USA National Parks

While we were in Arizona and Utah we have been to a lot of national parks. I’ve been getting quite a few Junior Ranger badges – in fact, I earned my 10th badge today!

Grand Canyon North Rim

We went to the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. When we hiked into the canyon we were so high up at over 2500 metres (8000 feet) I felt short of oxygen.

Bryce Canyon

At Bryce Canyon we did an 8 km (5 mille) hike around the rim, then our hike plunged us deep into the canyon. Down in the canyon we went through a slot-canyon and saw lots of rock formations called hoodoos, which are like the pinnacles, just more bumpy.

Arches

In Arches National Park, my favourite arch was double-O arch. To get to double-O arch I had to scramble on boulders and thin rock ridge lines.

I’ve really enjoyed collecting all of these Junior Ranger badges from the National Parks. My favourite one was Dinosaur, but that’s another story….

Route 66

Route 66 is an old historic road that starts in Chicago and ends in Santa Monica, which we visited earlier in our US trip.

We drove on Route 66 from Lake Havasu to Kingman.

At Lake Havasu there’s London Bridge. When the Americans bought it they thought they were buying Tower Bridge from London!

The next stop was Oatman. This donkey that I am feeding and all of the other donkeys in the town are descendants of the gold miner’s donkeys.

Next we went to the saloon for lunch. Before gold miners went on their expeditions they wrote their names on a dollar bill and then stuck it behind the bar so when they returned they had some credit. I pretended I was a gold miner and stuck my own money on the wall.

While we were in town there was a wild west-style shoot out between two cowboys who were greedy for gold (the guy on the right won).

Joshua Tree National Park

Yesterday I went to Joshua Tree National Park which is in two deserts – the Mojave and the Colorado deserts.

Joshua trees are actually a type of yucca.

The park is named after the Joshua trees that grow all over the Mojave desert but not the Colorado desert.

I decided to do the Junior Ranger challenge. I had to fill out the Roadruner activity booklet including trying to spot all these animals and I also spotted these cacti:

Cholla Cactus
Prickly Pear Cactus
Barrel Cactus

We spotted ground squirrels, a cactus wren and a lizard. We didn’t see any tarantulas but we did see lots of tarantula holes.

This is Skull Rock . It was formed by erosion caused by wind and rain over time which made it look like a skull.

At the end of the day I had completed enough challenges to get my Junior Ranger badge. I’m hoping to get some more badges at the other national parks.

USS Midway Museum

Credit: Photo taken from USS Midway Visitor Guide

The USS Midway is a naval air craft carrier named after the Battle of Midway which took place in June 1942.

The aircraft carrier had dozens of fighter jets and helicopters on the hanger level and flight deck. Here are some of the awesome features of the planes:

Fold-up-wings so you can fit more planes on deck.
Bombs, missiles and guns.
Nozzle for refuelling in mid-air from a special tanker plane.
Pilots can lower a hook which catches a wire on the deck called a trap. The wire slows the plane down so they don’t fall off the edge of the short runway.

This is me flying a fighter jet. I really liked all of the controls such as:

Buttons
Switches
Handles
Dials
Screens for information.

On a ship they have a jail called a brig. You would be sent to the brig if you didn’t follow orders. Me and daddy got locked up for wasting the food rations on board!