California, Nevada & Arizona
After recharging our batteries we set off in our hire car for the 5 hour drive north up to Yosemite National Park. The drive itself was easy and we arrived at our hotel mid afternoon. I had booked us into the Yosemite View Lodge just outside the park entrance. The hotel is a nice 3* property which is built adjacent to the Merced River. I had upgraded the room to a River View which fortunately was on the ground floor with a nice terrace literally right next to the river. There are areas next to the hotel where you can swim in the river. We did so one afternoon and the water was freezing, which was a surprise as it was mid September with the temperature in the eighties.
Yosemite is one of the most beautiful areas I have ever been to! It’s a deep glacial valley which is heavily wooded with Sequoia trees and surrounded by sheer vertical granite rock formations with names such as Half Dome, El Capitan & Glacier Point. The park itself covers 1,170 sq miles and in it contains 1,600 miles of streams, 800 miles of hiking trails and 350 miles of roads. It is vast, so I would recommend a minimum of 3 nights here.
From Yosemite we drove to Las Vegas via Death Valley. It’s was a long 8 hour journey with just a few short stops to take pictures en route and numerous stops for petrol. A tip I always tell people doing this kind of itinerary is to keep topping up with petrol. Some of the roads are very remote and you won’t see civilisation or a petrol station for miles. Vegas was just a night stop on the way to Lake Havasu in Arizona. I have been to Vegas before and although I really liked it we decided not to extend our stay. The following morning we set off for Arizona with a short detour to Lake Las Vegas to see the new luxury resort which is being developed just a short drive away from Las Vegas. 155 miles south of Las Vegas is the town of Lake Havasu. It is situated beside an artificial lake made by a dam and is a paradise for water sports enthusiasts. It is also the home to the world famous London Bridge. We stayed with relatives for 5 days and every day the temperature was well over 100 degrees. Most days we went out onto the lake and had a picnic, what a life!
The last leg of our holiday was a 2 night stop near Anaheim, home to the original Disneyland. We had been to Disneyland a couple of times, so we decided to stay near one of our favourite theme parks..Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park which is 6 miles away from Disneyland. Our hotel was the 4*Knott’s Berry Farm Resort Hotel which is adjacent to the theme park. Here we spent a full day in this great park which has some excellent rides including Xcelarator, Ghost Rider and Silver Bullet. It was a fantastic holiday, even with all the driving. If you ever decide to go to the USA, you should be prepared to hire a car as it is such a vast country. Without a car you will be seriously limiting your options. With the exchange rate in our favour, there has never been a better time to visit this amazing country.