Marion and Alfred Lorenz Marion and Alfred Lorenz
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From Kluane National Park to Vancouver

From Alaska back to the lower 48 states through Canada we chose Alaska and Cassiar Highways. From Prince Rupert we took the the ferry through the Canadian Inside Passage which was a wonderful 15 hours trip. This ferry ends in Port Hardy in Vancouver Island, where we explored its northern and central parts before we continued to the metropolis of Vancouver.

Canadian flag on the ferry through the Inside Passage

 

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Alaska - Central and South

Finally we came to Alaska after we had started our journey in South America more than eight years ago. We had met many nice people, had observed a lot of stunning animals, had seen beautiful landscapes and cities, had climbed up more than 250 exciting mountains and had driven approximately 140,000 kilometers with our little camper.

Our impression about Alaska is that it is everything but cold, at least in summer. We spent more than seven weeks in central and southern Alaska which is accessible by roads. The sun was shining nearly always with temperatures higher than 25°C, and we had just two days with rain. We enjoyed swimming in many lakes with pleasant temperatures, sometimes in front of icy mountains. Our car was full of warm gear like excellent sleeping bags which we never needed.

Lake with icebergs on foot of huge Kennicott Glacier

 

Alaska was Alfred birthday present because we crossed its border on June 23rd 2019. We celebrated both events in the only bar in the "Downtown" of Chicken which is an old gold mining town with seven inhabitants based on the census 2010.

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From Edmonton to Dawson City

We saw incredible much wildlife on our way from Calgary to Alaska via Dawson City. After seeing 13 bears on one single day we stopped counting them.

Plains Bison in Elk Island National Park

 

We left Germany in the late afternoon of June 4th 2019 and had an interesting flight to Calgary with Condor with awesome views of Greenland and northeastern Canada.

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Tanzania 2019

Tanzania is a peaceful tropical paradise in East Africa with friendly and mainly happy people. Its nature is overwhelming with famous national parks like Serengeti, pristine beaches on the Indian Ocean and Lake Tanganyika, and huge mountains like 5895 meters high Kilimanjaro which is the tallest peak of Africa. In addition there is a lot of touching culture like Stone Town on the island Zanzibar.

Chimps in the Gombe National on shore of Lake Tanganyika

 

Of course we had the intention to climb up Kilimanjaro. Close to the mountain and between the two larger cities Moshi and Arusha is the Kilimanjaro International Airport where we entered Tanzania together with Marion's brother Tommy mid of January 2019.

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Jasper / Banff 2nd and Dinosaurs

From Vancouver Island we drove quickly to Mount Robson Provincial Park. On the way we stayed one night on a nice parking lot Blue River on highway 5 (GPS coordinates: N52° 13.488' W119° 13.091') where we saw some cute animals.

Ground Squirrel on Blue River rest area

 

In the morning we realized that some trees were burning close to the rest area. Fortunately the wind came from the opposite direction.

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Vancouver Island - South

An outstanding must to do on Vancouver Island is Whale Watching, especially with kids. We choose the company Orca Spirit Adventure in Victoria because they had four seat available on a little boat for Rosemarie, Alfred, Jay and Kuba. Jutta, Marion and Hermann took a larger and more convenient ship.

Three Astronauts in front of the litttle boat

 

The cruise to the tiny rocks of Port Angeles in USA was quite bumpy. Fortunately we had our warm and cozy Astronaut like gear with a good padding. There was no customs on the border because we had no passports with us. There we met the larger ship with Jutta, Marion and Hermann.

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From Glacier / Waterton to Banff / Yoho Nationalparks

On July 24th 2018 we crossed the border to Canada via the International Peace Park World Heritage Site Waterton - Glacier. Firstly we drove to Waterton Village to check the actual conditions in the Waterton National Park. It turned out that all streets and most of the trails were closed due to a huge fire last September. Still we were lucky because there was an impressive Pow Wow festival of the Blackfoot Indians, an unforgettable experience for us.

Indian Chiefs

 

There was dancing the whole afternoon including many kids supported by drumming. The costumes were very colorful and so beautiful.

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Wyoming - Bears and More

We saw incredible much wildlife in the beautiful mountains of Wyoming. This state is adored with two famous National Parks - Grand Teton and Yellowstone, and many wilderness areas like the majestic Absaroka, Bighorn and Windriver Ranges with the tallest summits of the Rocky Mountains outside of Colorado. There is no bigger city in Wyoming, just half a million people are living on 253,000 square kilometers (2/3 the size of Germany!).

Little brown Black Bear climbing on a tree trunk

 

Our first impression of Wyoming was Japanese because we were stopped on the highway close to Laramie by a twin of our car full of Japanese men. They were so excited seeing a European Volkswagen Camper based on EuroVan which is the US version of the European Transporter T4.

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The highest peaks of the Rocky Mountains

In Colorado are the highest peaks of the Rocky Mountains, which are more than 4,800 kilometers long and mainly several hundred kilometers wide. The European Alps are tiny in comparison with the Rocky Mountains but have few slightly higher summits.

American people measure altitudes in feet, thus 14ers are important for them (more than 14,000 feet - approximately 4270 meters sea-level). All 58 14ers of the Rocky Mountains are in Colorado. More than 500 summits exceed 4000 meters sea-level. Its tallest point Mount Elbert (4401 meters sea-level) is the second highest summit of continental USA (without Alaska) after Mount Whitney in California.

Marion and Alfred on top of Mount Elbert

 

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Rocky Mountains - Ski Mountaineering and Denver

End of March 2018 we came the first time to the Rocky Mountains via the highway Interstate 40 between Great Junction and Denver. We had taken our skies from Germany and we were eager to do some Ski Mountaineering. Unfortunately the conditions were everything but good because it was very stormy, cloudy and much to warm. In the year 2018 the southern Rocky Mountains received unusually little snow. Many ridges up to 4000 meters sea-level and more were without snow. However we did two nice tours in the Front Range close to the Eisenhower Tunnel and in the Vazquez Peak Wilderness Area.

Alfred in the valley behind the western entrance of the Eisenhower Tunnel

 

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Monument Valley, Petrified Forest and other treasures on Colorado Plateau

We came back again to the Colorado Plateau from the south via northern Arizona where some marvelous parks and areas are located. It is mainly the land of the indigenous Navajo Nation which is with more than 300,000 people the second biggest native tribe in USA. In this region we saw many stunning cliff dwellings of the ancient people built approximately 1,000 years ago. It is still a secret why most of them were left around 1300.

Thanks to Marlboro, many (western) movies and film stars like John Wayne Monument Valley is one of the most famous parts of North America. It is managed by the Navajo people and shows in addition to the overwhelming landscape actual and historical Navajo life in an impressive little museum.

West Mitten, East Mitten and Merrick Butte seen from the Visitor Center of Monument Valley

  

Remarkable are 400 Navajo Code Talkers which played a famous role during World War II by relaying radio messages using their own language, which the Japanese were unable to understand.

Our first stop was the beautiful Petrified Forest National Park with colorful specimens from small shards to massive trunks of a prehistoric forest in the arid Painted Desert.

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Grand Canyon and southern Arizona

Grand Canyon is one of Earth's most powerful inspiring landscapes overwhelming the senses. It's system of gorges created by the mighty Colorado River, 450 kilometers long, up to 27 kilometers wide and up to 1,600 meters deep. In addition to its beauty it's full of live, an island in an arid environment. People lived there for more than 12,000 years. Thanks to the high elevation change a wide range of plant and animal communities are found on its slopes.

Bad weather on the upper Bright Angel Trail

 

To avoid the usual crowd of visitors we came mid of February 2018 to the south rim of Grand Canyon. Sometimes it was a little chilly in the morning on the 2,200 meters high plateau (up to -9°C) and we enjoyed some snow.

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Las Vegas 2nd and its environment

We came back to Las Vegas on December 19th 2017 and disaster started on the next day: Our little motor-home which we had stored in Overton did not start. First we exchanged the battery, then the starter, then the engine, then the exhaust manifold and so on. We stayed in the Las Vegas region much longer than we had planned - until beginning of February 2018. But this mess gave us the chance to enjoy the American way of Live and to explore Las Vegas including its marvelous environment with many mountains in depth.

Happy New Year Las Vegas!

 

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Northern Thailand - Between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai

Northern Thailand is much cooler than the rest thanks to its higher sea-levels. For us it was nearly unbearable hot and humid in Bangkok after our arrival on November 8th 2017 and we decided to head northwards. Two days later we took the train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. The engine broke half the way and we had to wait for another one. So we arrived at Chiang Mai at 6:00h early morning instead of midnight after spending 17 hours in the train. But the trip was worth because we felt immediately in love with the green, lush and mountainous landscape adorned with nice cities and beautiful temples.

Little colorful temple with monk

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Koh Chang - A beautiful island in the Gulf of Thailand

Thanks to an excellent offer of Etihad Airlines we decided to fly to Thailand in November 2017. We spent two weeks in northern Thailand and traveled between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai (see next article: Between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai). The third week we were on the beautiful island Koh Chang on the northeastern corner of the Gulf of Thailand close to the Cambodian border.

Venomous Big-eyed Pit-viper in the jungle of Koh Chang

 

When we came to Bangkok in the late evening we were so tired on the next day that we slept until lunch time (six hours time difference to Germany!). We stayed in the low budget hostel Marin Inn in Bangkok's Chinatown. When we explored this quarter a tuk-tuk driver (three wheeler taxis based on mopeds) offered us to show us for little money some interesting places. First we saw some nice temples. We refused a shopping mall and asked him to head to the port of mighty river Mae Nam Chao Phraya. He drove to an touristic port where the agency wanted more than 100U$ for a 2 hours cruise on the river.

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Las Vegas and three National Parks of southern Utah

Las Vegas bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World for its innumerably casinos, huge resorts and fancy shows and other leisure activities. More than 40 millions tourists come to Las Vegas every year, also many couples for marriage which is quite easy in there.

Before we came to Las Vegas beginning of May 2017 we visited the outstanding National Parks Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon and Zion of southern Utah.

Pyramid with black lava stones in the Capitol Reef National Park

    

Capitol Reef's defining feature is a wrinkle in the Earth's crust extending more than 150 kilometers from Thousand Lake Mountain to Lake Powell. It is a classical one-sided fold with a formidable barrier in the east like a barrier reef in an ocean.

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Arches, Canyonlands and Mesa Verde National Parks

The Southwest has the highest density of National Parks within the United States of America. Arches and Canyonlands are wonderful natural treasures in Utah. Outstanding is the Mesa Verde National Park in the southwest corner of Colorado with its stunning cliff dwellings built by the Ancestral Pueblo People between AD 1150 and 1300. To our mind this World Heritage Site is in line with Machu Picchu in Peru and the Maya pyramids in Yucatan / Mexico.

Cliff Palace which is with 150 rooms and 23 kivas (round sunken rooms of ceremonial importance) the largest cliff dwelling in North America

 

There is a nice dry campsite on public BLM lands few hundreds meters outside of the National Park where we stayed free of charge three pleasant nights (GPS coordinates: N37° 21.569' W108° 25.371').

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New Mexico

The beautiful and pristine state New Mexico has a lot of different landscapes: Dry deserts and wilderness, lush valleys, and tall and snow-capped mountains.

Prairie Dog  

And it is full of history. The first nuclear bomb was developed and tested in its southern deserts. New Mexico's capital Santa Fe was the hub of the railway in the late 19th and early 20th century which connected the East and West of USA. Most fascinating is the Indian art and culture of the indigenous people. The World Heritage Site Chaco is in line with southern touristic magnets of the Maya and Inca monuments. The Anasazi people built a lot of villages, cliff dwellings and cave houses mainly between 800AD and 1100AD.

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Texas Southwest

The 2nd largest state of the United States Texas is not famous for mountains but for its oil, cattle, prairies, pastures, deserts, nice beaches, heat and huge cities like Dallas or Houston. In is southwest corner we found some interesting peaks in the two National Parks Big Bend and Guadalupe.

On March 9th 2017 we crossed the border from Mexico to the busy town Del Rio without any issues. Our first stop was the supermarket Walmart because we were curious about fresh food which we could not take over the border. Jesus, the prices for food were shockingly high in comparison to Mexico or Germany. In the afternoon we hiked the Sunrise Trail from the Visitor Center of the Amistad National Recreation Area. The views to the Amistad Reservoir were excellent.

