The Grand Circle: USA Road Trip

[Music] the grand circle is a beautiful vast region located in the southwestern United States in covering portions of five states the area contains America's largest concentration of national parks and monuments I'll be traveling with my mum setting off from Vegas and covering a distance of 1,500 miles in two weeks we'll be traveling through some of America's most diverse scenery woven together by extraordinary scenic byways that form the Grand Circle [Music] [Music] [Music] you've left Las Vegas sent we're headed to Zion which is the first stop on the ground circle it's kind of relief to be on the road finally after a few hiccups along the way and the ash cloud which is gonna cancel our flight thousands of passengers are faced delays and cancellations at airports because of the volcanic ash cloud drifting across the UK from Iceland suddenly like this is my foot which meant I couldn't walk it's all better now and then nearly missed our connection Chicago on the flyover and then we got to Vegas and our bags weren't there we're down the guard bags so we went to get the car rental and my license that expired and even though license expired so I can't drive this holiday which is a bit cutting the monster in the driving [Music] so here in Utah and we're in this tiny tiny town called Springdale which is just on the edge of Zion National Park and the contrast to Vegas is slightly more peaceful basically nice relax a few days these are beers we've just been served surprise stir we go I can't get all the beer in that photo but actually most the towns through their own beers were trying to different a new target [Music] like 10 years ago so national park stopped all traffic coming in and made everyone get on like a free parking ride and it just completely transformed the park and then it's so peaceful because there's just no cars anymore [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] no idea what's making that sound [Music] that's what we heard hear what sounded like the bleating sheep who are you doing the small modular [Applause] just be telling my video you could put it in the edited pilots [Music] it's our first day inside and we can be walking up angels landing named angel's landing by references here that I have the years ago he named it so because he thought the only way he gets the top is if you're an angel it's actually just a path which we're gonna walk up it's gonna take hours should be alright don't fight it oh yes [Music] from the top of angel's landing it's a twelve hundred foot drop straight down to the bottom there's actually been six fatalities from people being careless and falling off the path but even if you're scared of heights it's well worth to walk up for the incredible views of Zion [Music] [Music] we're leaving Zion National Park which is a bit of a shame we're led into price which is just as amazing so that should be great that's better yeah mum prefers price so I was good the Bolivian zone the road to be driving on I saw an article line which voted as one of the top ten road to driver in the world he's just weaving in and out of absolute stunning scenery I think the only reason has been featured on Top Gear is because the speaker that's 35 miles now but you don't really want to speed like take you on [Music] yes the way I was I am we did the short trail up to the canyon view and every saw this guy was riding his bike at the road he said he was riding his bike all the way from Las Vegas to Toronto which is incredible it's poor the checkerboard Rock this looks like a giant checkerboard [Music] we would drive on that road out of Zion Canyon and then literally a mile later you're suddenly in the wilderness on a ranch with horses and Buffalo and complete change of scenery so quickly [Music] [Applause] [Music] she's about the coral pinks and juice in the way of Bryce never mind the Grand Canyon I think this is gonna be the hardest walk at the holiday absolutely knack if you trying to walk up the sand use [Music] it is a camp where you can down there [Applause] [Music] [Applause] brush [Music] [Applause] [Music] Bryce Canyon has always been one of our favorite places to visit now technically it's not actually a Canyon for reasons that are far too boring to mention but anyway it was named after ever needs a Bryce an early Mormon settlers who homesteaded here in the mid 1870s Evan Iza once described the canyon as what hell of a place to lose a cow however we were just hoping to lose the crowds by having an early start with the added bonus of avoiding the midday heat [Music] [Music] wherever you go in the world it's always noisy [ __ ] root in the face of why [Music] it's amazing we've just gone round like two extra corners and lost the Italians and listen to that nothing more on the story shut the [ __ ] up this is what we call the t-rex rock looks like it's your ex yeah I think we've had a photo taken here before though yeah yeah definitely so when you come to the national parks like 75% of the Taurus just come to the viewpoint and get their photo taken and like another 24 percent do like the short walk that's like a mile too long but yet you made the effort is go on different walkers just a bit longer you certainly have all the place to yourself [Music] snake down there [Music] yeah so these are block formations here called hoodoos and it basically formed over tens of millions of years worth of weathering and erosion partly because at night sub-freezing temperatures and day it's like really warm so you get a freeze thaw cycle going on like