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Preamble:
I was to go to Salt Lake City, Utah for a 2 day conference in mid October this year. Having gone that far, I decided to spend some time in the area and do some travelling. Please note “travelling” and not “sight-seeing”.
There is a significant difference between the two. Sight seeing is a passive process-you are shown the sites and you see-there is little active effort and planning other than getting to the tour operators office and making the requisite bookings. Travelling, as I define it, is an active process. One does all the background research himself/herself, and all the planning and logistics. It is a move involved experience- a richer one at that.

The “Planning”:
Utah is in the South West of the USA. Salt Lake City, it’s major city, is famous for:
1. having hosted the winter Olympics in 2002
2. having many famous ski resorts and ski slopes. The ski season starts from the end of November to April.
3. During summers, many ski tracks are converted to mountain biking trails. The rope-ways allow you to carry yourself and your mountain bike up the hill and one can then whizz down the slopes. This area is reputed amongst the mountain biking community.
The meeting was to be held at Stein Eriksen resort, a 5 star, 5 Diamond rated resort in Deer Valley, about 45 minutes from Salt Lake City (http://www.steinlodge.com).

Utah is also famous for it’s National Parks. Along with the neighboring Arizona and Nevada have some of the most rugged wilderness. Famous parks such as the Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, Arches etc. are in the area. As it stands, it is easier getting to these parks from Las Vegas, rather than from Salt Lake City itself. So my plan was to see one man-made wonder (Las Vegas) and one natural wonder (to be decided).

I had 5 days and was looking at the best way to spend these. After much bleary eyed staring at small letters on my laptop screen late into the night (it’s retina display, straining my retinal receptors!)-I had some sort of a plan. I had great inputs from Tripadvisor (http://www.tripadvisor.in) and other sites such as Yelp (www.yelp.com). The forums on Trip advisor were a boon. Not only is there a wealth of information already available, the forum itself is active and there are plenty of people willing to help and reply to your specific queries. A great resource indeed.

Travel:
Unfortunately, none of these National Parks are easily accessible by public transport. There is next to no easy connectivity by air, bus or trains. Your only options are to:
1. drive yourself there
2. take one of the many aforementioned coach tours on offer (“sight seeing”)
I decided against coach tours for the following reasons:
1. my goal was to “travel” and not “sight see”
2. you spent an inordinately long time in the coach, as against in the park. For example, on a day tour from Las Vegas to Grand Canyon, you have your back-side parked in a coach seat for about 10-11 hours, and actually spend about 3-4 hours at best in the park!
3. most coach tours , even those that allowed you to stay overnight at the Grand Canyon, significantly limited the time you had in the parks and the flexibility to do what you wanted to do.
4. Cost obviously is an issue.

So driving there became the more viable option. As I was travelling solo and had no friend/well wisher in the area to take me there, I considered a self-drive option.

The “Drive-Myself” musings and planning:

Though I have driven extensively abroad, all these miles logged in have been in erstwhile Pax-Britannica -Australia, UK and India. All right hand driving Countries. So the first issue was the bit about driving on the wrong side!
Back to the Retina to Retina interactions. This time, the forum on team-bhp had excellent information about the requirements, experiences and “how-to’s”. Thought about it for a while and it did not seem a big deal-so decided to go ahead with the self-drive option.

Licensing Requirements:
Most of these areas in the US allow you to drive with your Indian License. The requirement is that the license be current and in English. IF the language on the license is not in English, they recommend that an International Driving Permit (IDP) be obtained prior to travel. I wrote to a couple of car rental companies and received the same advice from them.

As my trip was dependent entirely on my ability to rent a car, I decided to apply for a IDP here even though my DL was in English. The last thing I wanted was to be denied a car for inappropriate paperwork.

Applying for IDP:
Now, applying for an IDP is a straightforward process. The RTO website provides all the information (http://rto.kar.nic.in). However, there was a problem in that, the address on the License was different from that on my passport-they were under different RTO areas. I was rapidly running out of time and running to various RTO’s offices to get the address corrected and then the IDP was not feasible…..”what to do???”……AA to the rescue.

Enter the AA:
While trying to find a efficient way to get the IDP, I chanced upon the AA (not of the C2H5OH variety…) on the pages of Team BHP. Called them up pronto and got a very helpful lady on the other end. She gave me detailed instructions about the process. Briefly, you need to become an AA member-it currently costs around 6750 or so for a life membership. Once you become a member, they offer several RTO related services-including issuing a IDP on the spot. All requisite instructions and forms are available on the AA site (http://www.aasindia.org).
I got all the forms downloaded, filled out and made my way to the AA Bangalore office on St.Mark’s Road. To their credit and my pleasant surprise, all the paperwork was completed within half an hour and I had my IDP in a little protective jacket handed to me. They even offered to help me sort out the change of address etc. in due course. Though there is a small service fee to be paid, it is worth it for the following reasons:
1. it is a single window operation
2. the people are very pleasant and helpful
3. the medical certificate can be done by any doctor-even your GP, and you do not need to go hunting for a government doctor .
4. there is no crowd and the whole thing is done in a very smooth way.
5. You can go at your convenience during their working hours-no need to line up at 9am in the morning as with the RTO.I went at 2 pm and was out by 2.30pm!

So here I was, grinning from ear to ear, with my IDP in the bag-heaved a sigh of relief, promply walked down to Koshy’s and had some of their famous fish curry….heaven!



Renting a Car in the US:
All information required to rent cars in the US are available online. I searched individual companies (Avis, Hertz are the more upmarket ones, then there is Enterprise, Budget, Sixt and a whole lot of others). Going in for a larger brand gives you several advantages:
1. there is more choice of cars and you are likely to get what you are looking for
2. the cars are usually newer and in better condition
3. there are more rental centers-giving you greater options to pick up and drop.
4. Many of these centers-especially the airport based ones, are open 24 hours making pick up and return more convenient.
5. More likely to find services such as GPS etc.

There are services such as Vroomvroom (http://www.vroomvroomvroom.com) that give you comparative data and costing between several rental companies. I looked at them and at the individual companies. Our own Make-my-trip and Expedia also have such comparative quotes.
One other interesting thing is that you can book the car at no cost. You can cancel until the last moment if your plan changes or you get a better deal. So I had actually booked with a couple of mid range rental companies, but was able to get a competitive booking from Avis a couple of days before my trip. This was what I finally used. I booked for a GPS too-this is essential. Though google maps is excellent-data costs are high if you are on roaming and several of the national parks do not have robust cell phone network cover. I strongly advice spending a little extra for the GPS.
Insurance options and car rentals:
Car rental agency sales persons are one of the glibbest talkers in the business I think. Their agenda, as can be expected, is to sell you all that they have on offer. Besides the car rental charges, which are pretty clear (depends on car type and days of rental), the other area where they push is with the various insurance schemes on offer. To summarise, the following are the insurance available-some are mandatory by law, some are safer options to take, and some are optional.
1. Loss and Damage Waiver : this indemnifies you if the car is lost or damaged
2. Collision damage Waiver: indemnifies you in case of collision induced damage to your car
3. Additional Liability Insurance: this indemnifies you if you meet with an accident and damage another car or property or person
4. Personal Accident Insurance: protects you in case of accident requiring treatment etc.
5. Personal Effects Protection (PEP): self explanatory-protects you against theft of personal effects.
6. Road-side assistance plan: this is incase you need road side assistance-flat tyre, lost key, dead battery and such.

Some of these are actually available as a part of your travel insurance and some as an extra on your credit cards-items 3,4 and 5 usually. So it is worth looking at the fine print of the travel insurance and credit cards-this could potentially save you money. Some are included in the rental price by the car company to protect their asset-that is the car-items 1 and 2 usually.

So it pays to look at this and decide what insurance/waivers you want to buy at the time of rentals. These are significant costs when they all add up. So buy what you need and not all that the slick talking sales guy wants you to buy.



Travel Plans:
As Las Vegas was the central town to visit most parks, I decided to start the road trips from there. Based on information from Trip Advisor forums, friends who were familiar with the area and other online resources, I decided to visit Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks from Las Vegas.

So that was me, done and dusted and ready to go…..

