Camilla Jørvad Photography

So, the last stretch from Gallup, New Mexico to LA :) I took Sooooooo many photos at Grand Canyon, but since everybody has already seen hundreds of photos from there, I have really tried to limit it here. But actually there were plenty of extraordinary natural sights in the area even before we reached Grand Canyon National Park. The image below with the snow covered Humphrey’s Peak in the background was one of my favourite spots on the whole trip. You expected a bear to come walking by any minute :D

Humphrey’s Peak  is the highest natural point in Arizona with an elevation of 12,637 feet (3,852 m) and is located in the Coconino National Forest. Humphreys Peak is the highest of a group of extinct volcanic peaks known as the San Francisco Peaks. There was also a really cool vulcanic crater nearby but we chose to continue towards Grand Canyon to have plenty of time to see it, being one of our most important stops on the trip for us.

It was extremely windy the day we headed to Grand Canyon, so this image below, of a sand storm, is taken from inside the car because there was so much sand in the air I was afraid my equipment might get damaged…

“Small” versions of the Grand Canyon, as we followed the road upwards towards Grand Canyon National Park. It was unexpected to both of us that the Grand Canyon itself was located quite high  in the surrounding landscape…

The watchtower:

A kind American man offered to take this photo of Jean and I.

One of my roadtrip musts: a photo with me, the car… and grand canyon:)

After having spent all afternoon driving along the South Rim of the canyon we headed down to our hotel in Tusayan village and drove back to the canyon about 1 hour before sunset. We wanted to see the spectacular colour hues that appear in the canyon rocks when the sunlight isn’t there to make it pale and dusty. Even though it was freezing cold (literally. it was -4 degrees c when we left Tusayan the next morning) it was totally worth it. And we were quite tough, being the last to leave the park…

The next morning we saw the first road sign pointing to Los Angeles, yay…

At Hoover Dam, my fear of hights was tested once again…

Las Vegas… one of the only big bummers of the trip was that we never found the famous ‘Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada’ sign :(

If you take Las Vegas for what it is: over-the-top everything, it is an amazing place. Our hotel, The Venetian was a case in point:

I had promised my husband to place a 1 dollar bet on a slot where I could win a car; this was the only gamling I did in Vegas…

The indoor sky and plaza at the Venetian:

This town is full of freaky stuff :D

City Lights

I knew (Ocean’s Eleven being one of my favourite movies) I had to see Hotel Bellagio’s fountain. It starts once per hour on the hour and last I think about 10 minutes or so. It was spectacular and I would definitely like to take my kids there once. The fountain itself was beautiful, but added the music and the loud thunder coming from the water it was nothing short of an experience!

Having spent a night in amazing crazy busy noisy Las vegas it was both a physical and emotional pleasure to arrive at our final destination, LA. And – being used to having water all around me, living on a small island – walking barefoot into the Pacific Ocean after a week in the desert was thrilling. It was also a great relief having reached our destination with only minor obstacles/problems on the way. LA was everything I, as a simple Dane raised with American tv-shows, thought it would be: laid back attitude, health and exercise focused, hot and sunny, beachy and wonderful. The last few minutes through the incredible Santa Monica mountain roads down towards the blue blue ocean was a perfect climax to our roadtrip.

Our hotel near LAX was a copy of an old Italian Villa:

On the final day of our trip we took a guided bus tour of LA. It was insanely hot, and although the driver did.not.stop.talking. for about 7-8 hours it was  a great way to experience the must-sees when you don’t have anough time to go around on your own. I must admit, at that point, after two weeks I were beginning to lok forward to returning home to my kids :)

Wonder Woman taking a break :D

Right across from Union Station there was a Mexican Fiesta:

This beautiful Mexican girl patiently let me photograph her skelton makeup :)

So that was it, the next morning we headed back to cold grey Denmark. Hope you enjoyed taking this trip with me. And a huge thankyou to my friend Jean for helping me out during the wedding, and for being so patient while I shot my million photos along the way, and for us having so many things in common, and for a few unplanned experiences which were not funny in the moment and will remain secret but are fun to laugh about looking back ;)