the two thirds of the year round so that's a rough idea of her how its formed [Music] as it light in color for the hats it looks ridiculous yes I want it now no you look like a wet someone out of Western Bible [Music] right we've now got the longest drive of the trip ahead of us but fortunately in the room once again takes us through some breathtaking scenery one of the stops along the way is Capitol Reef National Park which apparently has some of the clearest air in America which you can hear me explain about in this next clip okay it was a little windy and basically the average visibility in the summer is around 145 miles [Music] we've arrived in Moab a small town that serves as a hub for the surrounding national parks as well as all the adventure activities you can do around here such as whitewater rafting and skydiving tomorrow we'll be checking out arches national park but first it was time to try out some more local beer library makes to be over there Brewster beer over there right here this is a missive retail perfect choice we needed to want an ice-cold beer mum's drinking boys it I've come for [Music] it's home to over 2,000 natural sandstone arches yet no one knows how arches nat'l park actually got its name the area is kind of like a playground of short trails where you can scramble over rocks and sand to discover the various arches [Music] [Music] [Music] mrs. partition arch balance rock so this is a double arch and it was featured in the prologue to indiaia Jones and the Last Crusade where River Phoenix plays a young Indiana Jones and just after he stole the golden cross he comes running out there and down here [Music] if you baby [ __ ] crazy gonna wash is gone which way the brain is blowing [Music] this is Canyonlands National Park there's no sign saying that the path had stopped just sort of came to an edge here I realized we should probably start walking the views here are just incredible some of the best in the world I mean compared to Grand Canyon it beats it hands-down in terms of how fast it is now the film 127 hours was shot here in Canyonlands and in arches national park and the real-life story actually happened here in Canyonlands and you can see that if you're on your own you got stuck in a canyon no one's gonna find you [Music] now over here over there's dead horse point which is where we're gonna drive to later and that's where the opening scene a mission impossible to was shot that was all Tom Cruise doing that wasn't any stunt doubles but he did have a safety wise either digitally removed I did some myself a bit earlier over the canyon but I didn't have any wise time for a change of scenery now as we head to the edge of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado [Music] [Music] we're in Colorado now Old West town [Music] we just had the most fantastic evenings around go in the hotel that was built in 1887 and we were drinking in the saloon eating the food the food was amazing was locally brewed beer and a live band playing it was just perfect evening [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] masa Verde was home to the Native Americans from 600 AD to the 1300s however after living here for nearly seven hundred years they allegedly vanished from the area [Music] today the best way to see the cliff dwellings is with a guided tour from one of the park rangers they take you down steep paths ladders and through incredibly narrow tunnels allowing you to explore the old homes of the ancestral Pueblo so here so dapeng why they coat soda Canyon [Music] during 1240 12:42 p.m. here anywhere between three to eight thousand people live in the year 1240 right now right out here so as we look across you could probably hear and see the kids playing in the fields being chased by turkey and also you could probably hear the stone on stone as people repairing and fixing their houses you could probably smell the smoke of these pueblos all around us you could hear the foot drums of Hemingway houses are preparing for an evening ceremony tonight now all these good things for over six hundred years over six hundred years these people farm they live this land population was growing beautiful folks things do not last forever [Music] if you get about halfway up and your body is saying what in the world are you doing the best thing to do is do not look up do not look down what are you saying ain't I will they startled head apart everybody knows I've been noticing free-falling by City [Music] there are a few theories as to what happened to the people living here and why they vanish from the area one is that they simply used up the area's natural resources and moved on you're gonna grab the stuff that belongs to you I make for this long journey crawl through that tunnel the same some of that we're going to cross there in here in just a few more minutes - never never return again there's 8,000 people that once lived here and that's when we say hey these people disappeared off the face of the earth who's gone no go to hack them see a city multi-sim on San Miguel Santa Clara Jimenez go to those pueblos to New Mexico Arizona and even West Texas and you will still see food strips with various numbers what you're looking at here and you will still see people still using kiba's still to the stick after 800 years if you go to those pebbles and you decide to ask them that question the question everybody wants to know why did you leave Mesa Verde why did you leave Canyon of the Ancients Hogan we - nuuma castle canyon de chelly why did you leave all these places across the