Blooming Cactuses

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Sierra Madre Oriental

Majestic Sierra Madre Oriental stretches more than 1000 kilometers from the border with USA to northern Puebla in central Mexico. West of this range is the huge Chihuahua desert in its northern part, east are the Mexico's Gulf coast plains. Sierra Madre Oriental is famous for its rich biodiversity. Large pine-oak forests are found up to the highest mountains with more than 3700 meters sea-level. Limestone dominate its geology. Huge caves, sharp pinnacles and steep walls are common. Nearly in its center is the metropolis Monterrey, which is with more than 4.5 million inhabitants the third biggest city of Mexico.

Western view from 1482 meters high Cerro Toro, which is few kilometers northwest of Monterrey

 

Its tallest peak La Viga or Cerro San Raphael (3716 meters sea-level) is covered sometimes by snow in winter. It can be climbed up by a strenuous hike of 5 hours from the saddle east of the little village Los Lirios. We were very lucky because it started snowing when we returned to our car.

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Barrancas del Cobre and Chihuahua

Magical Copper Canyon - Barrancas del Cobre in the majestic Sierra Madre Occidental is the major attraction in northern Mexico. It is a mazy system of seven major canyons with a depth up to 1,800 meters. Grand Canyon in Arizona / USA is four times smaller and less deep! In its area live the Tarahumara people which are famous for their running endurance: Some are capable to run few hundred kilometers and more than 20 hours without a break!

Marion on a suspension bridge with the main canyon in the background

 

There is no street through the whole main canyon but a railway with 37 bridges and 86 tunnels which connects Los Mochis on the Pacific Ocean with Chihuahua in the desert with the same name. The train is called El Chepe after the first characters of Chihuahua and Pacific. Driving with this train through Copper Canyon is a must to do for tourists in northern Mexico.

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Central Pacific Coast

Mexico's Central Pacific Coast is a marvelous piece of nature with a lot of pristine beaches, calm bays, little fishing villages and some dramatic landscapes. Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta are the largest cities, both with fabulous beaches and many tourists.

After sunset on the southern beach of Mazatlán

 

200 kilometers East of Puerto Vallarta is Mexico's second biggest city Guadalajara with more than 5 millions inhabitants. It is a bustling metropolis with a picturesque old town in its nice center.

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Sweden Central

Central Sweden offers a lot of hiking and mountaineering capabilities along its border to Norway and on the coast of the Baltic Sea. In between the landscape is relatively flat covered by huge forests and with some nice villages and little towns. Its capital Stockholm is located on the coast of the Baltic sea. It is a bustling metropolis with 2 millions inhabitants, a lot of interesting culture, many green parks and some impressive waterfronts.

Roofs of the street Strandvägen of Stockholm

 

After we had crossed the border from Norway on the E14 we turned on the first southern street right and continued to the mountain hut Storulvåns. There was a big parking lot and it was nearly fully occupied. The mountain hut is like a little village with a large hotel including some big buildings.

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Norway - Jontunheimen, Kristiansund and Trondheim

In Jontunheimen are the tallest peaks of Scandinavia up to close 2,500 meters sea-level. This sounds not very high for alpine standards but you have to take into mind that you are much closer to the North Pole. Jontunheimen has some steep, needle-like pinnacles embedded by enormous glaciers and huge lakes. Besides the thinner air these mountains equals summits with 3,300 meters and more sea-level in the Alps.

Reindeer with glacier

 

We decided to head along the eastern side of Jontunheimen because the weather forecast was bad as usual for its western part where the clouds of the northern Atlantic Ocean hit the mountains and stick there. 

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Norway West - South of Sognefjorden

Norway in northern Europe and on the western side of the peninsula Scandinavia is a natural treasure with stunning mountains, deep gorges and fjords, uncountable waterfalls, huge glaciers, and green lush vegetation at lower sea-levels. Its population is besides the few cities very low, its density of people is the lowest of continental Europe. It's famous for bad weather but we enjoyed a lot of nice days in June and July which is quit often the case. And it never gets really dark in these two months - literally you might start a longer mountain tour in the late evening.

Typical Norwegian Cot

 

Before we headed to Norway we enjoyed skiing in the Alps beginning of May 2016. There had been lots of fresh powder and the ski slopes on the Schnalstal glacier in South Tyrol, Italy were more or less free of people!

