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10 days out west


Docwagon

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I just got back from a family vacation.  I took my wife and son on a big tour of US National Parks out west.  We flew into Los Angeles, spent some time there, then did the tour.  It ended up something like this:

 

Los Angeles:  Whale Watching boat tour.  Kayaking with sea lions.  Petersen car museum.  La Brea Tar Pits.  Hollywood sign from the observatory.

 

Sequoia National Park/King's Canyon National Park (they connect):  Hiking, exploring the giant trees and some mountain views.

 

Death Valley: Driving the unpaved trails, some light hiking, star gazing, general sight seeing.

 

Las Vegas area (including towns featured in Fallout: New Vegas.  We went to Goodsprings and visited the bar the saloon is modeled after, went to Primm and saw the casinos and got some chips from Whisky Pete's, drove through the Mojave Preserve)

 

St. George Utah/Zion National park.  Canyon hiking, dinosaur track spotting, desert hiking

 

Joshua Tree National Park:  Light hiking, 107 degree weather

 

Los Angeles: Autry Museum of the West, LA Zoo, Aquarium of the West, some light hiking.  Santa Monica pier.  Long Beach.

 

Insert massive amount of visits to various taco trucks, Armenian bakeries, doughnut shops (seriously, LA has a butt ton of them from cheap-o to gourmet), and In N Out.

 

LA traffic SUUUUCKS.  I'm in no hurry to return to LA (or go through LAX again) but the trip was worth it and was a lot of fun.

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Please tell me you were thee for about a month, as if that was a daily update per line i'd be frickin shattered Doc!

 

On 6/17/2021 at 2:52 AM, Docwagon said:

Hollywood sign from the observatory.

 

How close can you get to this btw? I've always seen pics from afar.

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On 6/21/2021 at 9:03 AM, GazzaGarratt said:

 

How close can you get to this btw? I've always seen pics from afar.

 

That depends on how willing to trespass you are and how much you like hiking inclines.  If you don't mind hills and aren't concerned with trespassing, you can walk right up to them.  We didn't, largely because up close they are just sheet metal on a frame and aren't really impressive in anything other than size.  We also just aren't that into media culture, so while we saw it because you can't skip it if you're a tourist in LA, it was kind of meh.

 

We had about 10 and a half days on the ground.  We spent 1-3 days at most places.  I think it was:

 

Day 1: Land at 10:00-ish in the morning in LA.  Do stuff that afternoon

Day 2: LA stuff.

Day 3: Labrea tar pits, then straight to Seqouia, afternoon and evening there.

Day 4: Full day at Sequoia/King's Canyon

Day 5: Trail run (just me) at sun up, then drive to Death Valley, have most of the day there

Day 6:  Death Valley until early afternoon, afternoon doing the Fallout: New Vegas tour, evening in Las Vegas, complete drive to St. George Utah (late night)

Day 7: St. George Utah hiking

Day 8: Zion national park, then drive to Joshua Tree (stopping off at Primm again on the way through), evening at Joshua Tree

Day 9: Most of the day at Joshua Tree, then drive to LA 

Day 10: LA stuff

Day 11: LA stuff until 11:45 PM flight

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22 hours ago, phil bottle said:

The Fallout: New Vegas tour sounds brilliant 🙂

 

You ain't wrong there! 😄

 

Sounds an amazing 11 days, Doc. Death Valley sounds like an amazing place to visit too.

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