Doce vida Californiana: January 2009

No final de 2008 nos decidimos ir esquiar em Utah de novo. Mas como o Kuba tinha duas semanas de ferias do trabalho, eu decidi tirar uma semana e passar o ano novo em Utah... De Sacramento (na California) nos pegamos a estrada em direcao ao Leste, atravessamos o estado da California e o estado de nevada (onde fica Reno e Las Vegas) ate chegar em Salt Lake City, a capital do estado de Utah. Salt Lake City fica a mais de 1000 km de Sacramento e demoramos 9 horas pra chegar la pois tinha neve na estrada. Nos dormimos em Salt Lake City e no dia seguinte mais 4 horas de viagem ate chegar em Moab, uma cidade no meio do deserto, quase na fronteira com o estado de Colorado. O Parque Nacional dos Arcos fica em Moab, UT e nos queriamos muito visitar esse parque.

At the end of 2008, Jakub and I decided to go skiing in Utah again. Since he had 2 weeks of vacation from work, I decided to take a week off and spend New year's eve in Utah. From Sacramento, CA we went east, crossed the entire state of Nevada and finally got to Salt Lake City, the capital city of Utah. SLC is more than 600 miles away from Sacramento and it took us 9 hours to get there since there was snow on the road. We slept in SLC and we traveled another 4 hours on the next day to get to Moab, a city in the middle of the desert, near the Colorado state border, where Arches National park is located. I've always wanted to go there and I just could not let this opportunity pass by.

Rodovia US-80 sentido Leste - Highway 80 East...

Ventava muito na estrada pois nao tem nenhuma barreira natural protegendo a estrada.

It was very windy on the way there because there are no natural barriers protecting the road.

Salt Lake City - Neve... EBAAAAAAAAAA

Snow... YESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!

Salt Lake City fica no meio de varias cadeias de montanhas... A vista em maravilhosa...

Salt Lake City is located between 2 really high mountain ranges. The view is amazing.

A caminho de Moab

On the way to Moab

Da uma olhada nesse site: http://www.utahredrocks.com/ quando eu decidi que estava indo pra Utah, eu comecei a pesquisar sobre a area de Moab e do parque nacional e eu achei o site desse fotografo que mora la. As fotos dele sao maravilhosas!!

I should say that one must check out this website: http://www.utahredrocks.com/ When we decided we were going to Utah, I did not reasearch about the National park and Moab and I came across this photographer's website. He has amazing pictures!!

Todo parque nacional daqui dos EUA tem um centro pra visitantes que tem informacao sobre o local e tem sempre um guardinha florestal pra dar umas dicas. Eu sempre paro pra pedir informacao e ja aproveito pra pegar um mapa e olhar os cartoes postais.

Every park has a visitor center and I highly recommend that you stop by and get information about the place. It is also good to look at the postcards so you know where to go.

"Avenida do Parque" fica dentro do Parque Nacional dos Arcos (vou abreviar PN-Arcos)

Park Avenue - Arches NP

Essa pedra parecia muito com um urso da California.. nao parece?

Doesn't this rock look like the Californian bear?

As Tres fofoqueiras - no parque eles deram esse nome pra essas pedras
The "Three Gossips" rock formation

A estrada... Nao podia ser tao reta

The road.. so straight

As dunas petrificadas
Petrified dunes

A pedra que esta "quase" caindo... mas nao esta. So parece que vai rolar...

Balanced Rock - It looks like it is going to fall but it is not!

Os Arcos "Janela"

The window arches

Turret Arch

Parece um "OK" que se faz com os dedos da mao.

It looks like an "OK" sign you make with your fingers..

O Arco "Janela"

Window Arch

O arco nao parece tao grande assim.. mas quando voce chega perto voce ve a grossura da pedra e o tamanho. E dificil acreditar que a acao do vento e da agua faca isso com a pedra

The arch does not look that big from far away. But once you get close to it, you realize how thick the rocks are. It is hard to believe that water and wind can erode the rock to that point.

O Arco "Delicado"a 2 km de distancia

Delicate Arch - as seen in the Utah centennial license plate - a mile away

Delicate Arch seen from a mile away

Essa foto so vai fazer sentido depois que eu colocar o video de Utah no blog.. heheh
This picture will only "make sense" after I post the Utah video. heheh

O que dizer... eu AMO o por-do-sol e o nascer.
What can I say.. I LOVE sunsets and sunrises!

Tava muito frio em Moab. Eram 10:30 da manha e tava -15C la fora. Isso sem contar com o vento. Em comparacao, em Sacramento estava 20C no mesmo dia...
It was cold in Moab. It was 10:30am and it was 5F (-15C) outside. And I am not mentioning the wind chill factor. In comparison, it was 59F (20C) in Sacramento that morning...

A janela do carro.
The car window

Bebeu agua? Ta com sede? Ferrou...
Want a drink?

A pedra das "Tres Fofoqueiras"
The "Three Gossips" rock formation.

Fiery Furnace - uma formacao rochosa que parece um labirinto. Alias, eh um labirinto! Mas nao tem mapa e no verao os guias levam os turistas pra fazer uma trilha. Os guias conhecem a area e ja se familiarizaram com as formacoes rochosas. Mas no inverno, com neve cobrindo tudo, fica dificil. Pra entrar nessa area do parque voce tem que comprar uma "permissao pra fazer trilha" e quando nos fomos comprar a nossa, o guia falou que era muito perigoso essa epoca do ano, que a gente ia se perder etc etc. Ele nos convenceu a nao comprar a tal da permissao. Quando a gente chegou no lugar, nos tentamos fazer a trilha assim mesmo. Sem a "permissao", sem mapa e sem guia. Nao fomos muito longe.. todas as pedras sao parecidas e estavamos com medo de nos perder (e de levar uma multa de $15o dolares porque nos nao compramos a "carta de permissao" por $10 dolares).

