Primm Valley, NV, to Malibu, CA

21 January 2016:  Mission accomplished!  I drove today from Primm Valley, Nevada, to Malibu, California, completing my trans-American road trip.  The total distance driven in 12 days was about 3700 mi. (ca. 6000 km).

Chloé met me in the afternoon after she had finished her work, and I handed over the keys to her car.  She was pleased!  As a sort of epilogue to my USA road trip, Chloé and I will drive to the Bay Area on Sunday.  (I will visit my father, William and friends during a weeklong visit there.)  I have gotten quite comfortable driving that car; it will seem strange to sit in the passenger seat while someone else drives!

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Farewell to Buffalo Bill this morning:

The open road beckons:

I arrived in Malibu with time to spare so that I could have the car washed.  I wanted to deliver it to Chloé looking like new.  So I left the car at this place and took a walk on the beach while the dust and grime of 3700 miles was washed off the car.

Father & Daughter reunion:

Chloé takes her first drive (in the parking lot of the restaurant where we met and had dinner).

Springdale, UT, to Primm Valley, NV

20 January 2016:  I completed my triple play of National Parks:  After Grand Canyon (Sunday & Monday) and Bryce Canyon (yesterday), I visited Zion National Park today.  (And I mustn't forget Shenandoah National Park, one week and a few thousand miles behind me.)  Zion is another extraordinary place.  It comprises two canyons -- Zion and Kolob -- with a plateau between them.  I explored Zion Canyon today.  Unlike Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon, where the main tourist infrastructure (Visitor Centers, access roads, outlook points) is on the respective rims of the canyons, one drives along the floor of Zion Canyon.  There are trailheads along that road, offering hikes of all levels of difficulty.

I started with a hike from the Grotto toward Angels Landing.  The lower part of that trail is moderately steep and easy (the "trail" is actually paved).  The upper part is a different matter:  No longer paved, it follows a steep, narrow ridge to a lofty summit.  That section of the trail is equipped with chains for security, but it remains a challenging trail, especially when (as today) there is snow and ice on the trail.  I bought a pair of traction attachments for my shoes this morning at the Visitor Center, but I decided to stop at that midpoint; I didn't feel comfortable with the final ascent on a slippery trail.  I must acknowledge, though, that others on the trail were continuing to the summit.

After the Angels Landing trail, I continued up the valley to the Temple of Sinawava, where the road ends.  From there, one can walk along the easy, level Riverside Walk for about 30 minutes.  The trail actually continues, but in the river.  That's not a winter hike!  This is an interesting hike, as the canyon narrows dramatically as one progresses upstream, for geological reasons that are well explained on panels along the trail.

Finally, returning down the valley, I stopped to hike up the short Weeping Rock Trail, which ends at a rock alcove with water from springs within the rock dripping down the cliff.

And that concluded the tourism of my road trip.  Leaving Zion, I pointed the nose of the car toward Los Angeles.  It's now the homestretch (la dernière ligne droite)!  I drove as far as Las Vegas, hoping to find a motel on the western side of the city.  There were no motels in sight along that section of I-95, so I continued on to Primm Valley, on the Nevada/California border, where I got a room at the Buffalo Bill's Casino Resort.  That's not so absurd as one might guess:  The room is quite cheap (under $50), because, of course, casinos want to attract people and make money from their gambling.  However, they're getting nothing more than the price of the room from me!

Tomorrow's destination: Malibu, California.

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Driving up Zion Canyon, beside Virgin River:

The hike on the Angels Landing trail:

The tricky bit begins after this sign:

I was fascinated by this rock, which is perched improbably on a near-vertical slab of rock directly above the Angels Landing trail.  It appears ready to roll down the hill at any moment!  I encountered a park ranger near that point and asked him about it.  He had not previously noticed the rock, but he noted that fragments of the cliff face do break off and fall occasionally; it's a natural process.  He'll probably keep a close eye on this one in the future!

The area around the Temple of Sinawava:

The Riverside Walk upriver from the Temple of Sinawava:

The area around the Weeping Rock Trail:

The weeping rock:

And now for something completely different...

Kanab, UT, to Springdale, UT

19 January 2016:  I moved on to another canyon today: Bryce Canyon National Park, an extraordinary place.  The heart of the Park is a ridge (the "rim") oriented roughly north-south, with an 18-mile road that gives access to outlook points over the dramatic rock formations on the eastern side of this rim.  The elevation ranges from 7894 ft. (2406 m.) at the northern entrance of the Park to 9115 ft. (2778 m.) at Rainbow Point in the south.  There are a number of excellent hiking trails that descend from the rim.  One would need proper equipment (in particular, good boots with some sort of cleats or crampons) to hike on today's packed snow.  Since I lacked such gear, I remained on the rim:  I drove from the entrance of the Park to the southern end of the road, stopping at each outlook point to admire the view.  Here are the highlights of my day:

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The scenery as one approaches Bryce Canyon is already striking:

Sunset Point and Sunrise Point look over the area called the Bryce Amphitheater.

The distinctive features of Bryce Canyon are "hoodoos", bulbous pillars of limestone formed by weathering and erosion -- in particular, the process of "frost-wedging" (when water within cracks and fissures in the rock repeatedly freezes and thaws).

One of the trails descending from the rim is visible here:

A tenacious tree!

Continuing south, Bryce Point also looks over the Amphitheater.

A panoramic view:

South of Bryce Point, I drove through an area where there had been a fire in 2009:

The Park was not empty today, but there were not very many visitors.  At some outlook points, I was alone.

More tenacious trees:

I left Bryce Canyon in the mid-afternoon and drove to Springdale, at the entrance to Zion National Park.  The road passed through spectacular moutainous terrain.  Even the road matches the color of the mountains. 

The view from my motel room tonight: