The American Southwest | Zion National Park, Horseshoe Bend, Monument Valley in 4K

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All of the musical compositions or arrangements and footage in this video are original, and were composed, recorded, and captured by Andrew Lin, Bryan Lin, Robby Huang, and Thomas Sinard

Featuring drums by Nate Laguzza

Original content and music is copyright Adventure Archives (c) 2018

Tags: bushcraft,backpacking,hiking,camping,wilderness,survival,outdoors,travel,outdoor recreation,prepping,nature,4k,wild,survival skills,ray mears,les stroud

Video Transcription

last time on adventure archives we experienced an unending torrent on California's coast camped in the mysterious foothills of Mount Whitney felt the foreboding heat of Death Valley and found our way here to Las Vegas [Music]

we gambled away some money want some of the back had a few drinks and enjoyed a restful night in this hubristic lascivious City

[Music]

now in the second episode of this three-part special we continue our journey through America's Southwest we'll take you to the highs and lows of Utah the wonders of the Navajo Nation and the curious corners of New Mexico buckle up and get ready to join us on our adventure

[Music]

the city that had seemed so Restless was at dawn completely still and silent the others were passed out as they had gone back out later in the night to experience more of the city but now it was time to get the day started yep this one little sunshine it's really nice out that vitamin D I'll get you up in the morning we checked out of the hotel made our way to the parking garage and shuffled our things into the car we got one last glimpse of all the glitzy civilization as we left Vegas the skyscrapers around has faded away to reveal rugged mountains back into the wild we reflected on our time at Sin City I keep saying but it was sensory overload I mean you get outside just going every little corner of each casino each hotel has this beautiful intricate detail suppressors like the thieves oh yeah each hotel I was actually kind of cool you actually want some money yes went to the slot machines put in a $5 bill ended up winning 25 bucks took that 25 and then lost well 25 stuck in another 2 bucks

159 bucks walked away it's that's it it was good to be surrounded by mountains again accompanying the excitement and glamour of Vegas is a palpable sense of desperation and emptiness but out in the mountains your spirit becomes rejuvenated the rocks around us became redder and redder

and we soon entered Utah the mountains on the horizon became more pronounced and distinct towering high in the sky we had left Sin City and found redemption in Zion National Park [Music]

we arrived at our campsite which was surrounded by majestic crimson cliffs here we sorted through our gear and filled up on water in preparation for a day full of hiking from the campsite we made our way to a shuttle that transported people throughout the canyon there is no traffic crowding out Zion only bikes and buses perhaps a result of Edward Abbey suggestion that visitors to parks be liberated from the confines of automobiles and now Thomas and I would be liberated from the confines of this bus we were splitting up so that we could each explore different parts of the park and share the experience with each other Andrew and I continued on to our destination as Robbie and Thomas began their hike to angel's landing so we're about to get on the trail and I'm pretty sure that the angels landing up there and the thing that's kind of surprising is it looks just like a butte that's standing out in the middle of nowhere so I have kind of Concerned how we're gonna get to the top from the backside and look at it that's gonna be crazy dude it's just straight up alright ready I'm ready let's do it [Music]

we made our way to the trailhead passing by a warning about sheer cliffs so this is should be like a cakewalk compared it to Mount Whitney right Oh totally totally this is like starting from Whitney portal going up to that log well it might have been a cakewalk but we're talking about one thin slice of cake here on our weights of the trail we saw Merganser hen printing itself in the river

[Music]

we had our sights on the cliffs above but for now we were surrounded by riparian vegetation and prickly pear cactus

[Music]

[Applause]

in the meantime Brian and I had just arrived at our destination the Narrows there are no sheer drops here but hiking in a canyon presents its own dangerous risks and the hazy sky above did nothing to avail any of our concerns well Robbie was saying that it wasn't gonna rain today he checked the weather but it is a little cloudy I mean it's not like super overcast but it's there's definitely some mist up there I'm hoping that the risk of flash floods is low but we will see

[Music]

we continued down a paved path as the towering canyon walls above began encroaching more and more on either side of us

[Music]

feisty squirrels scurried in the leaf litter searching for food and lush vegetation dangled from the cracks and crevices and the cliff faces thriving off the moisture trickling through the sandstone

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[Laughter]

we were continually in awe of the cliffs above us and we wondered how the others were faring as they made their way higher

[Music]

[Applause]

so this is you said how much of the distance compared to what we did at Big Sur it's about two-thirds so this is actually only 1,500 feet elevation gain just under I think it's so weird once you've done like a mountain yeah the legit now this doesn't seem intimidating at all no I mean like this it'll be difficult I think this will be like a perfect height for someone who's just getting into mountain biking need to do sure it's a little iffy at the top I hear but everyone I've talked to who has done it then like this is a great height we'd already gained a bit of elevation and Thomas spotted a familiar tree so I think this is a juniper tree right here now it's much bigger than the ones I'm used to back in California but the way I can tell is you got these little white berries on here but I think it is used to make Jen it's another food too but uh you know because it cannot it's a coniferous tree and it grows in the desert so it's gotta go well with my gin and tonic

although the Utah juniper isn't typically used for gin the Hopi Indians use it for medicine and ceremonies while the Navajo have used its wood and bark for shelter and bedding [Music]

we climbed higher and higher zigzagging up the massive wall already the views are stunning and we weren't the only ones enjoying it [Music]

squirrels are magic here's the know don't feed the trolls here's the crinkling of the food we continued up our paved path just as Brian and Andrew we're reaching the end of theirs we could hear the rushing of water in the distance as we passed by another flash flood warning more vegetation grew from the moisture in the rocks but where we were headed there was more than just a bit of moisture immediately the water was well above our ankles and it was frigid cold we weren't exactly wearing the proper gear but hey that's never stopped us before that really wasn't that bad at all now we've definitely waited for colder like the Dolly Sods winter that was probably the coldest yeah I will say the the coldness is the worst part and like if we were gonna get gear I think it'd be more to protect from the cold than to keep ourselves dry cuz I mean the wetness really isn't that bad especially in this weather yeah but it didn't seem like the rocks were too slick yeah I was gonna say that baby we're way less slick than I would have imagined yeah it's just a matter of not stepping on like it's the wrong shaped Rock yeah and the nice thing is that's sort of like the first play list test and so the crowd has thinned out quite a bit yeah and I imagine the further we go now pretty quickly yeah yeah I'm looking forward to seeing how pretty it is yeah now it was back to the frigid water my legs are starting to go numb it's really cold water that's definitely the worst part right now is just the coldness of the water and then relief once again your thighs and your legs will start to get cold so I can see that if there isn't any shoreline you know we're gonna have to see how far we can go but as long as there's some land that we can kind of take shelter on we're gonna wait a couple minutes and like let our people the good thing is that it's so sunny and dry that your feet do warm up really quickly they're not gonna dry off but the biting cold goes away really fast so while we're waiting for our feet to warm up I notice there's some really familiar plants growing here boxelder which back in the east I also notice this grows near rivers so I think it's more of a water-loving plant and you can tell it's boxelder because it's a maple so its branches are opposite growing some of the younger branches have like was really smooth green bark and the leaves have this distinct sort of branching pattern that almost makes it look like poison ivy but yeah it's in the maple family loves rivers you'll often find box elders along side cottonwoods in riparian environments like this

we continued further down the river far far below the cliffs above as Thomas and I made our way higher we were rewarded with increasingly beautiful and surreal views of the canyon below

[Music]

as we gazed out we felt something familiar about all of this it's so weird how similar this is to the trail up to Yosemite Falls from camp oh it's incredibly similar but I mean it goes on the this side of the canyon it zigzags up you got the same beautiful cliff faces here just in red and desert form I wonder if it's gonna like be as never-ending I see asymmetry Falls let's just every time we thought we were almost for the top it wasn't even close I redid that hike in November and it was just as bad as I was [Music]

we continued on the trail and although we were still on the paved path it was clear that we had already made some significant elevation gains no I think the temperatures dropped 10 degrees at least huh

it's like cold in here huh it's not like the Narrows but this has been like a slot canyon that you do see you hear little streams carving their way between the rocks over it's like when you go to a museum as a kid and they spent a long time sculpting like a great American West big landscape this is surreal it's astounding to think that these cliffs which can reach up to 2,000 feet high are all made of sandstone [Music]

in fact they're some of the tallest sandstone cliffs in the world and they were formed in part by the erosion caused by the Virgin River but describing the geology of the canyon and words just doesn't do it justice all around us were swirled wavy stone textured by stratified seams of rock and painted with cascading water we waited deeper into the Narrows where the looming cliffs enshrouded us in their shade

[Music]

wondrous waterfalls slid down the smooth walls and we stopped to admire the wilderness all around us we were enraptured by it all even the subtle patterns and colors that covered every square inch of sandstone [Music]

our feet had dried up a bit and we admired the distant cliffs once more before getting a movie the canyon stretched much farther than any of us that expected so right about now Brian Andrew should be in the Narrows Narrows are just finishing up the Narrows or eating lobster I'm gonna guess lobster huh they definitely have to hike up as much as we did but I'm not complaining feels good one thing I've noticed is that there's a lot of international visitors here oh yeah it's funny because whenever people ask me is like is the United States cool it's so big that I forget that this type of place is part of it so like I always just think of like my home which is pretty boring and I'm like yeah that's pretty boring but I'm glad that people get a lot out of the rest of the country it's kinda like going to uh asking someone in Siberia do you get any American a side area yeah how much further do you think no rule of thumb is a mile mile and a half I have to draw right as bad as you're 70 point but no no we still will probably be dead [Music]

little by little the tops of the cliff seemed that much more tangible the bottom of the canyon a little bit less so [Music]

we round up a series of steep dizzying switchbacks just climbed up I definitely felt it when weighing up yosemite falls in elevation for me it's not as much the uphill as it is the downhill and we stepped off the paved path onto the top of the cliff really unexpected head is not at all what I wanted because we saw people up here and I thought they were just like relaxing up here and no that's a very sharp drop no that is has a well deserved view but my my palms are definitely sweaty I'm gonna I'm gonna back away slowly now I do know from the they get read on since the parks found like founding the only seven people have died up here though hopefully I won't be the eight hopefully you won't either hopefully no one at the bottom of that fifteen hundred foot drop the cold crashing waters of the Virgin River here secluded from the arid heat lush vegetation grows from rocky crags more resembling a Midwestern forest the southwestern desert so something that's a little bit interesting is that there's all these maidenhair friends growing all along the rocks even though outside of this Canyon everything is just desert sort of dry arid brush but obviously because there's all this water rushing through you see plants that you might normally see even in the eastern US in a very importat deciduous forest and yet here it is clinging to these sandstone walls really cool the water that supports these plants seeps between the different layers of sandstone but to support humans a healthy snack is always useful it's really interesting because like most the time you'd never imagine thank you

I definitely hasn't I'm wearing jeans which are not ideal for this sort of thing but honestly the wetness is not the problem it's more just the cold so even given the cold in the water I still feel like we had an easier hike it'd be really interesting to see one thing is that we know for a fact that I don't think common expecting it to be like this there's no one none of us do so they probably think we have it like super easy yeah they probably think we're like on a lazy river something I got an inner tube at a river okay so this next segment we're on the chains people are taking it real slow but I think we'll be fine me and Andrew did in China it was a literal 90 degree incline you just had to step up stairs or basically rocks and there was a chain how far was the drop though I mean it was like probably 50 feet but I think it's still a couple thousand not a couple thousand or so it actually looks a lot like China Wow let's try it out let's do it strenuous mind Seamus client Oh since 2004 six people have died my bad this is terrifying well let's do it I don't know these shoes are quite old actually now we made our way up the weathered rock and twisted roots the hand always firmly grasping the chain now worn down the rock and wood is at certain moments of the hike it was kind of easy to lose sight of where exactly to set your next step let me grab on to this before I look over what is it over there

absolutely that is no joke Andrew and Brian having a lobster right now just walk again some Andrew Brian are lying on flat ground oh my god jeez Louise well we were less eating lobster and more feeling like lobsters ourselves but as amazing as the hike had been a couple of soggy boots were absolutely worth it

[Music]

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[Applause]

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deep in the recesses of the canyon that felt like we were in a mystic land and we became mesmerised by its mystic creatures this American Dipper fearless lead Ives into the water using its wings to swim gracefully beneath the river currents for up to six meters [Music]

it uses a second set of eyelids to search for insects hidden in the rocks submerged below

[Music]

we were a bit less graceful as we sloshed through the river but it was that rugged way of travelling to see incredible sights that made the hiking gear so rewarding [Music]

[Music]

no matter where you were on these cliffs there was no shortage of rugged terrain [Music]

I'm just gonna keep on going I hope I don't die I am positive I can do Half Dome

this is Half Dome basically no Half Dome so much easier than this the heights of Half Dome are so much easier than this half dome itself is 16 miles but but as it turns the whole time there's chains but it's like you don't fall off you just fall down oh yeah this is butt clenching Lee terrifying we reached a part of the hike that seemed to lead us towards a nice edge of a trail a few feets who are left or right and there was a shear thousand plus foot drop just having your hand on the chain is so reassuring it's incredible so what do you think you think Brian and Andrew will be jealous or will they be glad that they missed it Andrew and Brian's mom is gonna be happy they didn't do this I mean our mom's will probably be nervous but yeah goo goo I'm glad you don't have to watch Brian and Andrew do this this would be a great place for a change

now we need to change people who put the chains in they didn't need a chain I think it's time to say no you don't think too much about it I can see why going down is much worse experience I will say the traction is quite good yeah this was like the 50-foot we did up in China maybe more steep than that actually I remember seeing that yeah as long as I got one hand on that chain I feel

about it although going down there it's just I can't think too hard about the drop on the left Robby and Thomas were getting ever closer to the terminus of angels landing there was only a little bit left to hike but the trail remained ever treacherous

andrew and brian had traversed deep into the canyon the sun was falling in the water was growing ever colder and so they turned around and retraced their way back out of the canyon [Music]

finally they had made it out but atop the cliffs the others faced more dizzying heights and rough terrain bolted to the side of this mountain here and their trunks just find every little small hole in karbala Sahin goad and buried burrow themselves into it these trees definitely are not afraid [Music]

yeah this is like a victory lap now compared to everything else we've done if that was the worst of it then yeah like an altar yeah this if you were crazy enough you could stand on it I'm not

I think I'd become an angel they're probably not an angel how does this compare to when you actually went out to the top of North dome that was it similar it was similar if you had like 200 feet on both sides [Music]

just isn't damn good you Thomas you son of a

and so they had made it to the top of angels landing

[Music]

other than the elevation that I'm feeling right now this was definitely worth it it was a perfect day I mean the first part was like anyone could do this it was literally paved yeah and then it's like okay you get it this far amping it up really hard now you know people talked it up a lot but I actually feel like it's a little bit underrated hmm because people talk about Yosemite so much but Zion is incredible it just is good to go somebody I've gotten so many people to say all you got to do angels anything all you got it ancient Lanigan when I first came into the park I'm like I don't know if was just because I was tired or not but I was like this place is beautiful but like it's not Yosemite yeah and now I'm on top of this and angels landing and it's like no that's good man I take it yeah I get see it's like I've said this pretty much every trip but I am always amazed that each location has its own character totally just beyond what you would expect to is every single time it's so unique even if it's similar to something else like this is similar to California but it still has its own unique character

yeah well Suns going down yes it is we might want to go to yeah we gotta get in hungry I am too quick so we gotta we gotta join Brian and and refer their lobster dinner let's go let's do it back in the narrows Brian and Andrew came across more fat squirrels and as they waited for the shuttle they encountered some other wildlife [Music]

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in the setting Suns light the Red Cliffs glowed like burning embers as we made our way back to the camp the world around us seemed to come alive we saw herds of mule deer grazing in the grass and a hellgrammite squirming in the sand

[Applause]

did I'd love this feeling right here just like nobody's around it is done like abandoned railroad train station things yeah

[Music]

now we had all made it back to the shuttles the last day's light faded away to dust we soon arrived back at Bryan and Andrew yo your let's see oh my god [Music]

hiking in a river while you guys were hiking were you thinking oh man Robbie and Thomas are gonna be jealous no I don't know okay the whole time we were like wow Robbie and Thomas would have been miserable likewise we would have been miserable doing what you guys did dude it was really good you were probably thinking we'd be jealous no we actually were like thinking the whole time psycho a man they're down there eating lobster yeah like hiking up the team like for the first two months two and a half miles

it was perfectly fine then we get to this top we're like okay like literally on chains like ours was like remember when you cross the river move across the river in Seneca yes except you're going through the river going down and so basically what you'd have to do is you'd find little bits of land here and there and get up on those to warm up give you like there were points of where my feet were just going numb and I was like I don't feel anything all the things I expected to happen I did not even it didn't even occur to me that you guys would walk through the river and come back away are you guys cold at all no cuz I I'm definitely sure yeah okay let's get back and get the fire we were back in each other's company and Andrew got to processing the firewood to cook tonight's dinner [Music]

not only is the wood dry but we've actually got a fat wood bundle of fat one we're getting this fire started tonight come hell or high water and I've already experienced the ladder [Music]

the stars had come out and we were preparing for a beautiful evening [Music]

as I continued with the fire all-natural organic and butane free by the way the others got a bit impatient without meticulous I was in preparing the kindling

you're all a bunch of Philistines you can't appreciate the art of the wood so we got some bacon of wood [Laughter]

[Music]

see that's dry wood that's what that's not so soaking wet you can't light it in a desert

[Music]

now that the fire was going I prepared some more wood to get it nice and roaring for dinner I got to preparing supper some steak cooked in a cast-iron skillet over the fire we stoke the fire through some rosemary on the meat and had ourselves some cold refreshments drinking fluids see how this turned out I'm feeling medium-rare oh man my bad did you study under Emeril Lagasse the Iron Chef Sakamoto I studied underneath the great Jamie Vaughn there's a friend of mine we talked about texting this is Dee just traditionally salt and peppered with rosemary and butter seasoned while the other one is the Apple would break bread with my enemy so you'll see it in the bloopers

but we had a little hanger going around the camp

personally I get hungry when it ends in a state full of new butter and rosemary mmm

so when you guys were hiking through the water today you think you'd be eating steak you just calm someone or what a wonderful man you are vegetables with their nutrient content it's good job chefs an art who originally recommended this too and when they specifically say angels landing in that yeah I can tell you it's no I could recommend you just somebody do you did put down your fork open him out we're gonna be smash a great meal thank you thank you this is he gave me such a headache making it that's all right it had been a long day in an evening full of laughter with a bit of bickering sprinkled in exhausted we fell asleep for the night the next morning we broke camp and made our way out of the park [Music]

now we were headed to our next destination

all around us were more Red Cliffs grassy fields and open skies [Music]

finally we arrived at our destination the sovereign Navajo Nation today we'd be hiking on a tour of the lower Antelope Canyon our guide made sure he had all the essentials steps and we were on our way all around us was flat sand but when we stepped down into the canyon we were transported into an entirely different world

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shaped by water and wind the curtains of sandstone seem to move and flutter as we continue to have the long narrow corridor I terrorizes this long it's like never ending most photogenic place I've ever seen mostly graceful rock formations the flowing ripples of stones shimmered in the Sun in before long we were back on the circle it's amazing here we passed by some fossilized dinosaur footprints and our guide demonstrated how the canyons were formed water is from an ancient ocean soaked compressed and hardened sand into stone so a lot of it is just a lot of pressure on top which compacts it together then the Sun just helps kind of cook it this happened you know more wind brought more sand that's where you start to see the layers water and here's where it comes the wind erosion wind erosion will take away pretty much anything that's not for you guys you want to do this for like a science fair good bye wait the addition of more sand results in different striations in the stone and water and wind erosion shaped and smoothed the stone into what we had just seen and continues to do so today far into the future the canyon will be even deeper than it is today so you know a couple million years it will be loud lower now it was time for food and what could be better than a place that serves tripe tacos also our guide recommending this place it's been reckoning so far when we're in the Sierras we had Chinese food because it was appropriate for the place now we're having Mexican food before 1848 Mexico's border actually went all the way up north of here to the northern edge of Utah so basically we're in Mexico and Mexican food is very appropriate for this region Robbie and Bryan got burritos but I have a more refined hipster palate we've got the truck in the bûche which is deep-fried intestines and stomach so let's try this [Music]

tastes better or worse than you taco place you got to promise better it's like got more flavor Lee sold to your kind I think the first time I had this type of taco was with you and that was in the same place in Columbus there's so much of a different texture than like muscle meat like this kind of taste like chicken like everybody would say that but this is like it's like greasy earlier like when you bite into it has a little give to it and that's for Thomas but since I'm Mullen burrito that's a always like chocolate sauce Brad I've also never had mole a sauce whoa that's what I sweeter than expertly it's really good though that's delicious take a bite the way to chef intently [Music]

it's a lot sweeter I know it's a it's also to tell them no no way but like not at an overly sweet anyway just like that perfect combination of salt and sweet they agree when you're on the trail de Molay we were all satisfied after our meal and Brian and Thomas left to get coffee while Andrew and I waited through the back lot our next destination was just a few miles away and as we made our way from the unassuming parking lot to the trail Andrew spotted a desert plant so this is a plant in the ephedra genus the spindly looking plant is commonly called Mormon tea as the caffeine and coffee is prohibited by Mormons so those who originally settled here may do by drinking tea with stimulating effects of ephedrine from these plants we also saw this edible Kenai Gris doc plant now we trudge up the trail and made our way towards our destination soon enough we saw it whoa horseshoe bed it was a stunning sight though a bit scary for anyone with irrational fear of heights there's been so many times where we've been somewhere when it's so big and so far away and you can't get a good sense of how big it actually is below us a speedboat curved its way around the Riverbend giving us a sense of scale and a vulture soared through the air zipping through the canyon

[Music]

it was a sight we had seen in so many pictures but experiencing it in person was entirely different so actually I'm extremely impressed I was actually expecting to be underwhelmed I'm thinking that it wasn't even that amazing but unbelievably literally have like no words to describe the fastest of this if you look at the hut down there and the trees I mean you just can't fathom just how massive this wasn't and it was like created naturally it's just it blows your mind I love the colors of the blue water with the green vegetation all around it it's like that combined with the red rocks it's just this really beautiful palette of colors for me I was surprised by how narrow the bend is is whenever I see I'm convinced it's a panoramic shot like a fisheye lens that just works and bends it but no this is actually how it looks it's out in nowhere - cuz I just thought it was gonna be like an overlook on the highway yeah but no this is like walk over the hill and suddenly it's there I've never more felt like I wanted to just leave we continued hiking around experiencing the river from more impressive vantage points [Music]

but the higher we got the windier it became the wind out here is so powerful that not only does it feel like it's waving your own body around but the rocket Karen's that people have set up we're wobbling just from the wind alone I'm gonna go before I get blown over the edge after that brief stop we were back on the road and the environment was gradually changing all around us what do you think of this landscape it's really cool it's like you see some cool mesas in the distance it just feels so much like you're driving through the set of a Western or something this is like the first time that I felt like we've really been on some desert roads that you imagine when you think of desert roads it's very Wiley coyote Roadrunner issue the thing I've noticed the most is the contrast between the red rock and the green vegetation on top like it's just such an interesting color combination and in depth value is more just like kind of brownish we stopped along the way to fill up on gas [Music]

and then it was back on the road driving through the Wild West [Music]

we drove through the navajo nation and soon we saw towering monoliths jutting out from the horizon [Music]

here the rock formations were even more distinct and otherworldly than anything we had seen yet [Applause]

[Music]

the mesas formed surreal backdrop to the scenery around us there is no mistaking it we had made it to Monument Valley [Music]

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and when you're here you have to stop and experience it outside of a car [Music]

the navajo call this Tibetans this guy the clearing among rugs it was considered an enormous dwelling or home and its isolated position protected it from outsiders for centuries after Spanish explorers first started traveling the region in the early 1900s Anglo Americans and Native Americans disputed ownership of the valley it was only when the valley was thought to have no prospects for the mining of resources or gold that the valley was returned to indigenous people now we made her way to the evenings final destination a primitive tent site hosted by a guy named Mark his dog Coco Chanel led us to the tent site as it turned out it was more luxurious than primitive okay right here we've got Chateau Monument Valley up here is where Andrews gonna be sleeping right here is where Thomas is gonna be sleeping here is where me and Brian are gonna be sleep this is living right here here's what we're gonna do gonna have me right here Brian here Robbie here and Thomas laying horizontally I feel like we set up camp in like the middle of the Sahara Desert and we're like we gotta take shelter from the wind and the rain and the stoves

luckily we found this furnished tent down after we were through doing our Bear Grylls impressions we played with a dog and took in our incredible surroundings

[Music]

and then mark came by to drop off some firewood while he was there we chatted a bit he told us about how the Butte behind us known to most his Michels Butte got its other name turtle Butte when his uncle flew a helicopter up there

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as the Sun faded beyond the horizon we watched the stars come out reflected on our trip so far we've been so busy lately I'm having trouble relaxing and appreciating where I finally am and finally like after I've sat here and I'm sort of look around learning throughout life as a kid you always want to experience like your paper might be great to just like be a cowboy out at the West like this is I imagine where the term cowboy camping came from being out here is like you just see all the beautiful amazes all around us feel the wind and the softness of the sand it really makes you start to appreciate the desert not only in spew tea but also in its roughness and there's like a weird sense of calmness I'm getting just from like being out here kind of dirty kind of gritty kind of rough just like taking it only really gives you a sense that like you want to preserve a lot of these wild places and leave them be and not pave them over with roads or electric visitor centers or anything like that [Music]

dusk became night and as I rested in the tent Andrew decided to start a small fire the bark of the juniper wood that Marc provided would make perfect tinder after a bit of massaging [Music]

once the juniper wood itself started burning

he gave off a pleasant aroma almost floral but also reminiscent of a barbecue I could see why Edward Abbey called it the sweetest fragrance on the face of the earth [Music]

in the warm company of the fire we did what we are want to do and started talking about life we talked about something very specifically on the first episode which is that I never got the memo to be an adult I know it's kind of embarrassing to say that I'm still like finding my way to be able to be the driver of my own life and I'm 33 years old I think a lot of people can relate to that and that even now people when they're like envision 50 60 70 s when they're around their parents they act a certain way and they still feel like they have to act a certain way I feel like I've actually made some progress in that regard doing things like this were you just like you know what I'm gonna drive across the country with my buddies and we're gonna just go out camping under Monument Valley I mean it's not like the most radical act but if further pushes you along that path of being your own person and making your own decisions it's kind of freeing actually you have to be able to tell yourself no I'm gonna go do that and then you can go make it a reality this is luxury man I don't care we're sleeping in a bed and no the desert

I'll spit like I don't even need a Citibank I'll just lie down on the floor retreat on the sandy it was a windy night but we nonetheless fell fast asleep in the morning we were greeted with the sunrise whose magnificence matched the landscape around us [Music]

[Laughter]

as we packed up we reflected on the windy night we had had pretty well you keep waking up here and there having dreams about being shaking and rustling but you know this is easily the most comfortable I've ever been in a tent like this even though the one was shaking it was kind of fun it was a new experience I was on a bed so is yeah on the floor wasn't that comfortable um I dreamt about thunderstorms yeah every time I woke up and I heard the noise all it made me think of was like someone who would like turn over to bed then just violently like shake the covers and it stopped moving

I've no complaints history because I hate the wind can't be helped after milling around for a bit we headed out [Music]

before leaving we stopped to say thanks to market and his incredible hospitality [Music]

and then we stopped by a small local diner for breakfast [Music]

so we were hoping to get the Navajo writer but unfortunately not making a sort and breakfast but have you had it if I have fry bread is the most delicious

the story with rye bread is that it was born out of like Native Americans surviving off at the rations that the US government gave them and it was like not nutritious food and all sort of become the symbol of like resistance because that's what they used to survive you know many of us have heard of the Cherokees harrowing experience on the Trail of Tears but the Navajo people had also endured the long walk in which Navajo people were deported from their land in an attempt at ethnic cleansing in 1864 thousands of people were forced to walk 300 miles without any aid and hundreds of people died although our mourning felt so distant from these stories of atrocities we felt that we had to maintain an awareness of these things while on Navajo land and our next stop felt like an appropriate place to reflect on all the history of this region

[Music]

we pass by more rock formations and fields and they were just as impressive as they had been for the past two days along the way we found ourselves passing through a bit of a dust one [Music]

this is a super harsh environment in limit lie can you imagine all of your stuff must be taped with dust all the time and your breathing apparatus your lungs that is I really wonder if it's like this year-round or is it just I can't imagine it me like this year-round but I bet you live out here or very hard you definitely not softened play [Music]

[Music]

so just 1020 miles in the other direction literal dust bowls sandstorm harsh crazy condition and now a forest has just popped up and it looks like maybe the Midwest like suddenly the environment has changed now we've got all these Morrison [Music]

we turned off the main road and headed towards Window Rock [Music]

crows sword against the powerful winds which blew tumbleweeds all around this area is not only home to an impressive arch but it is also the capital of the navajo nation

[Laughter]

[Music]

and as we took in the sights I stopped to inspect some plants so all around here there's juniper trees the same sort of juniper that we used to start our nice smelling fire the other night you can see it's got the shaggy bark the distinctive sort of evergreen needles and also some berries up there which are actually used to make gin and all collected along this wall are tumbleweeds which is actually a plant that originated in Eurasia called Cali tragus and what happens is when the plant has seeds mature the entire plant dies breaks off and just rolls and disperses it seeds them each one is just perfectly round shape we've just seen them tumbling across the highways the entire dried up here and on a blustery day like this they were also tumbling through the air nearby was a statue dedicated to the Navajo code talkers though there were other tribes involved in code talking the Navajo among the most well-known a code based on the Navajo language was used by soldiers to transmit Intel in World War two despite poor treatment by the US government Navajo people enlisted into the army to defend nature from attacks like those at Pearl Harbor before leaving there was something we had to do frybread just said the same about you now it was time to eat there's good that's like a tortilla that's just extra fatty and extra good oh it reminds me of um a Chinese yokel very very puffy that has a nice chewiness to it too it's like a light vegetable soup with potatoes carrots celery some meat trap okay let me try this project for the first time hmm it's just an on-suite elephant here hmm I'm glad we could get it from the Navajo Nation yeah that's like these are people who are survivors and this is the symbol of that survival and like Judas in the past few years we've seen I don't know more Standing Rock just continual resistance against a system that has for lack of a better word tried to commit genocide on them you know but they're survivors well they're talking about the long walk or resource extraction on Navajo land it's easy to think of the Navajo people as passive victims but it's important to remember that they have fought and continue to fight for their rights today and struggles against uranium mining oil and gas drilling and more now it was time for us to move on we were meeting our friend and fellow youtuber James and his wife Karen in Albuquerque New Mexico were more specifically the location of Las playas hermanos in the show Breaking Bad we then tried a staple of New Mexico's red and green chili green chili for the burgers and red chili for the fries it's like they've come on a ranch in the Midwest we put ranch on everything you guys put red or green chili on everything everybody's starting to taste the green Chili's but yeah it's not super spy guy but it's really good though here's the more talcum it was really good that's a really good flavor the red chilli is much creamier now really it's really good I'm a red chilli guy okay she's the green chilli girl here she cheats she likes the green chilli more is there like a type of personality that goes with a certain type of chilli our - good question

[Music]

and strangely just outside of the restaurant of all things there was an ostrich we were in awe of just how strange they looked up close the feathers look weird - then it was to Old Town Albuquerque to take in some of the sights

[Music]

this historic town was originally built by Spanish colonists in the 1700s the town featured ten blocks historic adobe buildings many of which are home to shops and restaurants do the whole square you know the church is beautiful you guys are gonna love it all it's great

you

[Music]

as we wondered James regaled us with ghost stories from the area that courtyard back there that's where the hatchet lady is supposed to haunt and rumor has it under the gazebo there are some Civil War soldiers I'm supposed to be buried there and they've even gotten some EVPs of your electronic voice phenomenon where they they ask them why are you here and the response was these are dead

whether it's a ghost thing or not I'm not sure but it's interesting to start our business there was a yeah China sounds like it but that was pre jar jar that they recorded it's all churches have cemeteries right well the cemetery was right there and they had to take all the bodies out and plant them somewhere else in another cemetery in town when they put in the shops but supposedly there's a lot of haunted activity there's a shop up here on the Left Church Street cafe and they have I believe the ghost is named Rebecca but don't quote me on that now up here on top on the second floor rumor has it that there is a prostitute that was killed here rumor has it that you can see her on certain nights run acrost about being naked you guys do it if I really find happy as good

[Music]

the building standing here is the san felipe de mary church which is built in the 1700s and is one of the oldest surviving buildings in the city so to give you an idea how old this stuff is if you look up underneath here see these little straight lines that go up and down that's because when they were flattening out this piece of wood they were doing it with an axe that's what those marks are from so if this wood is probably over 200 or more years old it could even older and you got to wonder a tree this big how old was the tree 200 years ago you know okay so this tree used to be behind the church and I believe it's over 100 years old somebody carved and painted the Virgin Mary in there and when the tree started to die they brought it out to the front so that we could all enjoy it and still have it as part of old towns history always love this courtyard it's just a beautiful kind of peaceful place you would never suspect that it's in the middle of the city

[Music]

this is actually very familiar to us it's what Thomas used on mistake a couple nights ago it's rosemary if you take it with small very strong fragrant smell or smells exactly like the steaks tasted

[Music]

[Music]

so when I was in Mesa Verde we saw the old cliff dwellings and they had the original wood that was supporting all the bricks and the rocks so I bet a lot of the wood that we see in this courtyard is just completely original so in Mesa Verde they used cedar wood and the reason it never rotted is one it's an arid environment too the wood is just so full of resin that prevents any sort of rotting or degradation over time those dwellings were built in the 1100 so this is only 300 years old by comparison [Music]

we pass by some interesting artwork stopped by the Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel

and found our way to a guitar shop where Brian got a guitar then we headed to a candy store called the candy lady run by a wonderful woman named Debbie this is red chili chocolate this is green chili chocolate start the green you can faintly taste a great green chili and it's got a spicy kick to it I couldn't taste red chilli did I still taste the green chili but you should try it you definitely taste the spice yeah you think that's my flight afterwards taking the book a green onion actually tastes the flavour - yeah yeah there were all sorts of intricately decorated trees of all sorts of colors we all felt like kids in some kind of a store then the candy lady took us to the backroom where she ran her secret meth operation for us fans of the TV show Breaking Bad a new cultural staple of Albuquerque we have different sizes a hats and we have aprons could be wall just at the same time

[Music]

one Heisenberg baby say my name [Music]

Debbie was actually the one who made the signature blue meth for the show and she regaled us with stories on how they came up with the idea they wanted some you couldn't be made number one they wanted something that looked good you couldn't see it I mean because you couldn't see it in the first two seasons I didn't want to look like real mess so that's what they came up with this because in the beginning nobody thought that show was gonna make it Wow the cast and crew said oh no we've only got we've only got we don't even have a budget they send them here with hardly any money had to get everything from Goodwill after Brian was giving it away on Letterman no no he was doing these little bags so we started making a bunch of these through a dollar on he threw in a bolt and never in my wildest dreams I think they were too self-aware because who would pay for it Debbie is great here guys she's been a part of old town for a long time and I'm sorry and we love her we're so happy to have her and now the Breaking Bad thing is kind of fun too it's over we left the candy store with the satchels full of goodies and then James showed us one of his favorite treats well maybe not his favorite treat the mortician mortician yeah he was stealing everything from the bodies and they hung him here