Fiery Furnace - an area with a different rock formation than anywhere I've ever seen. It looks like a labyrinth. In fact it is a natural labyrinth! There are no maps of the area and the park rangers only take tourists on a guided trail in the summer. The rangers know the area well and are familiar with the rock formations which look very similiar to each other. However, in the winter when snow is covering everything, it is difficult to identify the rocks (and since there is no trail...). To enter this part of the park, one must purchase a "hiking permit". When we went to get ours, the park ranger nearly refused to sell us one because he said it is too difficult to find your way out once you get in deep and it is too slippery with all that snow and ice on the ground. So, we did not buy the permit. When we drove by the place we decided to go on a hike without the permit anyway. Without the permit, without a map and without a guide it was difficult to find our way around the place and because of that we did not go too far out. He ranger was right: the rocks look too similar to each other and we were afraid of getting lost (and be fined $150 for not having the $10 permit)

Eu ja vi umas fotos do Fiery Furnace que me deixaram apaixonada pelo lugar. Mas infelizmente nao consegui chegar no lugar onde eles tiraram as fotos.

I've seen a few pictures of the Fiery Furnace and I fell in love for that place. Unfortunately though, I was unable to get to the place.

"A Permissao pra fazer trilha e obrigatoria"

Essa areia vermelha era tao fininha....

The red sand was so fine..

O "Arco de Areia"

The "Sand Arch"

Tava tudo tao vermelho! E lindo! Pena que as fotos nao sairam tao boas.

Everything was so RED! and beautiful! Too bad the pictures do not look so great.

O "Arco Quebrado" - mas nao tava quebrado

The Broken Arch - except that it was not..

Kuba

O Kuba tinha que escalar o "Arco". Ahh.. e nao tem importancia que tinha gelo por todo lugar.

He had to climb to the top of the arch. Nevermind the ice slabs.

Arco do horizonte

Skyline Arch

Um pedaco do rocha que forma esse arco caiu e agora o arco esta 2x o tamanho original.

A rock slab fell off the arch structure and now it is 2x as large as before.

Antes do espirro.

Before sneeze

O "Arco Primitivo"

Primitive Arch

Landscape Arch

Pata de Cachorro?

Dog's footprint?

O Arco Navajo

Navajo Arch

Vista do Fiery Furnace - da trilha pro "Arco duplo O"

View of Fiery Furnace from the trail leading to Double O Arch

Pedras finas

The rock is thin!

Trilha to "Arco duplo O" - na minha opiniao a mais perigosa dos EUA (ou pelo menos das que eu ja fiz). No inverno ta tudo coberto com neve e gelo e fica tudo escorregadio. Nessa parte da trilha, a gente anda encima de uma rocha com mais ou menos 1 metro de largura, arredondada, com penhascos dos dois lados. coberto de neve e gelo e sem nenhum lugar pra se segurar. A minha bota eh feita pra andar na neve e nao eh tao escorregadia assim, mas a do Kuba nao era. Decidimos voltar quando chegamos nessa parte. Tinha uma familia voltando na mesma trilha que a gente tava e eles falaram que nao valia se arriscar pra chegar la (eles estavam voltando do arco mas eles tinham sapatos especiais pra andar no gelo). Muito perigoso no inverno!!

The trail to the "Double O Arch". In my opinion one of the most dangerous in the U.S. - well, in the winter time. During the winter everything is covered in snow and ice and it is very very slippery. At this point in the trail, we were walking on a 3ft wide (1 meter) rock with a round surface, covered in snow and ice, with cliffs on both sides of the rock and no "trail" per say. There are no places to hold on to in case you fall, and if you fall... you will fall hard and far = break neck! My boots have good grip in the snow but Jakub's did not. We decided to go back. It was just waaaay too slipery and according to people on the trail (wearing big time snow/ice boots with polls), not worth the trip.

Eu AMEI essa foto.. olha a lua!

I LOVE this photo! Look at the moon!

Quase congelada

Nearly frozen to the core!

Hmmmm Pizza!!! O melhor lugar pra comer em Moab - Zax. A pizza tava otima, o restaurante e bem bonito e o mais importante: tava quentinho!!! No menu nao tinha nenhuma cerveja que eu conhecia, entao nos pedimos uma la qualquer. Depois eu descobri que em Utah eles so podem vender cerveja com teor alcoolico de 3% ou mais baixo.

Pizza!! The best place to eat in Moab is called Zax. The pizza was great, the restaurant was cool and best of all: it was nice and warm!! The menu did not have a single beer that I knew so we ordered a weird one (something like "elephant hill draft" or "Cutthroat"). It turns out that in Utah restaurants can only sell beers at 3% alcohol content of less. Otherwise you need to go to a "social club" to get a regular drink.

O Rancho Wolfe - A caminho do "Arco Delicado" - o primeiro habitante da regiao (sem contar com os indios nativos, ne?)

Wolfe ranch - trail to the Delicate Arch - the first house in the region (not counting the native americans that lived there, right?)

Uma coisa e morar numa casinha dessas no Brasil que tem clima tropical. Outra coisa e morar la a -20C de dia no inverno.

One thing is to live in a little house like this in Brazil, where it is nice and warm. It's another to live there in 0F weather during the day in the winter.