Traveling to Los Angeles for the first time and need some travel tips? How to prepare for LA parking, airports, weather, and traffic.

Alas, during my time in Phoenix last week, I heard the horses down by the Salt River, but as I hiked down the rocky incline,  I could hear the hooves as they scattered.  I spent an hour at the bend in the river, watching the early morning light change and dissipate my cold breath in the air.

We received a lot of advice about getting to Yosemite early, parking in one of the main lots and then taking the Shuttle, which takes you to just about every popular place, or you can hike from those popular places to where you want to be. This was our plan until my 14-year-old daughter sprained her ankle literally two days before our trip and ended up on crutches.  Our plans for hiking now had to be adjusted to Plan B: driving and parking as close to the sights as possible.

Our goal was to go wine (ing) on the Pacific Coast Highway: wine tasting through the California Winery Region, however no wine for us. Let me explain because I'm sure you were expecting a lovely article about the California Wine Trail and picturesque ocean scenes; so were we. It didn't happen.

The melted water travels across the desert, picking up dust and gravel and reaches the Flagstaff lava field and then falls. Ultimately it ends up in the Colorado River and Grand Canyon. It was beautiful to see so much flowing water and rainbows in the water too.