South West USA trip 2012 - thank you all!

[denpo]

Ok buddies, here's for you some pics of my 2 weeks my wife and I spent in CA and UT.
Lots of input from you guys when into the making of this road trip.

Day after landing, we head to Las Vegas, first view on the desert.


Along the freeway, there's "ghost" exits, that lead to abandoned gas stations or trailers parks.



We reach Las Vegas by the night.








Garry routed me to the Rio while all the main hotel on the strip where sold out for spring break (doh), that really saved the day.

Day after, we visited the strip.















By the evening, Gary took us to the local Corvette Club of LA meeting.
We met a bunch of awesome guys, they gave us a lot a good tips.
Surprisingly tasty burgers.
Half price for the Club members (and their guests)
That was a cool night, with true people, down to earth, far from the strip, some kind of "true" Las Vegas.

Cold and wind make you take silly pose...



ClutchDust ain't no liar:

 

[denpo]

Zion

The day after, we head north to Utah.



Nice twisty road, the view is jawdropping.






Our first stop : Zion Canyon.










Now we left Zion, and heading to Bryce


We stop by a place called Red Canyon



Now here's Bryce




This one is a huge panoramic, made with several pictures stiched together.


After that we stop at a pretty rustic burger house
Old truck rusting


Ain't got no fender!

 

[denpo]

The day after, the main course : Capitol Reef











It was maybe 10 meters away, not much more



Those ones were actually by the side of the road.


Capitol Reef was really a slap in the face. Wonderfull, left us speechless.

 

[denpo]

Now we're heading to Moab



A really dry place, something you feel like you're one the moon. Middle of nowhere.


Now in Moab, we did Arches park.















The spent two day in Moab, a charming city.

 

[denpo]

Now we head to Arizona, and on our way to Monument Valley, we stop by at small offroad road, with a tiny sign : "Valley of the Gods".
The road is rough and unpaved, but it's not offroading.
The view is incredible.













After that, we passed by Monument Valley and didn't stop, This Valley of the Gods was much more interesting.

Now we're done with the Canyon, we head back to Los Angeles.

To sum up :
-Zion : beautiful, kinda short for the 25$.
-Bryce : meh, maybe it's because of the snow, but there wasn't much to see.
-Capitol Reef : Totally awesome, the best we made, huge, you could spend days in the area.
-Arches : Uniquely beautiful, but you'll have to walk to see stuff, and some paths are pretty scary.
-Canyon Land : we passed by, ok but not worth a stop.
-Valley of Gods : the most underated hidden stuff we've made, worth the narrow gravel track.
-Monument Valley : We you've done the other, it looks pale in comparison.

 

[mrvette]

:yahoo: Glad you guys enjoyed yourselves....some good pix there and tough to beat that geology of massive occurrences of some sort or other.....

some of the best on earth,

methinks you have two more trips....one to see the Grand Canyon, Indian lands/reservations, Meteor Crater, Petrified Forest, and Painted Desert....

after that another trip to see the fall color in Carolinas....going up north....

Garden State Parkway and Skyline Drive....the direct opposite of the geology you just saw....

hoto:hoto:hoto::clap:

 

[denpo]

Back to LA.
Breakfast with Georges, Jeff, and Bob




We stayed at Pierre's place, and close friend of 20 years.
During the week we visited Santa Monica



We did some shopping, and while looking for some shoes size 14, and stop by the ferrari shop in Santa Monica Center :





Visited the Western Heritage Museum



Jeff invited me to spend a Corvette Day with him. His son and Doug Marianni joined in.




Jeff tooks us to a surrealistic italian restaurant. Excellent food in a out of this world setting. I was almost wondering why I went to Las Vegas.



Funny David Lynch never shot in this place.



J&D corvette, Corvette Mike, West Coast Corvette...








That was a day I would never forget, even if only for the corvette rides.

 

[denpo]

To finish, I went to the Petersen Automotive Museum.


An oddity in the parking.


Italian Design Section







Alternative Energy Section



GM turbine engine


EV-1



Movies cars



Hotrods



Old times


1915 racer

 

[1Michel]

I remember at Peterson's museum they had a Foose section.
Pretty neat since later the next day I visited Fooses's garage in Huntington beach.

 

[big2bird]

Back to LA.
Breakfast with Georges, Jeff, and Greg(?)

Not Greg, Bob. (Nearbrt):smash:

 

[MYBAD79]

awesome pictures, it seems you packed a lot in 2 (?) weeks .... definitely a fun vacation :clap:

 

[denpo]

Not Greg, Bob. (Nearbrt):smash:

Fixed, sorry Bob.
By the way his '69 is a sick car.

 

[denpo]

awesome pictures, it seems you packed a lot in 2 (?) weeks .... definitely a fun vacation :clap:

Yeah, two week, first vacation in 6 years. And there's much more to come out of all this, can't speak for the moment.

 

[big2bird]

awesome pictures, it seems you packed a lot in 2 (?) weeks .... definitely a fun vacation :clap:

Yeah, two week, first vacation in 6 years. And there's much more to come out of all this, can't speak for the moment.

Dennis is a great guy, and welcome here anytime. I hope he can make a future Bird run with us. :clap:

 

[denpo]

The roadmap

 

[JeffP1167]

Next time you guys do a run and I have my project vette registered I will go. Sadly my V-6 Camaro couldn't have kept up so wouldn't have been fun for me

 

[68L71]

awesome pictures, it seems you packed a lot in 2 (?) weeks .... definitely a fun vacation :clap:

Yeah, two week, first vacation in 6 years. And there's much more to come out of all this, can't speak for the moment.

You're moving to Califonia?

 

[MYBAD79]

Dennis is a great guy, and welcome here anytime. I hope he can make a future Bird run with us. :clap:

Denis, how about visiting Florida ???

 

[clutchdust]

Denis, it was nice to finally meet you and I'm glad you had a good visit. It looks like you had a great road trip. I feel pretty pathetic that I have lived out here for 12 years and haven't seen half the places you visited in a week. But thanks for narrowing down the selections, I have to put a few of those on my things-to-do list.

 

[73 Mike]

Looks like you had a great visit Denis. Sorry that I missed you. Next time :beer: