)
Peace out x
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