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Arrival at Las Vegas:


The Sin City….
The MacCarran International Airport is one of the busiest airports in the USA. It is huge and the trip from the landing gate to the baggage retrieval requires a train ride! However, it was a pleasant surprise to see the baggage already on the carousel by the time we got there physically.
Slot machines are all over the place-from the arrival lounge, the baggage areas etc. Even the car rental facility had slot machines blinking away-and bleary eyed people spinning the wheels.
A short bus ride from the airport takes you to the Car Rental Center-a large building (with slot machines off course) where all the major car rental companies have their counters. Marched upto the Avis counter, to the sweet talking agent and got my car- a 2014 model Hyundai Sonata. Completed the paperwork and formalities in a few minutes and went down to the car ranks and picked up the car. A full tank of fuel was provided, and the car had to be returned with a full tank.
The GPS unit was from Garmin. The rental guy showed me how to operate the device and helpfully fed in several off my intended destinations, starting with the hotel I had booked. Interestingly, all the Avis locations are preprogrammed, as are gas stations-this makes getting back to the rental agency during the returns a breeze.

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The Car:

This 2014 model Hyundai Sonata had only 7000 miles on the clock-by standards a very low mileage vehicle.
This white 4 door automatic vehicle came with Xirus Satellite Radio along with a full ICE unit. The outside rear view mirror came with a blind spot segment. The rest was as pretty standard. It had 3 drive modes-standard, sport and Eco. Drove mostly in eco mode. Sports mode kept the car in a higher rev mode, made it slightly more peppy, but significantly impacted fuel consumption.
Here are a few pictures of the car.
It was comfortable to drive and was trouble free for the duration that I had it. On the whole I drove 500 miles and the car returned about 35mpg.

Hyundai seems to have made a significant impact in the market there-there are Hyundai cars aplenty and all around.





Impressions of driving on the wrong side of the road:

On the whole, I guess it was not a big deal. I must clarify that I did not drive in inner city roads in large cities, so I guess my experience here limited. My driving was mostly in Las Vegas , on open highways and smaller towns/National Parks.
The main principle I followed was to keep the median to my side at all times. Roads are clearly marked and each set of signals has one for each lane. SO as far as you are in the correct lane, it is a simple matter to follow the traffic signs and the traffic. Right turns were not a problem. Left turns requires special attention to avoid turning into the wrong side and into oncoming traffic. Again, at most intersections, road markings take you into the right lanes.

Another aspect that struck me was the lack of speed cameras. UK roads are full of speed cameras. However, I did not come across even one during this trip. As you enter a town , there is a flashing board that tells you your speed and the designated speed limit-this is helpful.

The highways are excellent. I was on interstate 18 for long stretches and it was absolute fun to drive. There were plenty of caravans ( RV’s as they are called in americanese).Many of them are towing stuff- cycles, boats, motor cycles, quad bikes, other cars. Large trailers move very fast-the wind from these can upset the ride even in a large car! Most major roads are marked along their outer edges with caterpillar tracks like ridges. This leads to a distinct vibration when the right wheels run on them-alerting you to the fact that you are too much to the right. Similarly, lanes and yellow lines too have depressions at regular interval that results in a thud-thud sound when you are riding on one. These auditory and tactile feed back helps you stay in your lane even at reasonably high speeds. ( attach picutres).

While all this will not be new for the multitude on this forum who drive regularly in the US, they were novelties of me and hence I high light them-please bear with me.

The Gas Station:

This is another national landmark. They are peppered all over the place and are usually large with half a dozen or more pumps. They are all unmanned. You can use your credit card at the pump-however, it deducts a random amount-$75 once and $40 another time before you start to pump gas into your car. The first time this happened, I panicked and dashed into the store attached. The person there assured me that this is standard practice, especially with foreign credit cards and the excess amount deducted would be credited back into the credit card account. Alternatively, you could get the card swiped manually in the store with a smaller amount if your expected gas requirement is low. Fuel was priced at about $3.08-$3.30 a gallon (about 3.78 liters). This works out to about INR 50 per liter! Petrol is cheap there isn’t it? Bottled water is more expensive!

[S2!!!]

