We drove into Las Vegas Thursday evening, and were waiting at the light for Bellagio’s parking during the fountain show.  It was a great introduction.  The fountains are an unlimited source of entertainment if you find a spot on the rail and are willing to wait the 10 minutes between songs.

Inside the Bellagio, the Conservatory was planted with lots of Hydrangeas, which we love, and decoelrated with a Treehouse, galloping horse, birds, a large garden spade, etc. We had breakfast the first morning at the Cafe which looks onto this area.

We toured a number of hotels, and visited the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay where we saw this Komodo Dragon and of course sharks.

At Luxor, we visited the Titanic exhibit, which had a number of artifacts including impressively the “Large Piece” of the hull. No photos or cell phones allowed. Our ticket:

We toured the Venetian, including the shops which feature this Plaza, as well as gondola rides on the canal.

We also had a Nutella Crepe at Le Creperie in Paris.

So many sights, but mostly we walked a lot, looked a lot, ate a lot. Meals included the Bacchanal dinner buffet at Caesar’s Palace, breakfast at The Buffet at Bellagio, Gordon Ramsay’s BURGR (really good), and misc chocolate-related stops. Good stuff!

We arrived in the evening and after setting up our tent were treated to this view from the lodge deck:

We had dinner at the lodge dining room.  The food was good but the view non-existent as we were seated away from the windows which was not appreciated.  The lodge is old, so I can imagine tens of thousands before us thinking the same.   Why didnt they build a riser in the back half of the dining room?

The next morning we walked to the lodge from the campground along the transept trail, where we reached several nice view points

After coffee and muffins at the saloon, we enjoyed the deck for another hour or so before walking back to the campground.  We packed up and headed out to the Walhalla Plateau penninsula, a long drive through forest with several interesting viewpoints.  This one, at Angels Window, and another at Cape Final were spectaculsr.

In the late afternoon we decided against staying another night, and headed off to Las Vegas via Hwy 389 through the Paiute Reservstion.

This morning, I woke up when Holly was getting in the shower about 6 and it looked like the skies had cleared overnight.  So I ran out the door to drive into the park and see what Sunrise Point was all about.  The view away from the Sunrise is the more interesting.

We hiked Queens Garden and Navajo Loop, a relatively short walk but packed with scenery up close like this view of Queen’s Garden:

And the climb out of the canyon on Navajo Loop:

We then drove to the end of the plateau, with additional sweeping viewpoints of the area surrounding Bryce.

This is the Natural Bridge:

In the afternoon, we drove on down to Grand Canyon.

Today we are headed for a day hike from the bottom of the Zion Narrows hike.  First to rent shoes and poles and then off for the shuttle bus to Temple of Sinawava.

We took about five hours to hike to the Wall Street section of the Narrows and back.  It’s nice to have visited before a few times, the landmarks are recognizable and the timing more predictable.  We had a photo taken at the start.

A few other sights along the way.

Tonight we drove to Bryce Canyon.  The weather was cloudy and rainy so not much opportunity for photos.  It was an odd mix of cattle ranches and odd, low budget tourist stops.  The scenery near Zion was quite interesting, but less so in between the parks.

Tomorrow we check out Bryce in the morning.

Storms at night, but no rain on us really.  We packed up and headed around the west rim over to campsite 1 where the spring is.  We decided to wait to eat breakfast there.

After the break the trail heads down down down a tall wall with great views.

As we reach the bottom of this valley, the terrain is more rock with less vegetation.

After a bit of a climb we reach the Scout’s Lookout area where the main canyon and Angel’s Landing are visible.

Then it was down down down som more to the floor of the canyon, a shuttle bus, and cold drinks.  Quite hot down in valley today!  Even a park ranger spoke up against the heat and humidity from the rain the previous night.

Sunday we started at 7am with a hired shuttle to Lava Point and the West Rim trailhead.  It was a hot hike of about 6.7 miles, carrying nearly 3 gallons of water as there are no water sources until Day 2.
We arrived at our campsite very early, about 1pm, which was good as we needed significant cooling down and resting.  Unfortunately it was hot even at 7400 feet, so we didn’t get active again until the evening.
About 1/3 mile down the trail, we found this evening view.

Photo gallery from the “real” camera, and testing out a new WordPress photo gallery plugin:

Zion West Rim 2014-07-13 0019

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The breakfast was said to be full this morning as runners prepared for the Jungfrau marathon, a ridiculously difficult feat. Starting from Interlaken, they would run up to Kleine Scheidegg, which I showed you yesterday. The elevation difference between lowest and highest pointsnear around 5900 feet, and there’s plenty of up and down in there. Yet the winners are still under 3 hours!

We ate later than the runners though, and proceeded to marathon shop through Brienz and Interlaken for a few hours. We didn’t buy much as the Swiss are pretty proud of their handicrafts.

We spent a couple of hours at the Freilichtsmuseum, an open air city of historical buildings moved here from around the country, complete with artifacts and furniture, and some demonstrations in progress. It’s sort of like Colonial Williamsburg only more spread out and more rural. Among several interesting this was the sawmill powered by waterwheel.

it turns this:

into this:

though not at a very fast pace.

We then left the lakes for the capital city of Bern. We walked around the “platz”es seeing their colorful 16th century fountains and eventually eating a very European dinner al fresco. Tomorrow is our last day, though honestly I think we both are ready to head home after two great weeks here.

More cheese and dairy land tomorrow in Emmental and castles and medieval old towns in Aargau.

Drove out of the mountains today and staying in a hotel on Lake Brienz, Brienzersee.

We drove into nearby Interlaken to find a laundromat, and a late bite. We parked two blocks from the laundromat, in an older part of town, and the old church’s bells were ringing for several minutes. We haven’t figured out the meaning if this as it seems to be different times each city, but once or twice per day. This time at eight pm.

Here it is, the pinnacle. At least the highest point – billed as the “Top of Europe”. Of course it’s not, but it is pretty impressive, built in 1912 after six years of tunneling. It is the highest train station in Europe they say. 11,300 something feet I think. We saw the Aletsch Glacier from the north side this time.

And the view from below at the Kleine Scheidegg station.