EAST V WEST
October 29, 2018
Itâs an old question, which is best, East or West? Having lived 90% of my life on the west coast of Scotland I would always say West; much easier to get up for sunset than sunrise for exampleâ¦
I had this question in mind a few months ago when my wife and I booked a 2 week break for October. Iâve always wanted to visit the northeast states of the US in autumn, âFall in New Englandâ, however we didnât want to spend the whole holiday there, partly because we wanted some heat on our backs whilst away, and partly because it didnât seem fair for me to spend the whole holiday taking photos of trees.
So we decided to spend the second part of our break in Las Vegas, which just happens to be only 200 miles from Zion National Park, giving me the chance to take some photos of rocks, and, er, trees.
NEW ENGLAND
Wikipedia - New England is a geographical region comprising six states of the northeastern United States: Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.
After much research it was apparent that the best places to visit in the âFallâ were Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, especially in mid October. The colour change works itâs way down from Canada, through the mountains and down to the coast from late September. With timing critical we pre-booked different hotels in different places for the same nights, allowing us to head where the colour would be. Fortunately our timing was almost perfect, especially for the first four or five days.
We stayed three nights in North Conway, New Hampshire, in the heart of the White Mountains, three nights in Bar Harbor, Maine, adjacent to Acadia National Park, then one night back in the mountains en-route to Boston for our flight to Nevada.
If mountains, lakes, woodland, small towns and back-roads is your thing I canât recommend a visit here enough. Simply stunning.
LAS VEGAS/ZION NATIONAL PARK
It would be fair to say Vegas isnât New England or vice versa. In fact, it really isnât like anywhere else. Some love it, some hate it. Iâve been a few times, and I probably fall into the former, however it can wear you down very quickly. Aside from the gambling, the people watching, the endless shopping, drinking and dining, it is one other thing - a great base for visiting the South West USA. Famous places like Death Valley, Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Bryce Canyon, Yosemite and Zion are all within relatively easy driving distance. We spent 5 nights in Vegas over 1 week, with 2 nights at Zion in the middle. Being a big fan of the photographer and Vlogger Ben Horne (www.benhorne.com) and having been inspired by his YouTube videos, especially his Zion Fall Series, I was quite excited to see Zion in the fall for the first time. It did not disappoint.
We did not visit Zion Valley at all during our visit, as the colours were only starting to turn there. Instead we spent a large number of hours walking and scrambling through the washes and canyons of the east side of the park. I could easily have spent a week here, with photo opportunities at every turn. We also took a drive through the west side, Kolob Terrace area, where the colours were mainly past peak.
EAST V WEST - WHICH IS BEST?
Iâll leave that for you to decide, hopefully the images below will assist. Personally I couldnât call it one way or another, so for me itâs an honourable draw.
Click HERE for a selection of photos from the trip.