So planning and rentals went smoothly. Eagerly waiting for your actual travel with a lot of pictures. My hopes are high especially after reading your introductory paragraph about travel and not 'sight-seeing'.

The 2014 Hyundai Sonata looks so much better than the vulgar, fluidic Sonata sold here. Wonder what is stopping Hyundai from bringing this one down here avec a diesel motor. At the same time, my respect for the Elite i20 just doubled on seeing the interior picture of the Sonata. The Elite i20's interiors are so similar to this at fraction of a cost. Wow!

Sorry to have gone off-topic. Back to the travel please

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Zion National Park:

Zion Canyon is a picturesque canyon carved out by the Virgin river in the state of Utah in South West USA. The Virgin river ultimately joins the Colorado river system. The towering sand stone mountains on either side of this narrow valley creates a beautiful area. This narrow and long valley area constitutes the Zion National Park, one of the most visited of the US National Parks.

Zion is famous for it’s varied treks and trails. The two most famous, the flagships, are the Angel’s Landing and the Narrows.

Angel’s Landing:

The trek to Angel’s Landing is a strenuous winding uphill trail that gains 1500 feet within a distance about 2 miles. This brings you to the penultimate stop called Scout’s Lookout. From here to the actual Angel’s Landing is a steep climb on the narrow edge of a fin of rock, with 1500 feet drop off on either side. There is a chain that provides a semblance of security and hold for the trip up and down. The whole trip is about 5 ½ miles.

The trek starts at the valley floor at a point called the Grotto. A small bridge across the Virgin river brings you onto the actual trail.(picture). A gentle uphill segment brings you to the base of the hill.
From here on the path becomes steep uphill. The path is paved and gains altitude rapidly. A series of switchbacks (Hairpin bends for us) called Walter’s Wiggles, allows for a walk-able track. As one gains in altitude, the vistas become more beautiful and immense.(pictures). Persevering on this track for about 2 miles gets you to Scout’s Lookout. This area is a site for a break and snack. Views are excellent and for many people this is the end of the road, they will begin their return descent after a short break.
But the real excitement starts here. Angel’s Landing is a little ledge atop a thin fin of mountain another half mile up from here. This path is narrow-often only a couple of feet wide, with 1500 feet drops on both sides. The path is not paved. Rough steps are cut into the rock. In places, a chain provides the only grip and safety. After a scramble and shinny up this ledge, you arrive at Angel’s Landing. This little ledge, provides a fantastic 360o view of the entire Valley and National Park area. It is truly worth all the pain and trouble to get there. I reached this point at about 4 pm in the evening. The sun was shining and the day was clear. One wall of the valley cast it’s shadow across the valley floor, generating very beautiful vistas.
A short break for an apple and some water, some photographs taken, and it was time to get down again. Scrambling down the narrow ledge was an experience too.
The entire trek from and return to the Grotto took about 5 1/2 hours. The total distance was about 5 ½ miles and included a climb of about 1500 feet. Truly a thrilling and fantastic trail.
( all the photographs are in series below)

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Some more pictures from the Angel's Landing....
It is challenging to convey the sheer scale of the topography in a photograph. In photograph number 4 below, you can actually see a couple of white buses on the road in the bottom of the frame. This will give you an idea of the scale of the surrounding canyon walls.

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The Narrows:

At the far end of the Zion Valley, the mountains on both sides come together leaving a narrow gap, sometimes only a few feet, through which the Virgin river flows into the Valley. The area is called the Narrows and is the site for the 2nd flagship trail at the Zion National Park.
The trail begins at the Temple of Shiwava, the last stop on the road that runs on the valley floor. From here, a paved riverside path takes you about a mile into the valley. From here, you actually enter the river. You are walking on the rocky banks at times, but more often, there is no bank and one has to wade in the river itself. During the period that I visited, the river flow was about 60cfs (cubic feet per second). This is at the lower end of usual and makes for comfortable walking.
This goes up when there is more flow in the river as after a shower in the catchment area or after snow melts-the trek is closed if the flow reaches 150cfs.

