USA: Roadtrip through the Southwest

For the last winter I have been living in South Lake Tahoe. As many know, our winter was less then impressive and our ski season was cut short. So, my roommates and I embraced the early spring and decided to take a 12 day road trip through the south west.

Starting Point: Lake Tahoe, CA
- Saline Valley, Death Valley National Park
- Death Valley National Park, CA
- Las Vegas, NV
- Zion National Park, UT
- Kolob Canyon, UT
- Great Basin National Park, NV








Saline Valley Hot Springs,  Death Valley National Park:

Saline Valley is on the western edge of Death Valley. Like many of the destinations in the park, it is accessible only by dirt road filled with washboards and precarious rocks. You must enter from either Lone Pine or Big Pine if you have a 2wd car, with other options if you like off roading. It took approx. 2 hours to wind through the dirt roads until there were a number of indistinguishable turns the the hot springs.

Turn #1

You may find exact directions on the internet I am sure, but I will not be giving them seeing I feel this is a space that should only take the person who is determined to get there the chance to enjoy its beauty and wonder.

The hot springs oasis was 'developed' in the 60's, when the land was BLM, and has grown over the past 50 years to have palm trees that create shade, a grassy lawn, open showers, 7 or so warm springs, 1 cool pool, and fantastic art.

If you are afraid of nudity you wont enjoy it here. But if you embrace the counter- culture then I believe you will fit right in.

From here, there are a variety of hikes done in almost no shade or hikes into some of the surrounding valleys that have their own micro eco-systems including waterfalls.

Our friend's radiator cap blew when we were there. We had no service and didn't know much about cars. Yet, the community surrounding this area were more then helpful. Together we found the problem and Lizard Lee (the caretaker of the space who does it on a volunteer basis) went to town the next day and retrieved a new cap, while we had another day in paradise.

Saline Valley has quickly become one of the most special places in my heart and its only 5 hours from where I live.

Las Vegas, NV

Everyone has their own experience in Vegas. We are lucky enough to have friends that live there so many of the days were spent pool side with a whiskey ginger in hand. We picked up a friend that was attending Euphoria Music Festival and he joined us on the rest of our journey.
My only advice, check out Brooklyn Bowl. The venue/ bowling alley opened a few years ago in the heart of the strip and typically has great music passing through.



Zion National Park, UT

My feelings about Zion are bitter sweet. There are A LOT of people there, which is always a turn off for me, yet the way Zion has created a bus system for the main stretch of activities and the warmness of Springdale, the town adjacent to the entrance, is impressive.

Zion runs through a narrow canyon. Early bird gets the worm here. You park and then walk into the park. There, you catch the shuttle that will drop you off at certain points. There is a ton of traffic on the hikes so go early so you are able to pace yourself and give encouragement to everyone walk up as you walk down!

HOTEL/ CAMPING: There are many restaurants, cafes, and shops to stroll around and although many hotels are expensive we were able to find one for $70.

If you are going to camp in Zion, get ready! Camping fills up extremely fast. The area is simply too small for the amount of people traveling through the park.  You must be at the entrance at 8 - 10 am to poach out a spot. If you are much later then that you will be SOL. We got a hotel when we arrived in the evening so we could be ready to snag a camp spot early morning.

Angel's Landing: Angel's Landing is a knife edge mountain, 5 mile round trip trail with 1,500 ft. in elevation gail. THE VIEW IS WORTH IT! There were a ton of people walking up, which is to be expected. Often you feel nervous that the other people will make one wrong step and send you off the edge yet, as long as you stay low or holding on to the chains the park provides, everything will be A-OK.




Kolob Canyon: To get to Kolob Canyon you must exit the main part of Zion and head north. There is no camping in this area via the national park but I highly recommend it for a nice drive and/or a day trip. There were barely any people when we were there, granted it was snowing, but it gives your the drastic landscape of Zion without all the people!





Great Basin National Park

Our last stop was Great Basin National Park. We intended to do a big hike to Wheeler Peak but we ended up just spending time at camp, enjoying the empty campsites, playing whiffle ball and exchanging stories.
In the morning, before we left, we took the tour of Lehman Caves. It was $8 a person which I believe is a fine price to see some cool geology, ask questions and hear some hokey jokes.