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More Articles …

  1. Zapotepetl - Nevado de Colima and the state of Michoacán
  2. Xinantecatl - Nevado de Toluca
  3. Mexico Central - East
  4. Oaxaca and Chiapas South
  5. Guatemala
  6. Belize
  7. Yucatan
  8. Chiapas Central and East
  9. Honduras
  10. Nicaragua
  11. Costa Rica
  12. Panama
  13. Cartagena
  14. Sierra Nevada del Cocuy
  15. Nevado Puracé and the upper Rio Magdalena valley
  16. Cayambe and Corazon
  17. The Oriente - Misahualli
  18. Galapagos
  19. Las Pichinchas, Laguna Yahuarcocha and the southern Pacific coast
  20. Northern Pacific coast and Mindo
  21. Beaches and more - Santa Marta
  22. Amazonia the second
  23. Bogota and Coffee Farms
  24. Nevado del Tolima and Farallones de Cali
  25. Pico Fuya Fuya, Volcan Rumiñahui and Laguna de Cuicocha
  26. Pacific Coast North of Lima
  27. Cordillera Huayhuash
  28. Ayacucho, Huancavelica and Lima
  29. Amazonia - Peru
  30. Cusco, Machu Picchu and Puno
  31. Ancohuma and Copacabana
  32. Cerro Austria
  33. Most northern part of Ruta 40
  34. Cafayate and the Yungas of Argentina
  35. Esteros del Ibera
  36. Santa Catarina
  37. Sao Paulo and Costa Verde
  38. Rio de Janeiro
  39. Teresopolis, Nova Friburgo and Arraial do Cabo
  40. Pico da Bandeira, Domingos Martins and Ouro Preto
  41. Salvador and the coast of Bahia
  42. Chapada dos Veadeiros and Chapada Diamantina
  43. Brasilia, Cidade de Goias and Pirenopolis
  44. Crocodiles and more - Pantanal
  45. Torotoro National Park and the way to the Brazilian border
  46. Volcan Parinacota
  47. Cerro Yana Sanca Grande and Cotahuasi Canyon
  48. Condors and more - Colca Canyon
  49. Nevado Chachani and Volcan El Misti
  50. Huayna Potosi
  51. Iquique and Arica
  52. Volcan Tinguiririca
  53. Chiloe and Valdivia
  54. Volcan Chillan and Volcan Antuco
  55. Volcan Lanin, the king of the lake districts
  56. Volcan Calbuco
  57. Carretera Austral
  58. Perito Moreno Parque Nacional and Cueva de los Manos
  59. Cerro Torre, Cerro Fitz Roy and Glaciar Perito Moreno
  60. Pali Aike and Torres del Paine - Christmas 2011
  61. Tierra del Fuego - Argentina
  62. Tierra del Fuego - Chile
  63. Punta Arenas and its surroundings
  64. Torres del Paine - Circuito Grande
  65. Penguins and more - Atlantic Coast of Patagonia South of Puerto Madryn
  66. Whales and more - Atlantic Coast of Patagonia North of Puerto Madryn
  67. Sierra de la Ventana
  68. Buenos Aires
  69. Uruguay - From Salto to Colonia
  70. Northeast Argentina and the Cascades of Iguazu
  71. From Asuncion to Ciudad del Este
  72. Samaipata and its environment
  73. From La Paz to Santa Cruz and the National Park Amboro
  74. Cordillera Real 2011 and Yungas
  75. From Uyuni to La Paz via Potosi
  76. Volcan Uturuncu and Laguna Colorada
  77. Volcan Tunupa and Salar de Uyuni
  78. Salta and Quebrada de Humahuaca
  79. Volcan Licancabur and Cerro Incahuasi
  80. San Pedro de Atacama and its environment
  81. Volcan Lascar
  82. From Copiapo to Antofagasta
  83. Ojos del Salado, the highest volcano on earth
  84. Cerro San Francisco
  85. From San Juan to La Rioja
  86. Mercedario, one of the giants in the Andes
  87. Cordon del Plata
  88. Sierra de las Quijadas
  89. Sierras de Cordoba
  90. South America - Brazil and Argentina
  91. Crossing the Equator - Baptism and Christmas
  92. Africa - Senegal, Guinea and Sierra Leone
  93. Europe - From Hamburg to Tenerife
  94. Our vessel, the Repubblica Argentina
  95. Monte Adamello
  96. Dolomites - Piz Cunturines
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