However, the water is quite cold as is the air in the canyon-about 15C (60F) at the time I visited. The floor of the river is rocky and is stressful to the feet. One needs to hire special gear to safely. The Zion Adventure Company, is a store just outside the park in Springdale, that hires out equipment and also provides an instructional video and talk on safely negotiating the Narrows. A pair of special boots(Canyoneers), neoprene socks, dry pants, and a walking stick are available for $40 per day. The shoes and socks allow water in and out freely. The dry pants come with a nipple like seal at the lower end and does not allow water in. A walking stick is useful to probe the water for depth and also for support on the rough terrain.

About an hour and a half’s walk in the river brings you to what is called the Wall Street. In this area, the canyon is only about 15 feet wide and the canyon walls can reach upto 2000 feet in height. A truly spectacular feature.

The rapidly flowing though shallow water, the steep canyon walls and the 5 hour trek is truly an experience to have. Finally got out of the water after about 51/2 hours, sore but exhilarated. Once again, celebrated with a warm bath and a sumptuous dinner....

The photos:
At the bottom of the 2nd and 3rd photos are full grown persons trekking along. This gives a perspective about the sheer size of the canyon.

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Zion to Bryce Canyon National Park:

The Mount Carmel High Way takes you from Zion to the Bryce Canyon National Park.
This Highway was built by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) during the Great Depression in the United States. The program operated bwtween 1933 and 1942 and was a public works relief program for youth during that time. The scheme provided unskilled manual labor jobs related to conservation and development of natural resources in lands owned by the government. In the 9 years of it’s existence, almost 3 million young men participated in the scheme.

The Mt Carmel Tunnel is a 1.7km long tunnel that starts just off the Zion canyon and heads east.

Enroute to Bryce Canyon National Park, is the Red Canyon, which as the name suggests is made up of red sand stone. A few couple of pictures of the natural rock formations are below.

The Bryce Canyon National park is named after Ebenezer Bryce, a serial homesteader who set up a settlement in the area. The typical feature is called the “Hoodoos”. These immensely large, tall and narrow rock formations are carved by the action of ice and wind on sandstone. The color of the sandstone is a bright orange and seems to change with the angle of the sun.

The drive from Zion National Park to Bryce Canyon National Park takes about 2 hours. The drive passes through very scenic routes and stopping often to soak in the view is advisable. These drives are to be savored and taken slowly. Planning for these unplanned stops is strongly recommended.
Crossing the Best Western Ruby’s Inn, a popular resort in the area, gets you to the Bryce Canyon Visitor Center. The Lodge and general store are within the park a little further on.

It is recommended to enter the park and drive all the way to the Rainbow point-about ¾ th of an hour’s drive on curving road. This, at 9110 feet is the highest point on the Scenic Drive on the Canyon rim. As you return, the canyon is on the right an there are numerous view points along the way. Each area has adequate parking and access. Each point gives you a slightly different flavor of the theme. On entering the park, you get a hand out with the park ticket that gives you a reasonable map with all the details. This whole drive will take you about 2 ½ hours.

The Bryce Point, is one of the classic points to view the amphitheatre and to witness sunrise. It gets pretty cold (due to the altitude) and warm clothing is a must for sunrise treks.

The Bryce Canyon Lodge is the only facility to stay on the park. Reservations are mandatory. It is very quaint and nice-however, the mobile phone coverage and Internet facilities are limited. There are no TVs, phones etc in the rooms. Every evening, a Ranger gives a talk for about 1hour- the one that I attended was very very good.
Bryce Canyon is one of the few areas with the least “light pollution” and hence is a favorite of night sky gazers and photographers. Many of the classic night sky photos you see are taken in this area.

A view of the sunrise is also recommended. I combined this with a walk down into the canyon-the Navajo and Queen’s Garden trails. This moderate intensity trek takes about 3 hours and take you past some of the most picturesque hoodoos in the area.

I began the trek after sunrise at about 7 am and got back to the Lodge in time for a late breakfasy-about 10am. A leisurely breakfast and a shower later, was ready to leave back to the artificial glitter of Las Vegas.

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The "Hoodoo's" of Bryce Canyon:
The rock formations are a wonderful orange in colour. The hue changes with the angle of the sun, creating a dynamic landscape.