it's another another cottonwood na'toth got bad reputation and before we knew it our amazing tour of old New Mexico courtesy of James and Karen was over thank you man it is really good meeting all you guys and I'm so glad you got a guitar you know how on earth do we keep finding people who are so incredibly knowledgeable about the places that they lived like we had Jochen and Scott Conant no got James Blackburn these people are all experts on such a wide range of subjects in their hometown it's ridiculous I'm actually just thinking that as we were about to leave about how this trip like wow the views and stuff we have seen have been amazing it's also just been a trip where we've met so many interesting people so far yes pretty crazy like when we started the show it definitely did not expect to meet anybody let alone this many cool interesting people yeah it's just been like the experience of meeting them and talking with them has just added so much to this good times we had such an amazing time exploring Albuquerque with James and Karen eating candy trying the green chilies and learning about the history of the city our experiences with the natural wonders on Navajo land and our interactions with the people who host us there are ones that will cherish for life and our adventures at Zion and on all the land that has been protected by as Edward Abbey put it the actual working Rangers in the field who are capable honest and dedicated have shaped us to this day one of my very favorite feelings is being like basically the only people at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere just this gives a sense of adventure where you like you know you'll know where you are I don't know what you're doing with your life we all rest up and you'll rest stop by yourself twice and you're somewhere in New Mexico somewhere yeah you don't even know where somewhere in New Mexico in a way the Southwest feels less like a geographical location and more like a journey through time and space and sometimes you don't know where that journey will take you it's often in these aimless uncertain parts in our journeys where excitement and aliveness become palpable but they can also be moments of distress in desperation and the things we experience can mould us and change us forever we arrive late at night and Tucumcari New Mexico where he pulled into a windy KOA to stay at a campsite tonight so the trip I think has officially reached the halfway point yeah what do you all think of the Southwest so far south us is amazing but it's very windy I'm surprised that like how much of the u.s. I haven't seen yet and having gone through the Southwest I finally feel like I've seen a lot of the variety that it has to offer it's so cool just seeing like all the different blending of cultures you know like indigenous people Mexicans everybody else and besides the places we've seen the people who then have been absolutely amazing

you know the like the people we met up in LA with - Warren James Blackburn and Mark that we met at the Airbnb everyone's just been so friendly and Cameron yeah I got kind of grouped here with James but yeah like burning coal yeah this is like everyone's so friendly and they're so like willing to help out just tell us all these cool things it's just kind of reassuring that like human nature

people have there's good people for God's sake if the four of us can get along this well there's hope for the rest of humanity [Music]

everybody is on a journey everyone has a story an adventure it's so easy to judge people to stand from afar and scrutinize every flaw in their lives without considering the journey they've been on it's easy to ignore the history's context and complex situations that shape people's lives in our brief time in the southwest we've experienced so many things seen so many different cultures and met so many different people each of those people have come from a specific history grown up in a unique culture and taken a distinct journey in life if we want to create a world where everybody can be happy and at peace that's something that we can never forget

[Music]

you

carnal I've infiltrated the facility excellent work snake next you'll need to track the members of Foxhound sunjae and wong bread crib Jason bourgeois and McBride and tuck and Cooper all right what's next tell Cooper happy birthday happy birthday captain's log stardate 4.20 6:9 we've come into contact with an alien race called the t Bryce Ryan which said that their shout-out was in memory of Carl boy genius for inspiring him to get outdoors and hike commander Keith trice I've landed on the planet I've made contact with the alien beings and I'm going to try to communicate with them Norman Mountjoy

when the walls fell Philip in Jessica Lou Acton Ogron John and Lisa Truitt their arms wide looks like Captain Lynn made first contact with the alien life-form mr. president looks like we got an incoming communicate from James Pruett he says I'd like to give a shout-out to my sons gage Gabe and Sam for my life's inspiration and you guys for keeping the adventure alive and doing all that you do to inspire people to connect with nature do you have a response mr. president make sure we send a special message to the James Pruett thank him for that also don't forget to include Jacob Millican expedition Research LLC and the folks from trails we hike it's because as all those fine people that were able to do what we do so do you have all that yes mr. president I got all that mr. president and might I say you are looking awfully fine today very handsome I'm Brian grills all right here I am in the middle of the gym parts wilderness and I think it's named after someone named Jim Potts but when you're trying to survive out here I always remember the advice of my good friend Dennis yo and that is to the better version of myself and now that I think about it it's not really good survival advice but whatever now one of the things you want to be very careful about when you're out in this wilderness is the ferocious home long which as I believe is translated to red dragon I don't even know dragons existed until right now now in this land the natives war shift of God and they inscribed his name on trees everywhere and you can see right here it translates to Joe fender was here now when you're out here trying to survive it makes you really reflect on the good times you had and I'll tell you once I get out of this situation I'm gonna go get a beer with my good friend Charlie Joe this one's for you

this is the place where they filmed in Breaking Bad and better call Saul la spoils hermanos I guess it's really called twisters but I thought it was like kind of a more desolate area but there's just a main road right there and then like there's a bunch of stuff over there but yeah it looks just like it so this booth right here yeah it's the one that they used in the show as soon as we drove in in this place we were like this looks exactly like Jackson Hole you enter from the same street right there they've got this gazebo right here this was the bar that we were dancing at Yellowstone the second side of that yeah my youtube channel is called the james black for an experience and that's exactly what it is it's all aspects of my life from the private and the personal to the fund and to the movies and sometimes lots of beautiful hiking and backpacking too so appreciate it guys thanks for for coming out like subscribe comment on his channel the words of Conan this is very humorous I could do a very humorous bit with this but I won't just use your imagination which one's the naked one that that's back in the square we'll get to that one in a minute we need to we need to set up some cameras I feel like it's like building us up for a really big prank and be like oh yeah that's where the hatchet ghost is and we're like walking it someone comes chasing us and I wish I would have thought of that man that would have been awesome you should have hired like an actor to just run streaking through the streets and say that's the ghost fortune only knows what will come in our next great adventure as we travel through Texas Louisiana Alabama Tennessee Indiana and back to Ohio please join us next time on our conclusion of our roadtrip thank you very much