Southwest now that's three publicist and I got the same answer three times it was time to go that's all it was time to go [Music] [Music] this is money with ballet which has been featured in pretty much every Western ever made the greatest of all course be Back to the Future Part three [Music] it doesn't get much more iconic with this [Music] the Grand Canyon is often referred to as one of the seven natural wonders of the world it's 277 miles long and up to 18 miles wide and every year it attracts around five million tourists of course with that many people things can go wrong the park is littered with signs warning you about the dangers of trying to hike in the canyon due to the high temperatures and lack of water available people become exhausted dehydrated and many people have even died in the canyon the message from the park is clear do not try to hike to the bottom of the canyon and back one day so that's exactly what I'm gonna do it's Hoffman ounces sunrise but it's already pretty light this is what you need to stun the wall because we're going all the way down there so at the mile-and-a-half point and one of the great things about starting this early in the morning is that you have the whole canyon to yourself which is pretty special for Grand Canyon because later on this place can be absolutely packed [Music] just quote past six we got our 1/2 that's how far come down so far nearly halfway down elevation wise them here at Indian gardens and from the top down here every mile after you can refill your water but from here to the bottom there's no way you can refill your water so you basically get from here to the bottom back without any extra drink which is a six mile round-trip and if you think at the bottom you could pop to the ranch and refill there that's another two miles downstream start making a 10 mile round-trip so basically you got to get from here to the bomb and back with what you've got it's half six now so I've probably eight to one by about eight and hopefully be back up here by ten because between ten and four o'clock that's the hottest time of the day so you want to be back here by ten and then you can just refill as she keep going on the way back up this cold devil's corkscrew this big Basin that you got to walk around just heats up like an oven so you wanna be back up here before 10 o'clock otherwise it's just hell and you'll just roast there's Colorado River misses the bottom of Grand Canyon dude just get back up there but method Devils corkscrew / ball of death so here we go [Music] it's just a top of Devil's corkscrew absolutely boiling it's not even 9 o'clock yet can't imagine won't be like during the middle of day or late in the afternoon [Music] [Music] this is my sound like a drill [Applause] back in Indian gardens was it there just this half nine which is pretty good time now it's just last four and half mile slog back at the main little Canyon which is gonna be completely in the Sun stand me tough but I should be back in pretty good time [Music] lazy bastards we made it back to that's off have a shower and get there [Music] less stretched now way to Vegas on a stretch of the old route 66 p.m. Horsemen of the test [Music] gas stations convert to a gift shop [Music] scoop it down [Music] [Music] [Music] well [Music] [Music] last night there the contrast been in Vegas isn't it say hi Coniston happening now Last Vegas could be a lot of fun but doing it the end of our trip it just felt like it kind of inappropriate ending for our trip you said we've just been through sort of most beautiful natural landscapes in the whole world to come to some man-made crazy playground just felt a bit weird plus we were absolutely knackered from doing the Grand Canyon the day before so yeah everybody pumped up and ready for a big night out but we had an absolutely amazing time obviously incredible time it's a completely relaxing stress for a couple of weeks you know for some people are relaxing all they just sit on the beach for two weeks but for us it's gone walking in these national parks [Music] I think the reason we just keep going back to the national parks is well why wouldn't you they're just so the most incredibly beautiful places in the world and that for me the national parks of represent the kind of the best side of America you know they're completely protected by the government they're not overrun by shopping malls or McDonald's Starbucks they're not mine for natural resources and unlike some other past America they completely embrace science and the teaching and learning of it [Music] it's great to discover new places new cultures but it's also great to revisit your old favorites and that's exactly what this holiday was about and we've had a fantastic time it's been a brilliant trip [Music] [Music] when here but you just don't listen when you're looking but you just don't see what you thinking is rhyme or reason and go [Music]

Channel: Karl Watson: Travel Documentaries

Views: 80,508

Keywords: Travel, Backpacking, Adventure, Wanderlust, Karl Watson, Karl Watson Travel Documentaries, USA road trip, USA travel vlog, grand canyon hike to bottom, the grand circle road trip, the grand circle tour, america travel vlog, road trip vlog, national parks road trip itinerary, national park road trip planner, 2 week national park roadtrip, best national park trips, national park vacation ideas, ultimate national park roadtrip, western national parks driving loop, usa travel video

Id: QWZ7GUQzuR0

Length: 37min 38sec (2258 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 26 2018